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Tram expansion in Sheffield

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I thought that the current routes were supposed to be extended, so that more areas of the city can take advantage of the trams. Has this been cancelled?

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The network was supposed to be expanding down to Dore & Totley via Abbeydale Road to aid transport to the HS2 station at Meadowhall, but now it's going to be in the city centre I think that has bitten the dust.

 

The tram-train link to Rotherham and Parkgate is due to be opening soon i think.

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The long delays and cost of the tram-train experiment probably makes any further expansion of that sort unlikely. This is the draft SHEFFIELD CITY REGION TRANSPORT

STRATEGY 2018 - 2040 from November 2017 https://sheffieldcityregion.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/SCR-Transport-Strategy-Consultation-Draft.pdf

Edited by 1978

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I thought that the current routes were supposed to be extended, so that more areas of the city can take advantage of the trams. Has this been cancelled?

 

Some years ago there was an attempt to extend up to the Hallamshire Hospital / Broomhill and also to Rotherham, but the proposed Rotherham link was dropped due to public opposition and the Government refused to fund the Broomhill spur, saying it didn't offer good value for money and the PTE should look to buses, which is why they later went for bus rapid transit to Rotherham.

 

Sheffield's emerging new transport strategy looks for "mass transit" links to various locations in the city, but this could mean tram, rail or bus. However, it's just a plan, so there is no money behind it to fund any actual measures.

 

The most recent tram extensions in other cities have been costing circa £170m per line, so it is very difficult to justify the funding (which normally comes from Government) and come up with the very substantial local contribution which will be required. Nottingham have funded their local contributions for tram extensions via a Workplace Parking Levy, which SCC and others have started looking into.

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4* as much per head spent in London on public transport as the rest of the country. But the politicians win the voting everytime.

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The tram-trains link to Rotherham and Parkgate has tram-trains testing at the moment

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Some years ago there was an attempt to extend up to the Hallamshire Hospital / Broomhill and also to Rotherham, but the proposed Rotherham link was dropped due to public opposition and the Government refused to fund the Broomhill spur, saying it didn't offer good value for money and the PTE should look to buses, which is why they later went for bus rapid transit to Rotherham.

 

Sheffield's emerging new transport strategy looks for "mass transit" links to various locations in the city, but this could mean tram, rail or bus. However, it's just a plan, so there is no money behind it to fund any actual measures.

 

The most recent tram extensions in other cities have been costing circa £170m per line, so it is very difficult to justify the funding (which normally comes from Government) and come up with the very substantial local contribution which will be required. Nottingham have funded their local contributions for tram extensions via a Workplace Parking Levy, which SCC and others have started looking into.

 

What is a 'Workplace Parking Levy' ?

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What is a 'Workplace Parking Levy' ?

 

Where if you have parking for staff you pay a levy to council as does any9ne who wishes to park there.

 

Currently for businesss depending what they are into it cost around 2 - 2.5 per space then staff that use it have to get a permit.

 

This is only around centre and outline areas

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So in Nottingham when I was working at Boots (which is actually well out of town), everyone who wanted a parking space on the massive campus headquarters had to pay several hundred quid to the council for the privilege of parking at work on land that the company owned on a site that had been there for 50 years!

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What is a 'Workplace Parking Levy' ?

 

It's essentially a tax on employers who provide parking for their workers.

 

Nottingham are the only place who have done it so far, but several places are looking at it. See: https://www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/transport-parking-and-streets/parking-and-permits/workplace-parking-levy/

 

It requires a parliamentary order.

 

In Nottingham they charge £402 per space per year. Employers who have only 10 or less spaces are exempt, as are frontline NHS services etc. The charge covers all of Nottingham City Council's geographical area, but that is not all of Nottingham as we'd think of it.

 

Some, but not all employers pass the cost of the levy on to their employees and some of those (including the Council) add on an admin fee to ensure their costs are covered.

 

I believe Nottingham raise about £10m per annum from it at moment.

 

They use this to finance their local contributions to new tram lines, electric buses for the city centre circular routes, travel planning advice for smaller companies (to help them reduce reliance on car trips) and a small grants scheme to help employers with the cost of providing infrastructure to support sustainable travel modes (like installing cycle storage etc).

 

It also pays for schemes which are needed to mitigate the side effects of charging for parking in the employers car parks, such as installing parking restrictions in locations where staff start to park on-street to avoid the charges.

 

---------- Post added 18-09-2018 at 10:02 ----------

 

So in Nottingham when I was working at Boots (which is actually well out of town), everyone who wanted a parking space on the massive campus headquarters had to pay several hundred quid to the council for the privilege of parking at work on land that the company owned on a site that had been there for 50 years!

Not strictly accurate.

 

The Council don't charge the workers, the company choose to do that.

 

The charge is on the employer.

 

Only around half of them pass the cost on to the staff as I understand it.

Edited by Planner1

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Hmm, well, to the people being charged it certainly looked like the council had introduced a new charge that they were having to pay.

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Not investing in public transport is time and time again proven to be a net negative. Cities that suffer severe congestion are unhealthier and less attractive for inward investment.

 

One thing that would help Sheffield enormously is an underground line linking the station with the Moor, London Road and Ecclesall Road, then extending out to serve the Southwest of the city overground. Equally a tram line from shalesmoor to the NGH would add tonnes of value and decrease pressure on the ringroad.

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