Northern (train operating company)
Northern is a train operating company in Northern England. A subsidiary of Arriva UK Trains, it began operating the Northern franchise on 1 April 2016 and inherited units from the previous operator Northern Rail. Central to franchise commitments will be the introduction of 101 new-built units – the Class 195 and 331; these will be the first new-build trains for the Northern franchise since the introduction of the Class 333 in 2000 and the new rolling stock will enable all 102 Pacer trains in service with Northern to be retired by the end of 2019. Additionally, it is planned that a franchise sub-brand, known as Northern Connect, will provide inter-urban services between major cities and towns in Northern England, as well as serving a number of major commuting stations; however since the franchise began in April 2016, it has been beset by falling punctuality, poor customer service, regular industrial action by staff and delays in introducing new rolling stock due to issues encountered during testing.
Despite passenger growth at the vast majority of train operating companies in the United Kingdom and the Northern franchise operating more services, the number of passengers carried since the franchise commenced in 2016 has declined and has been attributed to worsening performance. The franchise will run to 2025 with an option for an additional year, dependent on performance. In August 2014, the Department for Transport announced that Abellio and Govia had been shortlisted to bid for the next Northern franchise; the franchise was awarded to Arriva in December 2015. In May 2016, the Competition and Markets Authority launched an investigation into the transport department's decision to award the Northern network to Arriva. Arriva operated the CrossCountry franchise and owned many bus companies in the Northern trains operating area in which'a significant overlap occurs without competition from other service providers.'In April 2018, a penalty fare scheme under the Railways Regulations 2018 commenced to encourage passengers to purchase a ticket before boarding trains.
Although this scheme is not wholly enforced across the Northern network, passengers are liable to paying a £20 penalty fare if they are deemed to have travelled without a valid ticket and had the ability to purchase a ticket prior to boarding the train at the station of origin. Customers who need to purchase a ticket at the station of origin with cash may do so by collecting a'Promise to Pay' notice prior to boarding from a ticket machine as these are not capable of accepting cash; these notices can be exchanged with the on-board conductor or with a member of railway staff at the destination station for a paid ticket. Section 6 of the Railways Regulations 2018 covers a number of scenarios that prohibit penalty fares being issued such'no facilities in operation for the sale of a travel ticket for that passenger’s journey'; the franchise was criticised for implementing a new timetable in May 2018 which resulted in widespread delays and cancellations. Network Rail and Northern announced an independent inquiry to learn lessons and identify route alterations in readiness for the next timetable change in December 2018.
In an attempt to counter operational problems, Northern implemented an emergency timetable on 4 June 2018 – it stemmed some delays and cancellations but was still problematic compared with performance before the timetable change. Punctuality was bad in the North West due to the delay in the Blackpool-Preston electrification scheme and the number of trains per hour through Manchester increased with more services utilising the Ordsall Chord which became operational in December 2017. Network Rail only informed train operating companies in January 2018 that the electrification scheme would be delayed until November – Northern had planned for the scheme to be complete as scheduled by May and had trained drivers to operate new routes with electric rolling stock. An alternative timetable had to be drafted up and many train drivers were not sufficiently trained to drive the existing diesel rolling stock which resulted in widespread cancellations. Furthermore, the additional services through the Manchester corridor resulted in increased congestion and which had a knock-on effect.
Performance statistics published by the Office of Rail and Road in October 2018 showed that from April to June 2018, the franchise recorded the lowest PPM – measured by train service departing within 5 minutes of its scheduled time – of any quarter since punctuality records began on the Northern franchise in 2009. Performance towards the latter half of the 2018 continued to be poor with many passengers protesting and the network beset by a reduced service on Saturdays due to industrial action. In October 2018 it was announced that Manchester Oxford Road station, the busiest station managed by Northern with over 8 million passengers, was the most delayed station in the United Kingdom in 2018 – this was attributed to the chaos following the May 2018 timetable. Between 14 October and 10 November 2018, Northern recorded the worst monthly performance on record with more trains late than on time. Less than 40% of services arrived on time and only 71.9% departed within 5 minutes of the scheduled departure time.
