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Rail passengers excited for town's new station

Jennifer Vernon-Edwardsin Parkgate, Rotherham
News imageRotherham Borough Council The artist impressions shows a paved forecourt with landscaped greenery; trees and bushes. The station is in the background, with a modern looking station building on the left of the image and a moving train in the centre of this background image. The mid ground is populated with the artists impressions of people milling about, among them a cyclist, some people walking towards the station with bags and cases, others sitting amidst the greenery on benches.Rotherham Borough Council
An artist's impression of the new Rotherham Gateway Station complex

Rail users have told the BBC they are excited at the prospect of a new station opening as part of Northern Powerhouse Rail investment.

Rotherham Gateway Station at Parkgate has been included in the first phase of the programme, and the government has approved £11m of funding to go towards a business case.

The town has not had intercity rail services for 40 years, and is on a branch line with only local connections.

Residents shopping at Parkgate said they were looking forward to shorter journey times and better job and educational opportunities.

News imageThree happy looking, smiling women; Christine and Anne are older women both with grey hair. Christine wears a blue winter coat, Anne wears purple rimmed glasses, a tan coloured winter puffer style coat with a bright orange and yellow scarf just visible around her neck. Alex too is smiling broadly, and has long brown hair worn in a plait down to one side and a two tone fleece grey at the top and grey/green at the bottom. It also has a rainbow style logo on the left lapel and orange trimmings, and poppers at the neck. In the background there are cars visible, and part of the signage of the Matalan store visible just above their heads.
Parkgate shoppers Christine, Anne and Alex

The retail centre is just a short distance from the site where the station would be built.

Shopper Anne said she remembered when Rotherham last had main rather than branch line services, and she paid six shillings to travel to Burton on Trent.

She and another shopper, Christine, both said faster trains to Leeds would enable more workers to commute there, as current journey times via Sheffield are around an hour.

Alex, a younger passer-by, said a new station would mean her daughter would have more choice about where she goes to university in future.

News imageJayne and Barrie are smiling, both are wearing blue warm winter coats. Jayne who has bob style grey hair and wears teal metal rimmed glasses, also wears a leather style rucksack, the straps are visible and a white and pale yellow neck scarf. Barrie wears round dark rimmed glasses and a checked shirt just visible at the neck of his coat. The background is slightly blurred but you can just make out some cars and Morrisons signage in the distance.
Parkgate shoppers Jayne and Barrie Manderson

Also at the shopping centre were Barrie and Jayne Manderson, who highlighted the fact that the town's large Waverley housing estate, a major new development on the site of the former Orgreave Colliery, lacks a station despite being close to the Sheffield to Lincoln line.

They thought the estate "needed" a rail link more than the town centre.

News imageMiracle Moyo stands against a grey background, she is smiling and wears her long black hair in plaits held back with a black hair band. A grey hoodie is visible under her cream coloured woolly fleece jacket.
Parkgate shopper Miracle Moyo said she thought train travel was too expensive

Rotherham Central Station has services to Doncaster, Wakefield, Leeds, Meadowhall, Sheffield and York.

There is also a limited Transpennine Express service to Manchester and Liverpool.

The town's restricted rail links came about because of the closure of its second station, Rotherham Masborough, in 1988.

This station was on a line to London via Birmingham, and London to Leeds expresses still called there until the 1980s.

It became the town's only station in the 1960s, but it later became inconvenient when changes to the signalling meant the long-distance services could not overtake local trains as easily.

In the 1980s a link was built between the main and local lines that allowed trains to Sheffield and Doncaster to use reopened Rotherham Central.

However, the line through the old Masborough site survives and is still used by fast trains to Leeds and York, which currently bypass Rotherham Central.

Rotherham Council leader Chris Read said journey times to Leeds could be cut to half an hour, and Manchester and Birmingham to an hour.

He added: "The station creates new business opportunities to relocate here too.

"It's definitely not a done deal, and I'd urge everyone to sign up to our station campaign to help us maintain momentum for the project. But this week marks a big and important step forward."

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