‘Trackless Trams’ - Trials North East

[800001]

Ben Houchen Tees Valley Mayor during his last campaign to be elected promised the introduction or Trackless Trams (I’ll call it a bus as that’s what its looks like).

The BBC have the following article today

Ben Houchen: Teesside trackless trams pilot will arrive this year

The new autonomous vehicles have been promised for five towns in the Tees Valley.

www.bbc.co.uk

Plans to bring "trackless trams" to Teesside remain on schedule, the Tees Valley mayor has said.
Lord Ben Houchen promised last year that, at the very least, five towns across the region would see trials of "glider buses" within two years.
They have been earmarked for Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Stockton.
When asked for an update on BBC Politics North, Houchen replied: "In the next couple of months we're about to go out on a procurement for exactly that, with the first ones going live before the end of the year."

Image caption,
Lord Houchen announced plans for trackless trams in January 2024
The project was first announced by the Tees Valley Combined Authority as part of a £1bn settlement after the previous government scrapped plans for HS2's northern leg in October 2023.
When Labour took office, however, all transport plans were put under review.
Final decisions will be taken this spring by Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
Houchen said: "We can start to roll them out with the pilot without that £1bn, but to roll them out across all five towns and have it up and running to the extent we want?
"Then absolutely we'd require some of that additional money that had been allocated by national government."

Image caption,
Houchen wants to see trackless trams in five towns across the Tees Valley
Trackless trams have already been trialled in Liverpool and in October 2024 a similar system - called "glider buses" - started in Belfast.
In January 2024 Houchen's combined authority cabinet - made up of the five Labour council leaders in the Tees Valley - approved a £20m plan to kickstart the project.
The scheme has broad cross party support.
Conservative Houchen's main rival in the 2024 mayoral election, Labour's Chris McEwan, called on him to not "lose sight of the basics" when moving forward.
"Investment is good and needed, but must be part of a coherent plan with ongoing discussions with those that understand the issues," said McEwan.
"Shiny trams are all good and well, but if we have potholes in our streets, what's the point?"

 

[nwales58]

'Trackless' in Yorkshire meant trolleybus if you're over 70, e.g. Mexborough & Swinton closing is my first memory.

ftr in York is what he's proposing

 

[renegademaster]

Is this new buzzword to avoid people thinking about the Citaro bendy buses?

They weren't even that bad!

At least it's not as bad as Irzair calling something barely bigger than an Enviro200 a tram

 

[N1]

'Trackless' in Yorkshire meant trolleybus if you're over 70, e.g. Mexborough & Swinton closing is my first memory.

ftr in York is what he's proposing

It is just the standard UK cycle, we have just seen the back of 'standard' articulated buses, so these 'tram' buses must be the future. FTR was supposed to mean the future of transport or something like that. It is amazing what some enclosed wheels and a new front-end can do, big bonuses for marketing department!

With Van Hool gone bust, only Irizar make a UK spec 'tram' bus, Hess might but haven't done before.

Glider works because 3-door articulated buses are combined with bus priority, pre-purchased tickets, increased stop spacing and a single nationalised bus and rail operator. How that will work where Stagecoach and Arriva are the main operators and franchising has been ruled out.

 

[800001]

Is this new buzzword to avoid people thinking about the Citaro bendy buses?

They weren't even that bad!

At least it's not as bad as Irzair calling something barely bigger than an Enviro200 a tram

When he first announced them as part of his manifesto to be re-elected as mayor, I’m sure he said they would be ‘autonomous’.

 

[Gwr12345]

It's all utter nonsense. They're fancy buses, that's all! Good luck getting priority just for these buses in the Tees Valley, otherwise they'll just be sat in traffic like every other bus.

 

[generalnerd]

Bet they’ll roll these out in Leeds and stall them getting a transport system for another 20 years

 

[TUC]

'Trackless' in Yorkshire meant trolleybus if you're over 70, e.g. Mexborough & Swinton closing is my first memory.

ftr in York is what he's proposing

Also on Teesside for that matter, which had a trolleybus service until the early 1970s.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Another pointless Ben Houchen vanity project. The people of Teesside deserve everything they get for voting him back in.

The only question really is: who’s benefitting? I didn’t think Chris Musgrave and Martin Corney built articulated buses.