Magna Science Adventure Centre: Yorkshire visitor attraction in former steelworks to get tram-train link to Sheffield

Network Rail and South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (SYPTE) say that the extra stop will help residents access employment, walking and cycling opportunities, and improve air quality and congestion.

The new stop, between Sheffield and Rotherham, will be the first addition to the network since it opened in 2018.

The £6.6 million plans will see two new staggered, low-level tram-train platforms at Magna Science and Adventure Centre – one for each running line, connected by a footbridge – with passenger information, lighting, CCTV and passenger shelters.

The project is part of Sheffield City Region’s £166 million Transforming Cities Fund.

Planning documents from Network Rail state that the stop will ‘provide growth to Magna and the local area’, and support ‘increased investment in the regeneration of the wider Templeborough area’.

It is hoped that the stop will help to reduce dependence on cars, and ‘enhance economic prospects for job creation’.

The documents add that customers struggle to park at park and ride sites at Meadowhall, Ikea and Centertainment after 7.30am, ‘demonstrating a latent demand for additional park and ride facilities’.

Planners estimate that more than 200,000 journeys will be made each year on the tram-train,

Plans include a further 29 parking spaces, to be shared with Magna, and documents state that the current car park is operating at four per cent capacity.

“There is ample room for the introduction of tram passenger parking on the site without detriment to the operation of the existing car park for Magna patrons,” documents add.

The plans were approved on March 5.

Magna opened at the turn of the Millennium in the former Steelos steelworks, which closed in 1993.