Cardiff Trams are already done; it is just expansions for the Cardiff Network.With Labour in charge?
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Cardiff
Everything else will be talked about before getting dropped on grounds of cost with West Yorkshire offered some money to build some bus lanes instead
Should? Bristol, Bournemouth and Brighton for a start.
For trams to be worthwhile they need a route that is almost or totally free from road traffic, except at crossings where the trams have signal priority. Otherwise they just get stuck in the same jams without the ability to navigate round obstacles such as parked cars, and there's very little benefit over a much cheaper bus option. I don't know Brighton but this will be very difficult to achieve in Bristol or Bournemouth.
I agree, frankly I think the concept of tram-trains is utterly stupid. Decide whether a train/metro line or tram network is more suitable, pick one and just stop trying to combine the two.
Reading (at least one tram line), Southampton/Portsmouth and one of the South Yorkshire boroughs outside Sheffield (Doncaster or Barnsley).
Tell that to Karlsruhe, Chemnitz and Zwickau amongst others.
On paper it is, but it is now well established as an "active travel corridor" (ie walkway / cyclepath) in a city region where support for such things is very strong, which means that a lot of the natural support base for green urban transport (which also exists in Bristol in spades) would at best be split and at worst oppose.
This is true, but you can achieve that by having dedicated or almost-dedicated roadspace without needing to build entirely off-line routes, e.g. via a Bus & Tram Lane.
Tram-trains are not utterly stupid, but they are a niche solution and you need the right combination of factors to have that niche available. As a general rule, it is better to separate them and let passengers transfer easily, but there will always be situations where either there is a particular need or particular constraint that means you can't build 2 separate routes but you can't serve the demand with only one mode.
This is possible, although it needs enough roadspace or alternative routes to be available for remaining traffic such as access to premises, and on-street parking for houses with no alternative. Bus franchising may help with shared lanes as the number of buses can be controlled, as well as allowing authorities to co-ordinate bus services with the tram rather than having companies competing with it.
Indeed. A tram-train is probably only viable if there is an important destination that the railway can't get close enough to, and also an existing tram network it can make use of.
Thank you for your input, it has been noted
In some cases it might be worth considering a short isolated tram route into a city centre specifically to allow local tram-trains from a local suburban network to reach major traffic objectives.
This idea was proper lunacy. Bristol's mainline rail serves the city generally quite poorly, not just the city centre. Sending lots of tram-trains through Bristol East Jn is madness even if XC moved out of Barton Hill.
Tram trains may have a place in Bristol, but any tram-trains need to steer well clear of the 4-track Filton Bank. It's busy enough.
Brighton trams were pretty much entirely road-based. The routes to the hospital, station and universities are extremely well served by the bus network.
Could a Blackpool-style tram along the prom between Brighton and Hove work and make money? There's plenty of room (save for a depot) and few if any regular buses go along the prom?
I lived in Brighton for a few months 10yrs ago, so maybe things have changed, but and I was struck by how north street was a complete log jam of buses as the major east-west pinch point. That seems to be a good example of where street running trams could help relieve capacity where there are too many overlapping bus routes slowing everything down. A spur to the station would help but its not that far for people to walk if its too impractical to send trams up and back down Queens road.
The Brighton trams ceased to operate in 1939. Traffic conditions were rather different then.
They were indeed. They had horses and carts as well as a few lorries and buses to contend with. Not today's chaos. Oddly enough there is still a short section of tram track in Lewes Road bus garage, in the tyre store. 3' 6" gauge iirc
North Street has been a horror show for years. 10 years ago I was driving those very buses. Did so for 12½ years. Unfortunately there is nowhere else for cross city buses to go, as people are either going from the west to London Road shops, or the north and east to Churchill Square or the station. I do think more could terminate at the Steine, though. You can't put them on the coast road as there's no right turn out into or out of West Street, and besides, that's also got its own carnage situation.I lived in Brighton for a few months 10yrs ago, so maybe things have changed, but and I was struck by how north street was a complete log jam of buses as the major east-west pinch point. That seems to be a good example of where street running trams could help relieve capacity where there are too many overlapping bus routes slowing everything down. A spur to the station would help but its not that far for people to walk if its too impractical to send trams up and back down Queens road.
Otherwise the sea front would be a good route which would allow for minimal conflict at road junctions. Hove and further west has a parallel railway so perhaps less obvious need than on kemptown and further east, but the east-west bus routes on the west are still pretty busy suggesting the demand is there on both sides.
No proper research has gone into this comment
Luckily trams can run in either direction so maybe the cab tunnels under platforms 7 and 8 might work. IIRC they just went to a short single line stub track right at the station, terminating in the middle of Queens Road before the buildings there were demolished to create Junction Road*
Think one of the problems with Brighton is there's no real bus station, so buses go through the city rather than terminate at it, adding to congestion as they stop and hold up everything - including other buses - behind it! If Queen St were pedestrinised with a tramway included, the 7 (from Hove) could terminate at the station and pax could get the tramway down to the shopping area (Clock Tower) and connect with the buses at Churchill Sq; and that tram could, as you suggest, go along the prom eastwards or westwards thus meaning buses like the 12 etc that terminate near the station now wouldn't need to be as regular and go through that shopping area eastwards, terminating at (say) Sealife centre roundabout - or the Steine - making North St more peaceful and safer.
Queens Road you mean? The only issue I'd have there is what would you do with terminating buses? It's not exactly spacious. Surrey Street is one way and very narrow. I can't really see all that traffic squeezing through there two way.
The population of the City of Nottingham is about 330,000 but the tram continues into neighbouring local authorities to serve other parts of the Nottingham built-up area (and proposed extensions would also mostly be in other authority areas even going into Derbyshire). Depending on how it is counted, the "conurbation" is over half a million.
That area could be treated as an one-way roundabout, with just the now through buses from the north/east direction terminating there (doing a clockwise loop round the bus station) so no buses using Surrey St which is way too narrow as it is, a real congestion point, and needs fully widening to the pavement and no parking - there really is just one carriageway for cars and buses and it's not enough especially at the top when there are two buses waiting! Removing the through buses and having them wait and turn at the current bus station would eliminate the stops outside the Railway Bell and the trams wait outside Budgens if they can't somehow be accommodated in the station - I think there's room inside though?
I reckon Brighton might be better off with a Coventry VLR type tramway, given all the narrowing down. I'd certainly be dead against shutting off Queens Road or North Street due to just nowhere else to go. A huge one way system would probably be the only way to prevent total gridlock.
Brighton; I'm actually surprised the Grand Parade A23/Marlborough place (etc) isn't one-way from Preston Circus down to the Steine, although the western side appears to be buses and taxis only?
