Public spending cuts - SYPTE

[jimmy1975]

By ditching the whole project will save the SYPTE the money they would spend promoting how wonderful the scheme is when in reality it will be a white elephant. It is already beginning to look a lot like the misguided busway. A permanent heavy rail station at Parkgate would do exactly the same job.

 

---------- Post added 28-12-2014 at 10:37 ----------

 

 

You're not wrong there - just waited over an hour at Commonside (stop 37020412) for a 95 into town - the 0910, 0930, 0950 departures all advertised as running and no disruptions to the service according to reports up to 10:03. Yet all failed to turn up. A phone call to them got answered after about 20 minutes then they cut me off after about 30 seconds where they were supposedly tracking a service in 8 minutes, which given the time I spoke to someone was 09:42 would have been consistent with the 09:50.

 

95 not running.

[Annie Bynnol]

A permanent heavy rail station at Parkgate would do exactly the same job.

How is a Parkgate railway station going to meet the aims of a government research project on tram-trains?

 

There is no experimental value in building a mainline station at Parkgate.

There is no commercial or social reason for one.

The Government would not provide the money to build one.

A station to serve the people of Parkgate would not be on this line and would not be connected to Rotherham station.

 

The Cambridge concrete bus was designed to link Huntingdon, St Neot's and the northern villages with Cambridge city centre. Busways are not new and it was not an experiment and may not be the best solution- the tram train is another possible solution- it may work, it may not but at least this time it will be a government paid research project.

 

The tram-train is new to the UK and has the potential to connect many semi-urban communities without the expense of heavy rail. To this end the Government has already spent millions on the new trams and research.

In any research project lessons will be learnt. Whether Parkgate to Sheffield becomes a permanent feature is very much in doubt as will be the electrification and the new platforms at Rotherham Central.

 

If it is successful many lines could be converted and other freight lines could used for passengers with links to city centres at a fraction of the cost of present UK rail systems.

 

That is why the government is paying for it.

[butlers]

Not everyone is on smartphones,and Sheffield is the 3rd largest city population in England,is it beyond them not to have a single person on the helpdesk at the interchange on a Sunday

[CheekyBandit]

How is a Parkgate railway station going to meet the aims of a government research project on tram-trains?

 

There is no experimental value in building a mainline station at Parkgate.

There is no commercial or social reason for one.

 

There is even less social or commercial value in installing OLE on a single track line (which would most likely have to be doubled), altering part of the platform to be suitable for trams and making the junction south of Rotherham station grade-separated to avoid conflicts between trams heading towards Sheffield and heavy rail traffic approaching the station from the south - all of which is going to be more expensive than sticking two platforms up for existing rolling stock. And if the experiment is a complete failure, the OLE would then have to be ripped up.

 

A station to serve the people of Parkgate would not be on this line and would not be connected to Rotherham station.

 

http://bit.ly/13Db5fY - the railway line on the south eastern edge is very much connected to Rotherham station.

 

---------- Post added 28-12-2014 at 21:18 ----------

 

Not everyone is on smartphones,and Sheffield is the 3rd largest city population in England,is it beyond them not to have a single person on the helpdesk at the interchange on a Sunday

 

And the information given by my smartphone told me that the 95 was running perfectly this morning yet three services failed to turn up

[haddy]

Do away with the subsidiary given to the oaps for their free passes and make then pay minimum 60 % of the full price and for other groups too. This is one of the biggest drains on the money

[dosxuk]

There is even less social or commercial value in installing OLE on a single track line (which would most likely have to be doubled),

 

AFAIK, the plan is to install 25kV compatible OHLE structures, which will be initially energised at 750V for the tram trains. The OHLE will subsequently be switched over to 25kV when the MML eventually electrification reaches Rotherham (the tram-trains themselves will be dual voltage from day 1).

 

altering part of the platform to be suitable for trams and making the junction south of Rotherham station grade-separated to avoid conflicts between trams heading towards Sheffield and heavy rail traffic approaching the station from the south

 

There are no plans for grade seperation of the two routes to the south of Rotherham Central.

 

- all of which is going to be more expensive than sticking two platforms up for existing rolling stock. And if the experiment is a complete failure, the OLE would then have to be ripped up.

 

The OHLE won't be ripped up, it would be mothballed. It's only more expensive when you try to justify the tram-train as a single project for South Yorkshire. When seen in the context of a national experiment which could potentially save millions of pounds in rolling stock and infrastructure costs in the future, it's a simple, small, R&D cost, which we ultimately benefit from.

