UK - Class 399 Tram/Trains commence service in Sheffield - March 2018

Here we have a close look at the Supertram system of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, UK. The majority of services are operated by the Siemens-Duewag trams introduced when the current system was opened in 1992. However, in 2015 the operator, Stagecoach, purchased seven new "Tram/Trains" by Vossloh, intended to be used on the long awaited extension to Rotherham Parkgate which uses existing Network Rail tracks for part of the route. This extension should have been opened in 2015 but has been dogged by many problems political, technical and financial. These problems were capped recently by the collapse of the main contractor, Carillion. Recently, the new Vossloh units have been put into service on normal Sheffield street services and we see two of them featured in this short production. They were to carry the fleet numbers 201 to 207 but their intended use on Network Rail tracks requires them to carry TOPS numbering and they actually carry the numbers 399201 to 399207. These new units have a higher top speed than the older Siemens-Duewag units and it's also clear, in my video here, that they have a higher rate of acceleration too.