GleadlessLad

Yes, Gleadless Valley - missiles being thrown at buses on Blackstock Road this week. You have my sympathy Mallard - my car was hit several years ago by a stone thrown by a lad who looked about 8 years old, as I was driving up the steep hill on Gleadless Rd near Sands Close. Over £300 worth of damage to the roof of my 2 year old car, insurance excess was £350 at the time so I had to pay for the repair out of my own pocket.

There's one in Middle Handley, near Marsh Lane / Eckington outside the Devonshire Arms & another in Millthorpe, near Holmesfield. Both outside of Sheffield I know but only just over the border...

Thanks Andy - I did try the Stagecoach bus 52 between Cathedral & Hillsborough on a number of occasions, but as the driver refused to accept my tram ticket on about 50% of those occasions, meaning that I had to pay again for a service which I'd already paid for, I gave up!

Thanks for the detailed explanation in your post (#132) Andy. With regard to your point I've quoted above re. the evening tram replacement buses though, this sounds rather like a "chicken & egg" situation? i.e. a significantly reduced level of service is provided, which people then don't use due to the inconvenience caused, with the lack of usage then being used as justification for the significant reduction in service level? My experience has been that, due to the 30 minute bus frequency, my evening journeys between Gleadless & Hillsborough - including stops at locations between Shalesmoor & Hillsborough e.g. Tesco on Infirmary Rd - were taking a ridiculous amount of additional time. In the end I got so fed up with it that I ended up using my car instead, which meant that, in addition to paying £50 per month to Supertram for my Tram Only Megarider Extra, I also had to spend money on petrol in order to make the journeys which I normally make by tram. This was bad for the environment too.

The buses certainly are used - they're just not full; as I've said, the trams aren't full at that time either but they still run, as they certainly should do. Surely the whole point of public transport is that busy services help to subsidise less busy ones?

No, but the evening trams which these buses were supposed to replace are rarely full either - yet a reasonable level of evening tram service is provided despite some of these services operating below capacity. Nor were the daytime tram replacement buses always full outside peak times - yet a sensible service frequency was provided for these buses, all day, until the evening. Surely we should be promoting the usage of public transport - issues of climate change, congestion etc - & it's therefore necessary to run services at a reasonable frequency, not solely an approach which you appear to support of only providing services when they can be run at maximum passenger capacity? Regardless of whether these are regular services or tram replacement services, passengers still need to be where they want to be, when they want to be there without excessive journey times caused by a severely reduced frequency. It doesn't seem to be unreasonable for the public to expect a tram replacement bus service to operate at - about - the same frequency as the trams which the buses are supposed to replace?

The main problems for me were caused by their decision to run only 2 Tram Replacement buses per hour in the evenings, which I thought was a very poor decision & not at all service / customer focussed & showed a worrying level of disregard for their evening passengers. I heard that their reasoning was that not many people use their service at those times, so it wasn't worth providing more than 2 buses each hour (to replace 6 trams, 3 Blue & 3 Yellow). So the usual 10 minute evening service frequency between Hillsborough & town was replaced by a 30 minute service frequency, an issue which was compounded by a number of occasions when the timetabled bus simply didn't turn up at all, meaning a very long wait for the next one. Also Stagecoach bus drivers on their other routes between Hillsborough & town repeatedly refused to accept my tram ticket, despite publicity from Supertram stating that tram tickets would be accepted on those services (e.g. Stagecoach 52). Additionally, on many occasions these regular buses weren't an option for me because they don't go where the tram goes & where I need to go.

Interesting to see that SYPTE's press release (pasted in above - link repeated below) clearly stated that the Supertram network would be running a full service on Friday 19th, Sat 20th & Sun 21st. http://www.sypte.co.uk/printPressRelease.aspx?id=6224&SelectedImage=1 This press release is dated 12th July, yet on the very same day Supertram posted information advising of a planned suspension of the Purple Route between Station & Herdings on each of these three evenings - so how on earth can this possibly be described as "a full service" as per SYPTE's press release? To add insult to injury for users of the Purple Route, Supertram then suspended this service earlier than the times at which they'd announced that it would be suspended. Despite all of this, Supertram also published information on their Twitter feed on 19th July stating that a full tram service would be provided on July 19th, 20th & 21st!

Thanks Andy, this is helpful because the Area 3/4/5 leaflet which I downloaded last week from Supertram's website states that the Area 5 suspension of trams towards Hillsborough beyond the Cathedral will run from the 25th to the 30th, with a normal service on the 24th. Hence the Area 5 start date's evidently now been brought forward; according to Supertram's website today this is now scheduled to start at about 7:00pm on the 24th.

Silver Audi A3 with 159,000 miles on the clock when last MOT'd in Sept 2016. Tax expired July 2017, MOT expired August 2017 hence it's unlikely that this vehicle is on the roads (not legally, anyway!)

They're running at least one single decker in the Mainline colours, in addition to a double decker in the Sheffield City Council Transport Dept colours (Cream & Prussian Blue) & another double decker in the "Coffee & Cream" South Yorkshire County Council colour scheme. Both of these double deckers run on the 51 route. I remember how unpopular the introduction of the coffee & cream livery was in Sheffield when South Yorkshire County Council was formed in 1974 & took over the responsibility for the buses from the individual Sheffield, Rotherham, Barnsley & Doncaster Councils, doing away with each area's unique colours & bringing in a uniform colour scheme across South Yorkshire.

