Been away.

[postman]

Right me and Mrs P have been in Nottingham for a conference.We used the tram system it was superb.Here in Leeds they have been talking for more years than i want to remember.I think £70 million has been spent on talking about it and for that amount we have not seen one inch of track laid.The three days were superb,fast on time and the conference was given a reduced rate on the fare.Totally brill Wake up Leeds.

 

[classic33]

Weren't Northern supposed to have been running it?

 

[tom73]

No that was a bad dream you had as you slept waiting for a Northern train.

 

[classic33]

No that was a bad dream you had as you slept waiting for a Northern train.

All a dream?
"Two consortia of Momentis (which included FirstGroup, Bombardier Transportation, Bouygues and Jarvis Facilities) and Airelink (which included Arriva and Siemens Transportation Systems) had bid on the construction and operation of Leeds Supertram which was intended to have opened in 2007 or 2008."

 

[tom73]

oh right so it's not that leeds don't have them they are still waiting for one to arrive.

 

[classic33]

oh right so it's not that leeds don't have them they are still waiting for one to arrive.

I've maps showing the planned routes, somewhere.

 

[BrumJim]

Leeds has got to be the biggest city in the UK without an urban light rail network? No trams, no underground?

 

[tom73]

Nothing

 

[alicat]

And Birmingham has how many tram lines? Is it still a magnificent one?

 

[DCLane]

The challenge is fitting the system in; Nottingham had old railway track which was perfect for the light rapid transit system - it was my undergraduate dissertation subject.

However Leeds appears to be wanting to use the greenways to fit it on. That's limited as the infrastructure is no longer there.

 

[classic33]

The challenge is fitting the system in; Nottingham had old railway track which was perfect for the light rapid transit system - it was my undergraduate dissertation subject.

However Leeds appears to be wanting to use the greenways to fit it on. That's limited as the infrastructure is no longer there.

One plan included the old bus station as one its stops. Another had the center of The Headrow as the route of one track.

The last one was to run on a route from Call Lane, up past the job centre and up to The Headrow. They've only recently removed the gates, which replaced the bollards put in place to allow the work to take place if it ever started.

 

[DCLane]

@postman - this is the proposed routes. The brown one uses the current Cycle Superhighway then the greenway to Dewsbury.
The blue one's to a park-and-ride that's yet to be designed/built and goes south/east.
The green route's again along the Cycle Superhighway.

 

[Drago]

Milton Keynes was designed with a tram system in mind. The major roads have wide central reservations to accommodste the tracks, and the terminus was intended to be under the road junction outside Burger King. These areas still exist and haven't been used, although the newer parts of the town don't have them so fitting them there would be troublesome.

It never happened. The money wasn't there, and the road network was so good for the time that the need wasn't pressing.

Half a century on and suddenly things may change. The roads are becoming gridlocked, air pollution is a real concern, and climate change looks set to kill us all by lunchtime. Serious talk of a tram system is suddenly back on the agenda.

They do, or course, have the infamous redways. In some ways they are infuriating, and other parts they are delightful, but the bottom line is that you can get from anywhere to anywhere without using a road for more than the few dozen yards it takes a rider to get to the nearest one.

 

[BrumJim]

And Birmingham has how many tram lines? Is it still a magnificent one?

Yes, but slightly longer now. Only slightly.