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= Herdings Park tram stop =

Herdings Park is a tram stop on the Sheffield Supertram light rail network. Located in the Gleadless Valley area in the south of the city, Herdings Park is the terminus of the Purple Route from the city centre. It is located at the end of a short single-track spur from the main line at Gleadless Townend. Herdings Park tram stop opened on 3 April 1995.

The tram stop is located on ballasted reserved track adjacent to Herdings Park, from which it takes its name. Also nearby are the Herdings Twin Towers, a notable example of brutalist architecture in Sheffield. The tram stop has a single side platform on the left of trams arriving from the city centre. Beyond the platform is a short section of single track before the buffer stop, allowing an extra tram to be stabled beyond the stop, although this is not used in scheduled service. In the other direction, the line proceeds as single track for 460 m through woodland, reverting to double track just before Herdings Leighton Road tram stop.

In the standard weekday timetable, trams depart Herdings Park every 30 minutes. This service level of only two trams per hour on the Purple Route means that Herdings Park, along with Herdings Leighton Road, are the two least-served stops on the Supertram network. When the Supertram network first opened, peak time and weekend Purple Route services originally ran beyond Cathedral in the city centre onwards to Meadowhall Interchange; however, this service was withdrawn in 2016, and all trams now terminate at Cathedral regardless of the time of day. In December 2019, services were extended to run beyond midnight for the first time. Onward connections are available a short walk away from the tram stop at Raeburn Road turning circle, which is the terminus of First South Yorkshire bus routes 11 and 11a to Chapeltown.

Due to persistent vandalism, the plastic screens making up the platform shelter were replaced with metal screens before being removed entirely by 2019, although the posts and roof remain. On 2 March 2018, a tram conductor suffered serious injuries after being assaulted with a metal bar during an attempted robbery; evening services to the stop were subsequently suspended for one week due to safety concerns.

All services from Herdings Park have been suspended since 6 June 2020 as part of Area 2 of the 2020 Supertram engineering works project, with work taking place around White Lane meaning that trams cannot operate beyond Gleadless Townend. These works are scheduled to end on 24 July 2020. At present, there is no rail replacement bus service in operation from Herdings Park due to low passenger numbers as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic; passengers are advised to use regular buses.

Park Grange Viaduct


Park Grange Viaduct is located immediately to the north of Park Grange Croft tram stop, and it opened to passenger-carrying traffic on 22 August 1994. The 360 m long viaduct is one of the most prominent structures built for the Supertram network, carrying trams over the lower part of Park Grange Road and winding down the steep sides of the Sheaf Valley in this location at a more manageable gradient. The viaduct passes in front of The Sheffield College's City Campus buildings and ends on top of the walled embankment above the Midland Main Line tracks into Sheffield station, just before the outbound platform of Granville Road tram stop. Along the length of the viaduct, the level of the tram tracks drops from 83 m above sea level at the top down to 61 m at the bottom, with an average gradient that is still considerably steep at just over 6%.