[Annie Bynnol]

There is even less social or commercial value in installing OLE on a single track line (which would most likely have to be doubled), altering part of the platform to be suitable for trams and making the junction south of Rotherham station grade-separated to avoid conflicts between trams heading towards Sheffield and heavy rail traffic approaching the station from the south - all of which is going to be more expensive than sticking two platforms up for existing rolling stock. And if the experiment is a complete failure, the OLE would then have to be ripped up.

 

 

 

http://bit.ly/13Db5fY - the railway line on the south eastern edge is very much connected to Rotherham station

 

 

 

It is a research project-its main objective is neither social or commercial.

 

The whole point is not to have separation between rail traffic and tram.

Passenger trains could physically not access Sheffield city centre.

Even if trams could be physically tweaked to run on mainline, they would have problems with electricity supply, platforms, turnouts, safety, signalling, monitoring, tyre profiles and depths etc etc.

A new breed of vehicles are being built now and will need to meet the rigours of mainline work and be able to run on the street.

The mainline section will be constructed for dual voltage OHP testing and the signalling must be able to recognise the tram-train.

The platforms at Rotherham must cope with trains and tram-trains.

The kilometre of single line between Meadowhall and Templeborough would be a typical situation a tram train would have to deal with.

 

The Parkgate stop of the tram-train is separated from the Parkgate people by the retail park and the Masboro' line.

To benefit Parkgate people a mainline station would have to be built on the Masboro' to Swinton line not the Rotherham to Swinton line.

The Government would not sanction a station to serve a retail park-it is just a convenient place to end the route. A commercial/social and operational terminus would have been Swinton.

 

Hence the experiment.

 

Current problems are:

1 No NR engineers available .

2 Tyre wear.

[JaKS]

How is yorcard coming along after over ten years and millions of pounds? Still nowhere?

 

Still shelling out £4k a week on a consultant?

 

onenerveleft, yorcard is still going....

 

Yorcard - new job.

Issued: 3 December 2014

Lead Developer – Salary Grade 12-13 (starting salary £38,393)

Permanent

Closing Date: 4 January 2015

 

Long serving staff? Why would they move if they are on the top of their salary in a city where its difficult to find jobs on a similar wage and in the same industry!

[barclay]

I wonder how much the PTE lose every year through the self scanning of Mobility/ OAP and other 'smart' tickets. Passengers scan a card, any bodies card then sit down.

 

They don't show their photo to the driver due to the fact that when they were first introduced they were never instructed to do so nor are there any information signs on the buses/ Trams informing them to do so.

 

This is a big problem. I emailed the PTE regarding this and their answer was the driver can tell how old people are so don't need to see the card, so why bother with the photo in the first place ! but they acknowledged that mobility misuse was a problem.

 

The drivers don't want the hassle of educating the whole of the PTE area to get passengers to show their photo as it causes tension with the passengers who don't realise they are suppose to show the photo in the first place.

 

You get the situation were an OAP gets on scans card, then a Mobility user gets on scans card , you then ask to see it, they then get aggressive with comments like, you didn't ask her or nobody else asks ETC

 

Did the PTE have a Festive (Christmas) Party at the City Hall again this year complete with Chocolate fountain at our expense like a few years back ?

 

---------- Post added 29-12-2014 at 09:48 ----------

 

By ditching the whole project will save the SYPTE the money they would spend promoting how wonderful the scheme is when in reality it will be a white elephant. It is already beginning to look a lot like the misguided busway. A permanent heavy rail station at Parkgate would do exactly the same job.

 

---------- Post added 28-12-2014 at 10:37 ----------

 

 

You're not wrong there - just waited over an hour at Commonside (stop 37020412) for a 95 into town - the 0910, 0930, 0950 departures all advertised as running and no disruptions to the service according to reports up to 10:03. Yet all failed to turn up. A phone call to them got answered after about 20 minutes then they cut me off after about 30 seconds where they were supposedly tracking a service in 8 minutes, which given the time I spoke to someone was 09:42 would have been consistent with the 09:50.

 

You would think they would be proactive and update the electronic screens with updates regarding cancelled services.

[Guest busdriver1]

 

[/color]

 

You would think they would be proactive and update the electronic screens with updates regarding cancelled services.

 

Do you know who updates the screens and how it is done?

 

I do, and believe me if traffic etc is causing these problems, updating screens is very low on the list of priorities for the guy whose job it is to do them, amongst several hundred other things.