Trams systems attack

Whitehall appears biased against modern tram schemes, a report from MPs said today.

Progress on implementing tram and light rail systems has been “slow and fitful”, the report from the All Party Parliamentary Light Rail Group added.

Despite improvements of late, the Department for Transport (DfT) still lacked an overall light–rail strategy, the report said.

The report concluded that to bring back trams to more city streets there needed to be a clearer lead from Government, less bias against trams in the appraisal processes, and for ways to be found of further cutting the costs of new schemes.

Rochdale’s Lib-Dem MP Paul Rowen who chaired the group’s inquiry into the future of light rail, said: “Where the UK has invested in modern tram systems we have seen motorists switching to the tram and impressive growth in passenger numbers.

“However, overall, the progress on implementing modern trams has been slow and fitful — certainly when compared with our near–neighbours in Europe, where entire systems are being built in the time it takes us to get through the mountains of paperwork that characterise the approach in the UK.”