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Tram sceptics are just off the rails
• THE Cross River Tram will be an important addition to London’s transport system and will provide the vital capacity needed between Camden and Waterloo through central London.
The Northern Line is already very crowded, and although significant improvements are already being made on the Northern Line through Transport for London’s five year, £10bn Investment Programme, this alone will not be sufficient to meet the projected increase in demand as London grows.
The suggestions made in Simon Neave and Bill Ohm’s (Ken is off his trolly with tram plan, Jan 11)letter will do little to deliver the capacity needed on both the Northern Line and bus network. This is why a fast and reliable tram service is required .
Furthermore, the calculations they make suggesting the tram is environmentally damaging are wrong.
TfL’s latest Environmental Report shows a level of Co2 per passenger kilometre for Croydon Tramlink of 47g, which is less than that of a bus and around one third that of cars. The energy required to build and run the system will be vastly offset by the fact that it will carry more than 60 million passengers a year.
It will act as a major incentive to encourage public transport use and will provide another travel alternative to the car.
The Cross River Tram will also help regeneration in some of the capital’s most impoverished communities by improving accessibility to employment, education, leisure and healthcare.
LUKE ALBANESE
Cross River Tram Project Director
TWO recent correspondents on the tram issue raised some pretty antediluvian ideas.
Not that long ago it was suggested trams would attract drug dealers from Peckham, now we are to believe that the electric current they use will affect the children.
This was a notion peddled in 1890 and since then we have had radio, TV, trolleybuses, our entire society runs on or near electric current – big time, if children really were to be affected surely it would have shown by now?
Croydon, our nearest tram system, has been a runaway success carrying 25 million people a year and still growing.
A fact to which even previously sceptical retailers attest. Shopper numbers in the central area increased whilst multi story car parks had spaces galore.
Before Manchester got its trams the doubters were taken to Europe to see for themselves. Result: generally total convincing all round. Meanwhile Manchester wants more trams. Those in Camden who have doubts could surely take a trip to Croydon to see for themselves? Cheap as chips with a travelcard!
The idea from Mr Neave that the steel tracks production will generate excessive Co2 is one that would never have seen the Forth Bridge built let alone much more than wooden cabins.
Even the SS Great Britain would also have stayed on the drawing board with the Cutty Sark still on the tea run. Tram vehicles last around 30 years and with the exception of the routemaster Mr Neave’s rubber tyred bus alternatives are falling to bits long before then, usually before 10 years are up; and they are heavily dependant on metal or rubber.
The idea that a tram uses twice as much energy as a bus is laughable. The rubber tyre can never be as efficient as a steel wheel on a steel track. The energy lost at the point of contact being massively greater for the rubber wheel than the steel, because surface contact is several times greater.
The tram ride is smoothe – no violent movements vertically, laterally, or backwards/ forwards. A tram can carry far more than a new bendy bus, upwards of 300, the majority standing.
Yes standing, not strap hanging for fear of being hurled across the vehicle at every bend. You could literally drink a cup of coffee without spilling it. This actually takes place in Karlsruhr, Germany where trams have purpose built bistros contained on them for early morning commuters!
On a bus the well sprung seats are necessary as secondary suspension, whereas on a tram the ride is superior and they are not needed.
The issue of tram drivers earning more when they can carry 300 people should answer the claim that they do less work. Their training is more intense as the vehicles do require special skills.
WL FREITAG
Heath Street, NW3 |
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