By November 2018, Arriva were re-evaluating their future involvement in the franchise due to a combination of declining passenger numbers as a result of the chaotic May 2018 timetable change and increasing compensation claims as a result of falling punctuality. Both have pushed the franchise into a loss-making entity and face a £282 million government subsidy shortfall, due to be passed onto the franchise. Since the franchise commenced in April 2016 and despite an increase
Fireman (steam engine)
A fireman, stoker or watertender, is a person whose occupation it is to tend the fire for the running of a boiler, heating a building, or powering a steam engine. Much of the job is hard physical labor, such as shoveling fuel coal, into the boiler's firebox. On steam locomotives the title fireman is used, while on steamships and stationary steam engines, such as those driving saw mills, the title is stoker; the German word Heizer is equivalent and in Dutch the word stoker is used too. The United States Navy referred to them as watertenders; the Royal Navy used the rank structure ordinary stoker, leading stoker, stoker petty officer and chief stoker. The non-substantive badge for stokers was a ship's propeller. Stoker remains the colloquial term used to refer to a marine engineering rating, despite the decommissioning of the last steam-powered naval vessel many years ago. Large coal-fueled vessels had individuals working as coal trimmers, who delivered coal from the coal bunkers to the stokers.
They were responsible for all coal handling with the exception of the actual fueling of the boilers. The Royal Canadian Navy had steam powered ships. All marine engineers in the RCN, regardless of their platform are nicknamed stokers. In the United States Navy, watertender was a petty officer rating which existed from 1884 to 1948. Watertenders held a paygrade equivalent to today's petty officer first class. A chief watertender paygrade was established in 1903. In 1921, the lower paygrade was split into watertender second class. Another lower paygrade, watertender third class, was established in 1943; the watertender and boilermaker ratings were merged into a new "boilerman" rating in 1948, which merged into "machinist's mate" in 1996. On steam locomotives, firemen were not responsible for preparing locomotives and lighting their fires; as a locomotive boiler takes several hours to heat up, a too-rapid fire-raising can cause excess wear on a boiler, this task was performed by fire lighters working some hours before the fireman's main shift started.
Only on small railways, or on narrow-gauge locomotives with smaller and faster-warming boilers, was the fire lit by the fireman. Whoever was responsible for fire-starting would clear the ash from the firebox ashpan prior to lighting the fire, adding water to the engine's boiler, making sure there is a proper supply of fuel for the engine aboard before starting journeys, starting the fire, raising or banking the fire as appropriate for the amount of power needed along particular parts of the route, performing other tasks for maintaining the locomotive according to the orders of the engineer or driver; the engine itself was cleaned by an engine cleaner instead of the fireman. Some firemen served these duties as a form of apprenticeship, aspiring to be locomotive engineers themselves. In the present day, the position of fireman still exists on the Union Pacific Railroad, but it refers to an engineer in training; the fireman may operate the locomotive under the direct supervision of the engineer.
When the fireman is not operating the locomotive, the fireman assists the engineer and monitors the controls. A mechanical stoker is a device, it is standard equipment on large stationary boilers and was fitted to large steam locomotives to ease the burden of the fireman. The locomotive type has a screw conveyor; the coal is distributed across the grate by steam jets, controlled by the fireman. Power stations use pulverized coal-fired boilers. Vladimir Lenin, disguised as Konstantin Petrovich Ivanov, escaped to Finland in 1917 on train 293 from Udelnaya Station. Guro Jalava, a co-conspirator and the train's driver helped to further conceal Lenin by having him work as his stoker. Jalava recalled that Lenin shovelled with gusto as he fed the engine, making the train run fast. There were 176 stokers on board the coal fed ocean liner RMS Titanic. During the sinking of the ship, these men disregarded their own safety and stayed below deck to keep the steam driven electric generators running for the radiotelegraph and water pumps.
Only 48 of them survived. Simeon T. Webb was the fireman on the Cannonball Express when it was destroyed in the legendary wreck that killed engineer Casey Jones. Jones's last words were "Jump, jump!" and Webb did jump and became a primary source for information about the famous wreck. KFC founder Colonel Sanders worked as a railroad stoker when he was 16 or 17. A 14-year old Martin Luther King Sr. worked as a fireman on the Atlanta railroad. Torsten Billman, a Swedish graphic artist and mural painter - himself coal trimmer and stoker on various merchant ships from 1926 to 1932 - has portrayed the hard work in coal bunkers and stokeholes. Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson acted as stoker on the steam locomotive No. 60163 Tornado while performing a Race to the North against Richard Hammond and James May. It was an homage to the historical Race to the North, a rivalry between British steam engines and men of different companies between London and Edinburgh; the lead character Bill Roberts in Josef von Sternberg's motion picture The Docks of New York is a stoker.
