Stopping trains to Derby and Nottingham were taken off and Heeley, Millhouses and Beauchief stations were closed in June 1968. Stopping trains on the former Midland main line north of Rotherham were also axed in January 1968 and many South Yorkshire stations closed: all Leeds-bound stopping services were diverted to run via Chapeltown and Barnsley replacing the short distance Sheffield-Barnsley and Barnsley-Wakefield stopping trains on this line; York-bound services became semi-fast with Bolton-on-Dearne being the only South Yorkshire station north of Rotherham remaining open on that line.