I'm surprised Winn Gardens (spelling?) doesn't have a bus service, as that could be a direct way of competing with the trams. Didn't the First 58 used to run along Middlewood Road to Oughtibridge and so on? I suspect a lot of the demand at that end fell when the Middlewood Hospital closed in 1998. I think there will always be a business case for buses competing with trams, as buses can get that bit closer. For example the 120 runs directly in to the heart of Waterthorpe, Westfield and Halfway Streetfields. Bus fares tend to be a lower cost than tram fares also, due to the fundamental operation of buses.
I only really travel on the tram between the City and Meadowhall and even then I prefer the bus, as it is quicker (plus less annoying little darlings on Saturdays going to Centertainment to spend their pocket money).
In SYT days Middlewood terminus (on the main road) had the 81/82/83/84 every five minutes or so - there were buses per hour from Stocksbridge that passed through Middlewood but with Stockarth Lane as the last place to pick up/ first to set down, so no "local" journeys were allowed)
After deregulation in 1986 sut competed to Middlewood with an 82 of their own, not sure when it started/finished
The red/yellow Mainline conversion saw the 83/84 became the Hall Park Head services (formerly known as Roscoe Bank) and Middlewood retained the 81/82 every ten minutes (the 81/82/83/84 were the first routes that SYT branded as "Mainline", before that eventually became the name for the whole company)
I can't remember when Mainline's Stocksbridge services started allowing journeys from Middlewood to the city centre but Sheffield Omnibus started running through Middlewood on their half hourly 21 (to Garden Village), which became a fifteen minute corridor (18/19/21) and then a ten minute corridor (1/11/21)
Worth remembering that in these days there were frequent other services from Leppings Lane into the city, when the 78/89/779/789 circulars were split up the 89 was every ten minutes, the 779 every twenty or so, Mainline and Sheffield Omnibus were competing on the 17/18/42 from Parson Cross/ Fox Hill/ Leppings Lane into town - Hillsborough Park into the city was every couple of minutes - the only services along Leppings Lane now don't go beyond Hillsborough "Interchange" other than the hourly 135 which takes the scenic route through Upperthorpe into town
Around the time of the trams coming to Middlewood (1996?) the 81/82 and 85/86 swapped northern termini, which meant minibuses into Winn Gardens every ten minutes
At least by that time there were four Mainline services to Stocksbridge passing through Middlewood, the 57/66/67 were stopping services rather than the limited stop X66/X67 and restricted 57 of old
I think that, when the 85/86 were diverted to replace the "Firth Park via Meadowhall" bit of the 93 that there was some kind of short lived minibus from Winn Gardens to Hillsborough corner (M85)?
Then First scrapped the 65/68 (City - Worral - Oughtabridge) and diverted the 57 that way instead, leaving Middlewood with just a half hourly 58 (which replaced much of the 66/67 at Stocksbridge)... which was then replaced by a twenty minute service on the 57 that is now the Stagecoach service (downgraded to half hourly, then just hourly) and Middlewood has no buses into town (just the SL1/SL1A to Stocksbridge plus the 58 from Hillsborough, which is a replacement for part of the old M67)
Happy to be corrected on any of the above, of course, but it's quite a transformation from a terminus with a Hospital that had a queue of double deckers laying over to what is left today (and several more buses per hour from Leppings Lane into town, plus a nearby depot at Herries Road). The tram obviously had a huge impact, but there was also the closure of the hospital at Middlewood in the 1990s plus the knocking down of Kelvin Flats (as well as the years of disruption during tram construction which made bus operation a lot harder and probably encouraged a few people to switch to cars, and affected a few businesses in Hillsborough)