The first chapter of Franz Kafka's novel Amerika is entitled "The Stoker". Mat Burke, a principal role in Eugene O'Neill's play Anna Christie is a ship's stoker. Yank, the protagonist of Eugene O'Neill's play The Hairy Ape (1922
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, with a population of 545,500 as of 2017. It lies within the United Kingdom's second-most populous built-up area, with a population of 3.2 million. It is fringed by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, an arc of towns with which it forms a continuous conurbation; the local authority is Manchester City Council. The recorded history of Manchester began with the civilian settlement associated with the Roman fort of Mamucium or Mancunium, established in about AD 79 on a sandstone bluff near the confluence of the rivers Medlock and Irwell, it was a part of Lancashire, although areas of Cheshire south of the River Mersey were incorporated in the 20th century. The first to be included, was added to the city in 1931. Throughout the Middle Ages Manchester remained a manorial township, but began to expand "at an astonishing rate" around the turn of the 19th century. Manchester's unplanned urbanisation was brought on by a boom in textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution, resulted in it becoming the world's first industrialised city.
Manchester achieved city status in 1853. The Manchester Ship Canal opened in 1894, creating the Port of Manchester and directly linking the city to the Irish Sea, 36 miles to the west, its fortune declined after the Second World War, owing to deindustrialisation, but the IRA bombing in 1996 led to extensive investment and regeneration. In 2014, the Globalisation and World Cities Research Network ranked Manchester as a beta world city, the highest-ranked British city apart from London. Manchester is the third-most visited city after London and Edinburgh, it is notable for its architecture, musical exports, media links and engineering output, social impact, sports clubs and transport connections. Manchester Liverpool Road railway station was the world's first inter-city passenger railway station. Manchester hosted the 2002 Commonwealth Games; the name Manchester originates from the Latin name Mamucium or its variant Mancunium and the citizens are still referred to as Mancunians. These are thought to represent a Latinisation of an original Brittonic name, either from mamm- or from mamma.
Both meanings are preserved in Insular Celtic languages, such as mam meaning "breast" in Irish and "mother" in Welsh. The suffix -chester is a survival of Old English ceaster and from that castra in latin for camp or settlement; the Brigantes were the major Celtic tribe in. Their territory extended across the fertile lowland of what is now Stretford. Following the Roman conquest of Britain in the 1st century, General Agricola ordered the construction of a fort named Mamucium in the year 79 to ensure that Roman interests in Deva Victrix and Eboracum were protected from the Brigantes. Central Manchester has been permanently settled since this time. A stabilised fragment of foundations of the final version of the Roman fort is visible in Castlefield; the Roman habitation of Manchester ended around the 3rd century. After the Roman withdrawal and Saxon conquest, the focus of settlement shifted to the confluence of the Irwell and Irk sometime before the arrival of the Normans after 1066. Much of the wider area was laid waste in the subsequent Harrying of the North.
Thomas de la Warre, lord of the manor and constructed a collegiate church for the parish in 1421. The church is now Manchester Cathedral; the library, which opened in 1653 and is still open to the public today, is the oldest free public reference library in the United Kingdom. Manchester is mentioned as having a market in 1282. Around the 14th century, Manchester received an influx of Flemish weavers, sometimes credited as the foundation of the region's textile industry. Manchester became an important centre for the manufacture and trade of woollens and linen, by about 1540, had expanded to become, in John Leland's words, "The fairest, best builded and most populous town of all Lancashire." The cathedral and Chetham's buildings are the only significant survivors of Leland's Manchester. During the English Civil War Manchester favoured the Parliamentary interest. Although not long-lasting, Cromwell granted it the right to elect its own MP. Charles Worsley, who sat for the city for only a year, was appointed Major General for Lancashire and Staffordshire during the Rule of the Major Generals.
