Sheffield trams back into public ownership after 25 years

Regional leaders have approved South Yorkshire’s Labour mayor Oliver Coppard’s plans to bring back the network under public control by 2024.

Trams in the city are currently run by Stagecoach, who took on the service when it was privatised in 1997.

The service, which cost of some £240m, has run throughout the city since 1994 and was extended to Rotherham in 2018.

Mr Coppard said: “Our transport ambitions - for how our communities get to jobs or education, and how they visit family and friends - must work for the whole of our region and for a generation to come.

“Supertram has been part of South Yorkshire’s fabric for nearly thirty years.

"In the next thirty years, it will play a critical role in helping us reach our net zero goal. Now, I am pleased to be able to say that it will do so as a publicly owned, publicly operated venture.

“Full public control of Supertram is an exciting new chapter for our tram network.

" It will help us to develop a long-term, integrated approach that fits with our wider plans for buses, rail, walking and cycling across South Yorkshire.”

South Yorkshire leaders approved proposals to create an ‘arm’s length’ publicly owned company to run the region’s tram system at the Mayoral Combined Authority Board meeting on October 18.

The news was welcomed by Sheffield Heeley MP Louise Haigh.

She said: “It’s fantastic news that South Yorkshire’s Mayor Oliver Coppard and leaders across the region have made the decision to bring the running of the Supertram network into public control.

"This means that services, infrastructure and financing of the tram will be run for the benefit of passengers and not private operators.

“This is the first step in bringing the transport network into public control. Only by designing services that match passengers’ needs can we begin to encourage more people back onto public transport.”

No job cuts are planned under the new ownership, the Yorkshire Post understands, with the Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employees Regulations applying to all affected Supertram employees, meaning they can opt to transfer into the new operating company on their existing terms and conditions.

A consultation in 2018 found some 88 per cent of those questions wanted further investment in the tram system while 68.3 per cent stated they would travel by car if the tram was no longer available.

Matthew Topham, of Better Buses for South Yorkshire, said: “This is a massive step in the right direction by the mayor and a testament to the power of passenger campaigning after our report ‘South Yorkshire Deserves a Fully Public Transport System’ in January called for this change.

“This move puts South Yorkshire in good company: the operation of Metro systems in both the North East and West Midlands have recently been brought back into public hands.”

“Expanding and reinvigorating Supertram is not only cheaper through public ownership, but can be used to make it more accountable to local people’s needs.”