The Anonymous Widower

Does Sheffield’s Public Transport System Work For Visitors?

Of all the major cities I’ve visited; Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield, Sheffield seems to have the public transport system that is most understandable to visitors.  I’ve left out Liverpool and Birmingham, where I didn’t have time to look at the systems. Although of course, Liverpool is different for me, as I know the city well.

In Sheffield, I was greeted by this walking map.

Walking Map at Sheffield Station

At the other side of the station, there was a proper information board explaining how the trams worked, with details on fares, routes and where all the places I needed to visit were located.

Sheffield station is also located closely to the major bus interchange.

Sheffield Transport Interchange

This picture shows the interchange with the station behind the buses.

If you arrived in Sheffield with just an address, you should be able to find your way very easy. One small point, is that if you need to walk to the bus interchange or the trams, it is generally under cover and pedestrian friendly.

I used the trams extensively on Day 31 and didn’t get lost once.  The only thing they need is indicators at the tram stops to tell you how long you will have to wait.  But all the stops do have good maps, which is very rare in the UK, except in London.

I didn’t actually use the buses, but then I didn’t need to as the trams covered everywhere I wanted to go and they had the maps to guide me from the stops.

Sheffield is unique in that it has two major train stations linked together; the main station and the one at Meadowhall Interchange. On Day 31, I arrived at the main station from Manchester and then when I returned from Scunthorpe, I arrived at Meadowhall.  I left for London from the main station, but say if I’d been going to the north east, I could have left from either.

November 8, 2011 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Buses, Sheffield, Trains, Trams