News: Which services could stop at Rotherham Gateway Station?

Discussions continue with train operators over which services could stop at the potential new mainline station in Rotherham that is aiming to open in 2030.

The Rotherham Gateway Station project, featured by Rothbiz earlier this month, involves a new integrated station on the mainline and a tram-train stop on land at Forge Way, Parkgate.

Discussing the project at a recent council meeting, Simon Moss, Assistant Director, Planning, Regeneration and Transport at Rotherham Council, said: "Everyday we have got mainline train services that travel through the borough on the way to Leeds, York, Birmingham, London, Cleethorpes, and none of those trains stop in Rotherham.

"Obviously we have got Rotherham Central, which is a real asset, on a branch line with local trains that stop twice an hour. Despite the rail infrastructure that we've got, rail connectivity is really quite poor. So Rotherham Gateway will be a big step change in the connectivity to regional and national destinations. That wider connectivity will come together with local access with a new tram train stop, bus services and other options that need to integrate into a proposal such as this.

"We have been in touch with the various rail operators, they've got a range of different approaches, and different positions, and different considerations."

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The aim is to increase the range of direct destinations and for a 30 minute journey time reduction to Leeds, York and Birmingham.

Lucy Mitchell, Major Project Officer at Rotherham Council, added: "We've invited a number of operators to join the steering group with Northern being the main target as it is likely that they would be the station facility owner. They are fundamental to any conversations that we have about what that station building might look like and how they want to operate it.

"We've also had some dialogue with TransPennine Express as a target operator for a service that we would like to see stopping at the station and similarly with CrossCountry, we've had dialogue with them. Northern have been quite heavily involved - coming to the steering group - and we've asked them to sit on the board as well.

"Operators are quite straightforward about what they would accept and wouldn't accept, which we would rather try and understand at this stage, and plan for."

Northern operates the most services in the area with potential new direct links to the nearby cities of Sheffield, Doncaster, Wakefield and Leeds. TransPennine Express operate between Liverpool and Cleethorpes on the mainline that goes through the Rotherham site with a service that also stops at Manchester and Sheffield. CrossCountry's Plymouth – Edinburgh Waverley and Reading – Newcastle services, that take in cities such as Birmingham and York, are also in the conversation.

Mitchell added: "At the moment there are two services that we can confidently accommodate so we could get better journey times to Leeds and better journey times to Doncaster. Journey times to Sheffield would marginally improve, because they are so close on the rail network.

"We are working with DfT [Department for Transport] and Network Rail to look at other services that offer up wider connectivity. So the conversations with TransPennine Express, that's about trying to get that service to potentially stop at this station so that you could get directly through to Manchester.

"Similarly, conversations about CrossCountry services, if we can get a stop at the station here you are on a direct connection to Birmingham, to York, wherever, that is the thing that significantly enhances the opportunity for Rotherham people and Rotherham businesses.

"It's a lot of work to go to secure those services and get them stopping here but that is the journey that we are on and where we'd like to get to."

Images: Northern