Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when the Sheffield to Rotherham tram-train trial will start.

The current programme shows the start of passenger services between Rotherham Parkgate and Sheffield city centre in early 2017.

The very nature of the trial means that we are pushing on the envelope of known standards and interfaces between heavy and light rail systems and some technological issues have been significant. However, a key objective of the project is to provide a template for future schemes in other cities that will then allow much quicker and cost effective implementation of a system where the lower cost of operating tram trains on heavy rail routes will deliver long term reductions in opex and capex along the lines of Sir Roy McNulty’s findings.