He was a diligent puritan, banning the celebration of Christmas. Significant quantities of cotton began to be used after about 1600, firstly in linen/cotton fustians, but by around 1750 pure cotton fabrics were being produced and cotton had overtaken wool in importance; the Irwell and Mersey were made navigable by 1736, opening a route from Manchester to the sea docks on the Mersey. The Bridgewater Canal, Britain's first wholly artificial waterway, was opened in 1761, bringing coal from mines at Worsley to central Manchester; the canal was extended to the Mersey at Runcorn by 1776. The combination of competition and improved efficiency halved th
East Midlands Trains
East Midlands Trains is a British train operating company owned by Stagecoach Group. Based in Derby, the company provides train services in the East Midlands and parts of Yorkshire, chiefly in Lincolnshire, South Yorkshire, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire; the franchise commenced in November 2007 with the amalgamation of the Midland Mainline and eastern parts of the Central Trains franchises and will run until August 2019. In June 2006 the Department for Transport announced its intention to restructure some rail franchises. Included was an East Midlands franchise combining the Midland Mainline franchise with the East Midlands services of the Central Trains franchise. In September 2006 the Department for Transport announced that Arriva, FirstGroup, National Express and Stagecoach had been shortlisted to bid for the franchise. In June 2007 the Department for Transport awarded the East Midlands franchise to Stagecoach and services operated by Central Trains and Midland Mainline transferred to East Midlands Trains on 11 November 2007.
Due to end in March 2015, the franchise has been extended several times and is now planned to finish in August 2019. In April 2019, the DfT announced that Abellio had won its bid for the East Midlands franchise, after Stagecoach was disqualified from the process due to not meeting pension obligations; the service will be renamed "East Midlands Railway" and the contract is due to last until August 2027. Amidst a background of ongoing rail strikes on a national level, the National Union of Rail and Transport Workers warned in September 2017 that East Midlands Trains staff could be balloted for potential industrial action following a breakdown in negotiations over an ongoing pay rise dispute; the dispute was settled without industrial action, the threat of strikes on East Midlands Trains services was dropped. East Midlands Trains divided its services between two sub-brands: Mainline inter-city services, Connect urban and suburban services, which came from the Central Trains franchise. However, from April 2008, the company dropped the "Mainline" and "Connect" branding in favour of "London" and "Local" services.
It has four broad routes for the areas in which it operates, except for the high-speed services, which all serve London. EMT promised better integration between "London" and "Local" services, together with increased punctuality and becoming more user-friendly. On 25 November 2008, Peter Bone asked if the Secretary of State for Transport supports the "In the Can" campaign, whereby sardines are sent to the Chief Executive to show dissatisfaction at perceived overcrowding. Helen Southworth raised the overcrowding issue on the same day; the service pattern at the start of the franchise was of 4 off-peak departures from London: 2 fast and 2 stopping. Sheffield peak-hour trains extended from and to Leeds, with weekend services extending to York/Scarborough. 1 peak-hour Derby service was extended to one to Barnsley. EMT made no significant changes until the introduction of its December 2008 timetable. In December 2008, EMT made significant changes to the service pattern, similar to the current one. There are five off-peak departures from London: 2 fast, 2 stopping.
A smaller number of Sheffield peak-hour trains continue to extend from and to Leeds, with weekend services extending to York/Scarborough. In addition a Nottingham service is extended to start from Lincoln Central on weekdays and Saturdays. There were plans for 2 return services to Skegness through from London in the summer; the Burton-on-Trent and Barnsley services ceased at the beginning of the December 2008 timetable, when Corby services began. One Corby service was extended to Melton Mowbray at the outset, a second was added to Derby from May 2010. In December 2013, the Midland Main Line started running at 125 mph in some areas, cutting journey times; the Liverpool Lime Street via Warrington Central, Manchester Oxford Road and Piccadilly, Nottingham and Ely to Norwich service was provided by Central Trains. Nottinghamshire County Council has campaigned for better services between the four core cities of Liverpool, Manchester and Nottingham. Network Rail's plans for the Northern Hub would deliver extra train paths along the Hope Valley Line, enabling more trains to run from the North West to the East Midlands.
