Refurbishment including corrosion treatment to Tram Units

South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority, is the owner of the South Yorkshire Supertram Light Rail system. The system opened between 1994 and 1995 with a fleet of 25 Siemens trams serving three routes within the city of Sheffield. In 2018 the system was extended to the neighbouring town of Rotherham using innovative tram-train technology where vehicles cross between the light and heavy rail network. To facilitate this extension, seven new vehicles were purchased from Stadler. The system now comprises of four routes and 32 vehicles.

The Siemens fleet consists of 25 vehicles manufactured in 1994. These are 35m long trams, formed from 3 sections with a tare mass of 46.5 tonnes and a top speed of 80km/hr. The vehicle operates from a 750Vdc overhead system and has a nominal 24 volts dc control system. The vehicles are used solely on the Supertram light rail network owned by the Authority.

The Siemens tram fleet of vehicles is in need of a targeted Life Extension Programme to ensure that it will continue to deliver the passenger service required until it is replaced by a new fleet.

The Authority's Siemens tram fleet is now approaching the end of its operational life. Reliability is low, by modern fleet standards, and costs to maintain the current level of reliability will increase as the fleet ages further.

This work has identified a number of areas where work is needed, including:

• Minor corrosion repairs to the bodyshell
• Variable and in some cases extensive corrosion to the underframe
• Replacement of very unreliable equipment
• Replacement of life expired or damaged equipment.