All of the "on street" track on Park Grange was definitely done in 2013 - I used to watch the (very few) Volker Rail employees working their way along the highway while I went past on the Replacement Bus. Similarly I'm certain that the whole of City Road was done, i.e. from outside what's now the St Luke's shop right down to the junction with Spring Lane. Again, I used to watch the progress of the works while on the Replacement Bus. Guess that we'll have to differ on this one then Hook!

I remember when all this began (summer 2013), the whole of the "on street" track on Park Grange Rd was done at the same time; a couple of years later they did all of the track on City Rd - each of these stretches is much more than 100 metres. I was surprised to find that more work's to be done between Shalesmoor & Middlewood this year - like some other folk I was under the impression that all of that area had been done. While I do understand that some sections of track will wear more quickly than others, I can't see the logic of doing a part-replacement job & then returning only a year or two later to replace the sections of track which weren't replaced originally - this just seems to cause a second year of disruption which could have been avoided if the whole area had been done on the first occasion?

Sheffield Council's waste contractor, Veolia, provide this service. It's free to all Council tenants (on the basis that the service is included in their rent) & to tenants of some Housing Associations. For homeowners & private tenants, there's a charge of £22.50 (for removal of up to 3 items which includes fridges & freezers), this is reduced to £10.00 for homeowners & private tenants in receipt of income support, housing benefit, pension credit or job seeker's allowance. Details available via the link below. https://www.veolia.co.uk/sheffield/collections/bulky-item-collection-service

Saw the petition on Facebook yesterday, signed & shared it straightaway. Would be a real shame to see this pub trashed - it's refreshingly different to the proliferation of, in the main, bland pubs in the city centre. Was in there a couple of weeks ago & was thinking then about how good it was & how it's managed to stay unspoilt for so long - think I first went there in the mid 1980s & it's great that it doesn't seem to have changed much at all (apart from the choice of beer which is much better now than it was then!)

Agreed - although as I've said above, there's the issue of cost. You're right in posting earlier that this is a discussion about speed limits not costs, however due to the necessary safety modifications which would be required to Bochum Parkway - crash barriers plus the installation of a pelican crossing at the existing crossing point in addition to the existing "Warning - Pedestrians Crossing" signs - cost would be an inevitable factor in any decision to increase the speed limit. As Sheffield Council's budget for 2019/20 has been set at a level whereby outgoings will exceed income - with the shortfall being met from reserves - I think it's unlikely that any non-essential schemes will be implemented any time soon?

The crossing's about 3/4 of the way along that stretch, when heading towards Norton. A proper crossing with lights would be a good idea, in fact I'd say that's needed now because currently with the existing 40mph limit it can be quite difficult to cross the road safely. I do see other folk using the crossing - I use the crossing about 5 times a week & I regularly see other folk using it too, when I'm out walking & also when I'm driving on that piece of road.

Fully agree! Saw two near misses on White Lane this morning both due to somebody's stupid attempt to get one vehicle ahead by overtaking on a bend... Well, I use it....

Where's the money going to come from for that please - probably not cost-effective due to what could be a relatively small potential reduction in journey times? Also what about the hazard of significantly faster traffic approaching the access point to Mossbrook Special School, with Council Special Needs Pupil Transport buses entering & exiting the main road at that location? Additionally what about the increased hazard to people using the pedestrian crossing point, which is a public right of way?

With regard to the speed limit on Bochum Parkway, this was discussed on here at length recently via a dedicated thread & there appear to be good reasons for it to remain at the current 40mph. From memory, some of these are the existence of the pedestrian crossing point - public right of way - near to the roundabout at the Norton Lane end. Plus the cost of upgrading the road, necessary for safety reasons if the speed limit was increased e.g. the fitment of crash barriers on the central reservation & also between the highway & the footpath on the south eastern side of the road. Additionally, the important safety issue of traffic entering & leaving the Mossbrook Special School site, turning off from, & on to, what's already a busy main road which would be made hazardous if the legal traffic speed was increased. Hence, as highlighted in the thread which was dedicated to a discussion about the possibility of raising the Bochum Parkway speed limit, there are first & foremost safety issues plus also the issue of the pedestrian crossing point & additionally cost issues.

Yes, that's right; in fact the Joseph Glover was called "The Mill" prior to being re-named.

During the work in Area 2, Area 3 & Area 5 anybody travelling from Herdings Park to Meadowhall will need to catch 3 trams each way - Purple to the Station - where that route will be terminating - then Blue to Fitzalan Square & then Yellow to Meadowhall...

You guess wrongly...

Bochum Parkway must have been full of forum posters then when I drove along it at 40mph yesterday morning - heading towards Norton & then later back towards Gleadless - it was quite busy & everybody appeared to be doing the same speed as me!

Has the necessity to build either a footbridge or subway to safely maintain the existing public right of way - i.e. the pedestrian crossing point near to Mossbrook School - been included in this arbitrary figure of a hundred grand?