LIGHT RAIL
what they do in terms of modal shift and we also know they’re very expensive – and that’s where we have to do something as UK Tram.”
‘Just look at Karlsruhe’
Stringer reiterated that point, noting that when he questioned one of Labour’s then transport ministers about tram-trains during a Transport Select Committee evidence session, he was told there were two or three years more studies to do. But Stringer had seen them in action himself in Karlsruhe, Germany, more than 20 years earlier.
Cllr Andrew Fender, (speaking, above) who chairs the TfGM committee, gave the audience a detailed rundown of the multiple diffi culties and setbacks that Manchester and its neighbouring authorities run into in trying to develop and expand the Metrolink scheme.
The journey began back in 1983, he said, with visits by key personnel to some of the best light rail systems in European cities, with the fi rst Metrolink tram running in 1992.
Recounting the drama over the proposed ‘big bang’ expansion to be funded via congestion charging, defeated in a referendum, then the ways in which funding was found for the major line extensions now underway and coming into service, Cllr Fender said: “We’ve managed to resurrect Metrolink expansion from near- defeat.”
Stringer called it an “extraordinary story” – “so many hoops to jump through, it’s quite ridiculous”.
Trams are NOT more expensive in the UK
The next speaker was Geoff Inskip, who has multiple roles – chief executive of Centro, and chair of pteg and UK Tram.
“People love trams,” he said. “People who use trams can’t imagine their lives without them. It’s also true to say people want more trams.”
Why are we not building more tram systems, he asked, as they are in Europe? “We know what they do in terms of regeneration, we know
But contrary to many reports and conventional wisdom, Inskip said, a new study has shown that it is no more expensive to build and run trams in the UK than Europe.
“As UK Tram, we’ve gathered the evidence together, we’ve looked at how much it costs to build trams in Europe, and throughout the rest of the world, and the good news is, it doesn’t cost us any more than it does elsewhere.”
This evidence will be published in early November.
“We’re not being complacent: we do know we can reduce costs through the use of new technologies, and Clive talked about utilities.”
He spoke of the need to integrate good-quality light rail systems with HS2. He added: “We need now to start building on the networks we’ve already got and extending them further.”
He also repeated his call, reported in the August/September edition of RTM, to set aside £100m of the £3bn-plus ‘McNulty savings’ from heavy rail to dedicate to tram-train development.
Work of the APPG Jim Harkins,
back home to the UK and see a completely different situation,” he said.
He said that despite their one-off expense, rail- based public transport vehicles have the lowest total cost of ownership when all the fi gures are taken into account, alongside the lowest carbon footprint. “They are economically viable, and they are environmentally viable.”
Tearing out the trams
He ran through a long list of all the UK’s provincial towns and cities that used to have light rail systems, noting that it was ironically an impressive engineering effort that they were ripped out so quickly.
Over the last 30 years, he said the US – “home of the motor car” – had been reintroducing tram systems at the rate of about one a year, because they make economic sense for urban areas.
Tram-train is a much more viable option in the UK than in many other countries, due to the amount of under-used or derelict heavy rail track in suburban areas and within urban conurbations, like South Yorkshire, he said. “It’s very little extra cost to a straight system, but it is extra linkage and extra choice for the customer.”
who provides secretariat
support to the APPG, criticised the Scottish Government for its focus on buses over light rail – although there is obviously a different context following the multiple problems with the Edinburgh trams project.
He praised the work of the APPG in pressing the case for trams and helping set the agenda in Government, for example by taking MPs to see well-regarded systems in action, most recently in Alicante, which has a mixture of tram-train, train-tram and trams as feeder services.
“We’re going from strength to strength,” he said.
Stuart Kerr, Vossloh Kiepe, also spends a lot of time travelling around Europe, and also contrasted the sheer number of tram systems on the continent, and their rapid expansion, with the UK. “It’s very different when [I] come
He went on: “If we work as an industry and as a country and have politicians prepared to say ‘we’re going to do one system a year, every year’, there’s a secondary benefi t: not just the jobs it’s going to create, not just the benefi ts it’s going to have for the people travelling on those trams, but there might be a re-creation of an industry base in the UK to support that activity.”
Asked by an audience member whether Labour was committed to backing light rail if it wins the next election, the MPs said that this far out, the party wasn’t making such manifesto commitments.
Betts said there aren’t detailed policies yet, but there is growing “pressure and support” for light rail within the party.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
www.applrguk.co.uk
rail technology magazine Oct/Nov 12 | 51
© TfL
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