In one sense it will be nice to have competition, and I think serving Meadowhall is great and will be successful (I have suggested that on here before).
But, I assume that by providing a faster journey time, they aren’t going to be looking to compete on price so much, which obviously isn’t as good for many passengers.
As a resident of Sheffield, I do feel that there is a degree of choice already, as many cheap advances are already available on the various operators that serve Doncaster, so I do find this proposal somewhat unnecessary although I can see how a small number of passengers may see in advantage in this service, but will they be enough?
I also have concerns about capacity raised by others already and do question whether extra London trains are what’s really needed for Sheffield. It’s interesting that if this is a spare Hull trains unit, they didn’t use it to do an extra Hull service. It could also be somewhat useful if it could run in service on the positioning moves between Hull and Sheffield, providing extra capacity at peak times on that route.
