southtpe

Doncaster-Sheffield

The section of line between Doncaster and Sheffield is one of the busiest sections of track on the South TPE route with services mixing with Northern stoppers, Cross Country, East Midlands Trains and regular freight trains. There is one TPE service each way per hour and are well used by passengers as peak time services can often be seen full to standing.

Apart from the obvious stops at Doncaster and Sheffield, each service also calls at Meadowhall, forming a fast service for passengers wishing to travel there from Doncaster or Sheffield. One exception is the 19:27 departure from Cleethorpes which calls at the usual stops until it gets to Doncaster, after the service departs at 20:42, it calls at all stations to Sheffield: Conisbrough, Mexborough, Swinton, Rotherham Central, Meadowhall and terminates at Sheffield.

The run is relatively quick and can be done in 30 minutes on a regular express service; this is partly because they take the line which branches off at Aldwarke Jn (Rotherham) that avoids the single track section outside of Rotherham Central and instead passes through the remains of the old Rotherham Masborough station instead. This line rejoins the line from Central at Holmes Jn about a mile from Meadowhall station. Occasionally if the Northern stopping services from Sheffield to Adwick are running late, this holds up the TPE which can sometimes be stuck behind it between Swinton and Doncaster.

One strange occurrence to happen on this stretch of line over the past few months has been several TPE services each day using the 5 mile double track freight branch which branches off of the mainline at Mexborough and comes out at Aldwarke Jn. The reason for this is not yet known.

South TPE trains cover the 17 miles 51 chains in 25 mins, an average speed of 40 miles per hour.

Written by Tom Curry

Click here to see a video of a Class 185 passing Ferryboat Crossing near Mexborough