In December 2012, double-unit trains were provided for services between Manchester and Nottingham to ease overcrowding. East Midlands Trains' services can be categorised into two types: London: inter-city services out of London St Pancras station, along the Midland Main Line, to various towns and cities in the East Midlands region including Bedford, Leicester, Nottingham and Sheffield; some peak-time services serve Lincoln Central, Doncaster and York, while a single Saturday service runs to and from Scarborough in the summer. These services all use Class HST sets, which are painted in a white livery. Local: short- and medium-distance services within the East Midlands region, plus the long-distance route between Liverpool Lime Street and Norwich; these services are operated by Sprinters. The Class 158 units are painted in a white livery, while the remaining units are all
TransPennine Express
TransPennine Express abbreviated to TPE, is a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup operating the TransPennine Express franchise. It runs regional and intercity rail services between the major cities of Northern England and Scotland; the franchise operates all its services to and through Manchester covering three main routes. The service provides rail links for major towns and cities such as Edinburgh, Liverpool, Hull, York, Scarborough and Newcastle. TransPennine Express runs trains 24 hours a day, including through New Year's Eve night. Trains run between York and Manchester Airport at least every three hours every night of the week; the franchise operates 51 three-carriage Class 185 diesel units and 10 four-carriage Class 350 electric units. It is planned most of the fleet will be replaced by 45 new-built five-carriage units by the end of 2019; the TransPennine Express brand was launched in the early 1990s by British Rail's Regional Railways sector. It became part of Regional Railways North East and on 2 March 1997 was privatised with Northern Spirit and its successor, Arriva Trains Northern maintaining the brand.
In 2000, the Strategic Rail Authority announced that it planned to reorganise the North West Regional Railways and Regional Railways North East franchises operated by First North Western and Arriva Trains Northern. A TransPennine Express franchise would be created for the long-distance regional services, the remaining services being operated by a new Northern franchise. In July 2003, the TransPennine franchise was awarded to a joint venture between FirstGroup and Keolis, the services operated by Arriva Trains Northern and First North Western were transferred to First TransPennine Express on 1 February 2004. On 11 November 2007, the services from Manchester to Edinburgh and Glasgow via the West Coast Main Line operated by Virgin CrossCountry were transferred to First TransPennine Express. In August 2014, the Department for Transport announced FirstGroup, Keolis/Go-Ahead and Stagecoach had been shortlisted to bid for the next franchise. In December 2015, FirstGroup was awarded the franchise with TransPennine Express taking over on 1 April 2016.
The franchise will run until 31 March 2023 with an option to extend for two years. As part of a recasting of the franchise map by the Department for Transport, services from Manchester Airport to Blackpool North, Manchester Airport to Barrow in Furness and Oxenholme to Windermere were transferred to the Northern franchise on 1 April 2016; the TransPennine Express routes are subdivided into three operations: North TransPennine, which includes all routes that pass through the core section between Manchester and Leeds. Details of each route, including maps and timetables, are on the TransPennine Express official website. In May 2018, following the transfer of the Manchester to Huddersfield Northern stopping service to TPE, regular services ceased between some of the intermediate Pennine stations, most daytime services either stopped at Mossley and Slaithwaite, or Greenfield and Marsden. Following the December 2018 timetable change, regular services resumed between Marsden and Slathwaite; the following services run Mondays to Saturdays, with frequencies in trains per hour: Trains from Liverpool-Newcastle will extend to Edinburgh via the East Coast Main Line, giving 2tph from Leeds-Edinburgh together with an hourly CrossCountry service from December 2019.
Direct Liverpool to Glasgow services via the West Coast Main Line are expected to be reintroduced at the May 2019 timetable change. First TransPennine Express inherited a fleet of four Class 170 and 51 Class 185 DMUs as well as ten Class 350/4 EMUs from First Keolis TransPennine Express, although the Class 170s left for Chiltern Railways to be converted to Class 168s shortly afterwards. After the new rolling stock has been delivered, 22 Class 185 units will be returned to Eversholt Rail Group, whilst the Class 350s are due to transfer to West Midlands Trains after the Class 397 units enter service in 2019. A total of 44 brand new five-car trains will be delivered to TransPennine Express. Former units operated by TransPennine Express include: TransPennine Express services run over a large area of northern England and southern Scottish Lowlands. Many of the largest stations they serve are managed by other train operating companies or Network Rail. TransPennine Express manages the following 19 stations: Some stations from the former TransPennine Express franchise were transferred to Northern.
