tbtc
Veteran Member
I'm surprised the Purple Line only sees an hourly service, is this a COVID legacy or is there just not enough demand to Herdings to justify even half-hourly/20 minute frequency?
It was half hourly pre-Covid, but it was every twelve minutes with through trams to Hillsborough* in the early days of Supertram (when Meadowhall was just a shuttle to the city centre)
My take on the branch is that it’s a problematic stub (like Malin Bridge) which should either have been built properly (to a P&R near Meadowhead in the case of Herdings Park, Stannington in the case of Malin Bridge) or not at all
Herdings Park has traditionally been a frequent bus terminus (47/48 for many years, now the 1A/ 11), suggesting demand, but the bus routes serve the various flats along the Gleadless Valley which the tram doesn’t (it approaches the valley from a different direction) - but the kind of route where a twelve minute tram might work yet an hourly one won’t (since a frequent tram would be enough to attract the bus passengers but they won’t wait about for an hourly tram when the buses are much more often even post-Covid)
*- I can’t remember whether it was to Malin Bridge or Middlewood beyond there, it’s going back a while