| Topic: | Re:Time to reconsider the west london tram scheme | |
| Posted by: | Andy Jones | |
| Date/Time: | 06/08/10 17:04:00 |
| This scheme was not canned because of local people's innate hostility to transport improvement but because it was a remarkably ill-conceived project that would have delivered little net benefit at great cost. It was justified on the basis of a dogma of 'traffic evaporation' i.e. we didn't need to worry about the extra traffic in local streets caused by the closure of the Uxbridge Road because the gridlock would be so bad and people would give up and use the tram. Not surprisingly this was unattractive to people who live in the area and they voted out the idiots who were proposing it. It is unlikely major transport projects in the area would be initiated over the next decade so even if it was viable we aren't getting a tram soon. I'd suggest the only way we ever would if first the 'pinch points' that scuppered the old project were sorted. The junctions at Gunnersbury Lane and Askew Road really need to be rethought. If they were made wider in some way that would improve traffic flow in the short term and improve the chances of a tram that wouldn't require the closure of the Uxbridge Road to other traffic in the long term. |