This morning I decided to go to Rotherham (I know, bad idea to start with, but bear with me). Rather than go in the car, which would have taken me about half an hour, I decided to get the tram to Meadowhall and then the bus to Rotherham. As I got onto Middlewood Rd, the tram went past me, heading for the terminus, so I thought I'd catch it easily if I ran a bit. So you can guess what happened: the tram sat at the terminus for all of about a minute, the driver watched me run up the pavement towards him, and then when I got close, promptly drove off, despite the fact that there was an elderly couple actually pressing the door button trying to get on at the rear end of the tram. So if that was you - cheers pal, thanks a lot - top notch customer service there. And it's certainly not the first time it's happened either.

I then discovered that Stagecoach evidently think that nobody goes anywhere on Saturday morning because the trams don't start running every ten minutes until 10 o'clock now, whereas it used to be 9 o'clock. So I then had 20 minutes to wait before the next one... except that that one was 10 minutes late, and then two arrived together.

So altogether it took me about an hour and a half to get to Rotherham. It would have been much quicker and cheaper to go in the car... so perhaps someone can tell me exactly where the incentive to use public transport in all this is?

Same thing happened to me this very morning. I parked up at Meadowhall Retail park and walked up past the Aldi to the tram stop - as I approached the woman walking in front of me started running so I assumed a tram was coming. I started to run too and just as we got to the stop the tram zoomed past - complete with driver looking at us both!

Theres no wonder people don't bother with public transport is there?

Are you sure that it was in service?The amount of times people would put their hand out for a Bus that i was driving back to Depot amazed me.
The looks i would get when i sailed past beggered belief(even when the interior lights were off at night!)

Or maybe he had already had the green light to set off so it would have been to late for you to board.

I have to disagree. A couple of times we've been running for the tram at Meadowhall and the drivers opened the doors to let us on before he drives us, and the same applies at the University stop.

I generally find the conductors and drivers on the trams to be genial and friendly, unlike the bus drivers!

Although we don't travel on the tram all that often because it's easier to drive than get to a tram stop and get on the tram. It's only when I'm around the university I'll get the tram!

Originally posted by mrsb73
Same thing happened to me this very morning. I parked up at Meadowhall Retail park and walked up past the Aldi to the tram stop - as I approached the woman walking in front of me started running so I assumed a tram was coming. I started to run too and just as we got to the stop the tram zoomed past - complete with driver looking at us both!

Theres no wonder people don't bother with public transport is there?

I know exactly where you mean. If you saw the tram "zooming" past as you ran up the footpath to the platform, there must have been no passengers waiting, or the driver would have been slowing down ready to stop. He/she would be unlikely to do an emergency stop, with the possibility of injury to the passengers on board, - but I suppose the driver could have stopped safely further the line and backed the tram up for you :rolleyes:

In fact that footpath is not just to the tram stop but also leads the bridge over the railway and down onto the canal...perhaps the tram driver thought you were going fishing :D

But there is no excuse for the way metalman was treated- it has happened to me at Middlewood occasionally. I phoned and complained about it and was assured that drivers were reminded about this kind of 'dis-service' to passengers at their team meetings.

The trouble of course is that trams are in contention with other road users, invetiably end up running late and have to make a fast turn-round at the terminus. If cars didn't get in their way there wouldn't be the pressure on tram drivers to always be in a hurry ;)

I know it's true that they have to run to a timetable and he did leave on time, as far as I could make out. The onus was on me to look up the times beforehand and make sure I was there in good time I suppose, but I didn't bother because a) I thought they were every 10 minutes and b) you can never believe the timetable anyway for all the reasons we know only too well. But there's such a thing as goodwill, and I can't believe he'd been held up so badly in traffic on the way there at 9 on a Saturday morning that he had to turn the thing around and belt off again that quickly. After all, usually there's time for the crew to have a fag at Middlewood before setting off again.

It's happened to me at the Malin Bridge terminus on more than one occassion, it's annoying yeah but like someone else said the drivers have to work to a schedule so they can't wait around for slow people or people who turn up late for the trams...

Although IMO they should allow at least a minute or 2 for such as disabled folk to get on, like myself.

i once went to the ugc (centertainment) and caught one of the last trams back to town to catch the last tram back to halfway, as the tram approached, put my hand out and the tram just drove straight past, as the next tram approached ("depot") it stopped we asked for a lift and explained the situation, we were told to complain to supertram, which i did, over a year ago and havent had a reply yet. Luckily that night we managed to catch the last 41, but has anyone else experienced similar problems late at night??? or received an apology from a complaint to supertram???

In regard to people wanting buses on the way back to the depot - I see several buses with their destination and number still on, usually not on the route, but for someone who doesn't know a bus route, they obviously don't realise it's not in service. So maybe that's why people want to get on out of service buses........

I used to live near Meadowhall so thought one week when going to football at S6 - I'll get the tram - took over a hour to get round - next game got in the car - there in 10 mins (even with the traffic) - not much point in it really :(

Originally posted by Rich
Although IMO they should allow at least a minute or 2 for such as disabled folk to get on, like myself.

or perhaps disabled people could leave the house one or 2 minutes earlier?

would you expect a football game or a movie showing to start a few minutes late..... because the tram driver waited 1/2minutes for the disabled person, and then another 1/2 for the film.... working out at 2/4 minutes.... then another 1/2 minutes when you go back for the tram, before you know it the world is going slower and slower

and before people start shooting me down against people who are disabled, im not having a go at people who are disabled. its just it seems some disabled people think we should discriminate against able bodied people, to satisfy there needs. when most of the time it is fair and equal

Why do these tram and bus drivers drive off and leave running passengers stranded -

Don't they realise we pay their wages and they would be out of a job if driving empty trams and buses all around sheffield leaving people at the stops ... how stupid can they be ?