The next generation of Liverpool's trams?
From: "Bruce Lake" <bruce.lake619@vodafone.net>
While visiting Birkenhead Tramway, I picked up a Liverpool property guide called YourMove with a
long article about tramway proposals in it. The three pages contains some interesting facts [I assume they are facts and
not assumptions by the author]. It also provides the opportunity to respond to
mail@movepublishing.co.uk
Here are a few salient points:
From: "Irvine Bell" <ibell@trolleybus.net>
As you will no doubt remember, Liverpool had an electronically guided trolleybus project that failed at
the T&WO stage. Since then 'trolleybus' seems to have become a dirty word in Liverpool.
It is nice to see naive optimistic tram material. However, I suspect that the Liverpool tram proposals will fail for
similar financial reasons to those which I think will very likely destroy West London trams. I think to date that only
funding for preparing the T&WO has been agreed. I don't think that Liverpool can yet be sure of the full funding
to do the projects.
From: "John Rimmer" <jrimmer@magonia.demon.co.uk>
Looking at the Route 1 on the Merseytram website, it appears that apart from the city centre,
nearly all the route will travel along the wide central reservations that were built for Liverpool's first generation
of trams. In fact some roads [e.g. the Queens Drive ring-road] which were built with central reservations
to include tram lines will have trams running down them for the first time!
The only on-street running outside the centre is along a road which was widened for a dual carriageway
twenty years ago, so all the controversial demolition has already been done.
I think comments about "back" to the trams may not necessarily be a negative thing in Liverpool, where
there is still a fair amount of regret that the first generation trams were scrapped. Liverpool was one of the places
where something like a modern tram/light rail system was emerging until political decisions got in the way.
One of the options for Line 3 to the airport takes it along Brodie Avenue, named after the City Engineer
who laid out the tram reservations [and invented nets for goalposts!], which was built for trams and will,
we hope, be getting them about 80 years after the avenue was built to accommodate them.
UPDATE:
Since writing this I have found out that in fact there are no plans to run trams down Brodie Avenue, and that there
has been objections to using at least one of the former tram reservations because of the need to cut down the trees
which have grown along it since 1957! It looks like part of the line out to the John Lennon airport will run alongside
the mainline railway out of Lime Street.