These include Arnside, Barrow-in-Furness, Burneside, Grange-over-Sands, Staveley, Warrington Central and Windermere. Siemens maintains the Class 185 and 350 fleets at Ardwick depot in Manchester with a smaller facility in York. Scottish stabling points for both stock include Corkerhill C. S. M. D. and Craigentinny T.&R. S. M. D.. Hitachi will maintain the AT300 fleet at Doncaster Craigentinny; the new EMUs and loco-hauled sets will be maintained by Alstom, on behalf of TransPennine Express, at Longsight, Edge Hill and Polmadie. TransPennine Express have depots for its train crews at Manchester Piccadilly, Manchester Airport, Newcastle, Hull, Sheffield, Preston and Glasgow Central. Media related to TransPennine Express at Wikimedia Commons Official website
South Yorkshire
South Yorkshire is a metropolitan county in England. It is the southernmost county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region and had a population of 1.34 million in 2011. It has an area of 1,552 square kilometres and consists of four metropolitan boroughs, Doncaster and Sheffield. South Yorkshire was created on 1 April 1974 as a result of the Local Government Act 1972, its largest settlement is Sheffield. Lying on the east side of the Pennines, South Yorkshire is landlocked, borders Derbyshire to the west and south-west, West Yorkshire to the north-west, North Yorkshire to the north, the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north-east, Lincolnshire to the east and Nottinghamshire to the south-east; the Sheffield Urban Area is the tenth most populous conurbation in the UK, dominates the western half of South Yorkshire with over half of the county's population living within it. South Yorkshire lies within the Sheffield City Region with Barnsley being within the Leeds City Region, reflecting its geographical position midway between Yorkshire's two largest cities.
South Yorkshire County Council was abolished in 1986 and its metropolitan boroughs are now unitary authorities, although the metropolitan county continues to exist in law. As a ceremonial county, South Yorkshire has a High Sheriff. South Yorkshire was created from 32 local government districts of the West Riding of Yorkshire, with small areas from Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. In the 2016 referendum on the United Kingdom's membership of the European Union, South Yorkshire voted 62% leave and 38% remain, making it one of the most Leave areas in the country. Although the modern county of South Yorkshire was not created until 1974, the history of its constituent settlements and parts goes back centuries. Prehistoric remains include a Mesolithic "house" dating to around 8000 BC, found at Deepcar, in the northern part of Sheffield. Evidence of earlier inhabitation in the wider region exists about 3 miles over the county boundary at Creswell Crags in Derbyshire, where artefacts and rock art found in caves have been dated by archaeologists to the late Upper Palaeolithic period, at least 12,800 years ago.
The region was on the frontier of the Roman Empire during the Roman period. The main settlements of South Yorkshire grew up around the industries of mining and steel manufacturing; the main mining industry was coal, concentrated to the north and east of the county. There were iron deposits which were mined in the area; the rivers running off the Pennines to the west of the county supported the steel industry, concentrated in the city of Sheffield. The proximity of the iron and coal made this an ideal place for steel manufacture. Although Christian nonconformism was never as strong in South Yorkshire as in the mill towns of West Yorkshire, there are still many Methodist and Baptist churches in the area. South Yorkshire has a high number of followers of spiritualism, it is the only county. The Local Government Commission for England presented draft recommendations, in December 1965, proposing a new county—York and North Midlands—roughly centred on the southern part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and northern parts of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.
The review was abolished in favour of the Royal Commission on Local Government before it was able to issue a final report. The Royal Commission's 1969 report, known as the Redcliffe-Maud Report, proposed the removal of much of the existing system of local government; the commission described the system of administering urban and rural districts separately as outdated, noting that urban areas provided employment and services for rural dwellers, open countryside was used by town dwellers for recreation. Redcliffe-Maud's recommendations were accepted by the Labour government in February 1970. Although the Redcliffe-Maud Report was rejected by the Conservative government after the 1970 general election, there was a commitment to local government reform, the need for a metropolitan county of South Yorkshire; the Local Government Act 1972 reformed local government in England by creating a system of two-tier metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties and districts throughout the country. The act formally established South Yorkshire on 1 April 1974, although South Yorkshire County Council had been running since elections in 1973.
The leading article in The Times on the day the Local Government Act came into effect noted that the "new arrangement is a compromise which seeks to reconcile familiar geography which commands a certain amount of affection and loyalty, with the scale of operations on which modern planning methods can work effectively". South Yorkshire had a two tier structure of local government with a strategic-level county council and four districts providing most services. In 1974, as part of the South Yorkshire Structure Plan of the environment and land use, South Yorkshire County Council commissioned a public attitudes survey covering job opportunities, educational facilities, leisure opportunities and medical services, shopping centres and transport in the county. In 1986, throughout England the metropolitan county councils were abolished; the functions of the county council were devolved to the boroughs. The joint boards continue to include the South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive; the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner oversees South Yorkshire Police.
