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Mayor Ken’s pledge for an Oxford Street tram
PLANS to pedestrianise Oxford Street and replace buses with trams were unveiled by Ken Livingstone this week.
Under the proposals, by 2018, all buses, taxis and cars would be expelled from the street and part of Marble Arch would be grassed over to join up with Hyde Park.
London’s mayor outlined plans for the £200 million overhaul of London’s busiest shopping street at a debate with fellow mayoral canditates on Tuesday evening.
He said: “If re-elected I intend to start installing a tram running the length of Oxford Street. There are some factors which pose difficulties but we have thought about it and there are ways of overcoming them. It will either be a shuttle tram or will be linked to the cross river tram.
“We would demolish the gyratory system at Marble Arch, handing part of it back to green land and building two developments on part of it which will fund the project.
“People getting a taxi would have to use the roads running north and south of Oxford Street. We would phase the buses out slowly and maybe run some along Wigmore Street.”
The mayor had proposed a similar scheme previously but it was abandoned in the face of opposition.
Altough Oxford Street is one of London’s busiest bus routes, relatively few actually terminate there.
Polls conducted by the New West End Company, which represents businesses in Oxford Stret, Regent Street and Bond Street, show that 68 per cent of Londoners are in favour of a traffic-free West End. |
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