Possibility of Trams back in Cardiff / South Wales

[whole diary]

[IanC]

Taken from Thursday's South Wales Echo:-

Wales^ leading transport expert said he envisaged a transport system where trams shared the roads with cars in Cardiff. Backing Sewta^s plans for electrified trains, Professor Stuart Cole, of the University of Glamorgan, said it was possible to imagine a system where trams used existing rail tracks coming down from Treherbert, Aberdare and Merthyr then came on to the streets of Cardiff from Cathays. They would then travel along St Mary Street into the lower level of Cardiff Central station and on to Barry and Penarth.

"It would be similar to what the French have done in Grenoble and Bordeaux", he said. "There could also be a new tram route starting in Culverhouse Cross, coming through the city centre and then along Newport Road. Unlike Bordeaux, which started from scratch, we already have park and ride facilities. What^s necessary is to plan for the long term and then go for it".

But Prof Cole acknowledged funding would be a problem. "In Bordeaux they had built up a substantial fund over years by imposing a development tax on planning schemes, There^s no legislation like that here. Even so, the bulk of the funding in Bordeaux came from the French central government".

Prof Cole also said the argument in favour of electrifying the Valleys lines was a strong one. "Cardiff is one of the busiest rail hubs on the Network Rail network ^ it^s much bigger than Bristol, for example", he said.
^Seven or eight years ago I calculated that electrifying the Valleys lines would cost about ^250m, including new rolling stock and putting up overhead wiring etc. The cost would be higher now. There would be both environmental benefits and advantages in journey time.^

A spokesman for Sewta said it was felt any proposal to run trams along Cardiff^s streets would be prohibitively expensive".

WalesOnline Link

Does a city like Kairdiff really need a tram network?

[John R]

Given that there are two stations pretty well placed in the City Centre, probably not.

But the frequency of Valley services is such that electrification would begin to make sense, especially as it would be the best way to speed up the services. The ^250m cost is probably misleading since the rolling stock will need replacing in the next 10 years one way or another.

It won't happen though.