Although the county council was abolished, Sou
South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive
The South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive is the passenger transport executive for South Yorkshire in England. It is supervised by the Sheffield City Region Combined Authority, which consists of representatives from the metropolitan boroughs of Sheffield, Rotherham and Barnsley. Between 1974 and 1994 it ran all bus services in the county. From 1986 until 1993, buses were operated by an arms length company, South Yorkshire Transport, until a management buyout created the bus operating company Mainline Group. Shortly after Stagecoach purchased a 20% stake in the company, however this was sold in 1995 to FirstBus. SYPTE is responsible for all the bus stops and bus interchanges in the county, along with park & ride sites, it provides comprehensive public transport information at stops, in the form of timetable leaflets, information on the web and a telephone enquiry service called Traveline. SYPTE has a network of Information Centres providing ticketing. SYPTE administers the concessionary travel schemes for children and students, senior citizens and the mobility impaired and the countywide multi-modal ticket Travelmaster.
It is responsible for various public transport services in the county the Sheffield Supertram and various subsidised bus services. The South Yorkshire public transport network, of which SYPTE is a key deliverer of passenger services, was re-branded as Travel South Yorkshire in 2006. Changes include the introduction of the YourNextBus scheme on all stops as well as LED departure boards on the towns most run routes at certain stops. Travel South Yorkshire provides timetable information for all bus and train services within South Yorkshire; some leaflets are available from Interchanges. Travel South Yorkshire's interchanges at Sheffield, Arundel Gate in Sheffield, Barnsley, Doncaster and Dinnington provide information and advice about public transport in South Yorkshire. From these interchanges, information can be obtained and a range of multi-modal tickets can be bought from self-serve vending machines. Other travel passes which were available at'Information Centre' desks at these interchanges are now only available from the Travel South Yorkshire website or over the phone from Traveline.
Travel South Yorkshire sells a range of multi-modal tickets on behalf of the public transport operators of South Yorkshire. These are in the form of smart card tickets and are commercial products which do not receive a subsidy. Travel South Yorkshire operate thirteen bus interchanges, many of which have been newly built or refurbished in the early 2000s; these bus interchanges provide a hub for local and sometimes national bus and coach services, in some locations provide an interchange facility onto light rail and heavy rail services. Adwick Interchange Arundel Gate Interchange Barnsley Interchange Crystal Peaks bus station Dinnington Interchange Frenchgate Interchange Grimethorpe Interchange Hillsborough Interchange Manor Top Interchange Meadowhall Interchange Mexborough Interchange Rotherham Interchange – closed for refurbishment until Spring 2019 Sheffield Interchange In 1985, the SYPTE purchased an Alexander RH bodied Dennis Dominator trolleybus with a view to reintroducing a trolleybus network.
A one mile section on Sandall Beat Road alongside Doncaster Racecourse was wired. However with deregulation in 1986, the project was shelved. Notes: A – Station is located in West Yorkshire, but SYPTE multi-modal TravelMaster tickets are valid to and from these railway stations. Eleven new stations were opened by SYPTE between 1983 and 1993. Many of these were re-opened former stations closed in the 1960s under the Beeching cuts, but not all. Rotherham Parkgate, the terminus of the Sheffield Supertram tram-train pilot scheme from Sheffield city centre, will open in October 2018. 1983 – Silkstone Common 1984 – Chapeltown 1987 – Rotherham Central 1988 – Goldthorpe. Technology Award for the GetThereSooner project. Rail Station of the Year. Joe Clarke Passenger Transport Authority of the Year. IHT/Mouchel Parkman Accessibility Award for Sheffield Station. Rail Project Award for Sheffield Station. Local Authority Bus Project of the Year Award for Sheffield Bus Partnership. Making Buses a Better Choice Award for Sheffield Bus Partnership.
Crime Prevention charity Crime Concern’s Award for Meadowhall Interchange and Adwick. TravelWise Awards Best Travel Awareness Event Award for Carbon Quids campaign. Institution of Civil Engineers’ Yorkshire & Humber Awards Award for Excellence for Barnsley Interchange. Light Rail Awards Project of the Year Award for the £3m Supertram revamp. Rail Business Awards Station Excellence Award for Rotherham Central station. Local Government Chronicle Awards Most Innovative Service Delivery Model Award for Sheffield Bus Partnership. Media related to South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive at Wikimedia Commons South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive Travel South Yorkshire Public transport information for South Yorkshire South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Authority Passenger Transport Executive Group
0.138 million
National Rail