Public backing tram plan

[Howie]

Public backing tram plan
Aug 5 2004
By Andy Kelly, Daily Post



THE public is giving its backing to the proposed £200m Line Two of Merseytram in record numbers.

A public consultation started last month and more than 20,000 people have already logged on to view the plans while 3,500 have visited public exhibitions.

Of those, eight out of 10 have expressed support for the nine mile (15km) route linking Liverpool city centre to Prescot and Whiston Hospital. Along the way it will also serve the Metropolitan Cathedral, Abercromby Square, Wavertree Technology Park, Old Swan and Alder Hey Hospital.

The public response is good news for passenger transport authority Merseytravel which is leading the drive to return trams to Liverpool.

Merseytravel chief executive Neil Scales said: "It's early days, but to have more than 20,000 hits in just two weeks is four times what we had for Line One.

"It's encouraging to see eight out of 10 people supporting Line Two."

At the end of this year, Merseytravel will find out if the Government is to give Line Two the financial backing necessary for it to go ahead.

It is also awaiting the results of the public inquiry into Merseytram Line One, to which the Government has committed £170m of the £230m projected cost.

It is due to loop around Liverpool city centre and out to Kirkby in a twelve mile route, hopefully opening in September

If the result of the inquiry is positive, work should start early next year.

The signs on funding approval for Line Two have been mixed.

Merseytravel has asked the two consortiums bidding to build and operate Line One to prepare detailed bids on Line Two, indicating confidence it will win funding approval.

But last month the Government refused to fund the extension of the Manchester Metrolink as well as light rail schemes in Leeds and south Hampshire.

Costs had soared from £282m to £670m in Manchester, from £355m to £500m in Leeds, and from £170m to £270m in South Hampshire.

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[LV]

Personally I think that Line 3 should have started first. The airport to the city centre is a very important route in my view and not just because I live in Garston either!

[jeankeeg]

Right behind ya dave, bein a born a bread garstonian it is a central route for everythin, however I am a biased especially now bein a resident of whiston!!! Im gonna the best of everythin ;D

[jimmy]

JEANKEEG and DAVE, could not agree more with you both.me being a ex - GARSTON lad myself. I live in Victoria sixty klics out of MELBOURNE,we have one of the worlds oldest still running tram system, but it only runs around the inner suburbs, does not run to the airport either or the outer subs mores the pity. A great tourstist attraction as well, we have about four colonial tram car restaurants which tour around Melbourne and St Kilda. My wife took her brother on one (he was out here on holiday) and they both thoroughly enjoyed it. They had a 3 course lunch and the tram cars are also liscenced.

[LV]

jimmy said:

They had a 3 course lunch and the tram cars are also liscenced.

The question is though do they serve scouse?

I suppose all will be well once they build Line 3. Sooner rather than later.

[FKoE]

Its a puzzling state of affairs, when a few decades ago we got rid of the trams,
Liverpool must have had one of the most comprehensive transport systems in the world.
There was even a tramway under the Mersey ..
And now we find we need the technology again to help solve traffic problems

Great forward thinking eh? .......


Here in Blackpool it is home to the oldest tram system in England, and a point of interest is that
Blackpools buses and trams are painted in the same livery as Liverpools was (Green/Beige)

I remember visiting Blackpool as a kid many times, My Mothers family settled here after being evacuated
from Salford during the war, the trams then would take you all over the town, these days its a straight
line along the promenade from starrgate(sandhills)to Fleetwood.

Blackpool applied for funding to upgrade its aged tramway to a light rail system and was knocked back ?? ..

Liverpool it seems to me is being turned into some heritage trail, a tourist attraction ..
Maybe thats not a bad thing, but remember Blackpools example, and Liverpool may only be able to provide a tramway
that primarily will serve tourists ... and not locals ..

Another niggle I have with the powers that be, why the hell did you tear down the overhead ?

With all this talk of the new this and that, it makes me wonder why we destroyed the old ..

We must have philistines for planners ......



LINKS

Liverpool Trams - <<CLICK HERE>>


Blackpool Trams - <<CLICK HERE>>

[FKoE]

Dave said:

The question is though do they serve scouse?

Now that is the question ;D

I hope they serve an Aussie White too

[Kev]

www.merseytram.co.uk

[Howie]

Just hope they don't massively increase the Mersey Tunnel tolls (as is rumoured) to pay for it.

[Kev]

MORE than 50,000 visits have been made to the Merseytram web-site showing details of Line 2 of the proposed system.

And more than 4,000 people have visited the Merseytram exhibition currently touring the city as part of a public consultation exercise into the Liverpool to Prescot link.

Merseytram committee chairman Cllr George Howard said: "We're delighted with the interest that has been shown and the positive reception to our plans."

Two international consortia are bidding to build and run the Merseytram system and MET and MTRAM recently presented their final proposals to transport chiefs.

Transport authority Merseytravel will now consider who they want as the preferred bidder, announcing the winner in the autumn.

Merseytravel boss Neil Scales added: "We expect approval to build Line 1 of the scheme towards the end of this year.

"The successful bidder will also be responsible for Line 2."

Details at: www. merseytram.co.uk

[Howie]

Routes wrangle 'threat to trams'
Sep 21 2004
By Andy Kelly, Daily Post

MERSEYTRAVEL last night accused Liverpool city council of jeopardising the entire three-line Merseytram project.

It is the latest twist in a continuing bitter battle between the two organisations over the return of trams to the region.

The passenger transport authority is furious about the city's demand that Line Two of Merseytram should go to Liverpool John Lennon Airport.

It is currently due to open in 2008 linking Liverpool city centre with Prescot and Whiston hospital, with JLA being served by Line Three two years later.

But, last Friday, Liverpool's cabinet demanded a change in the timetable to accelerate the airport route.

A meeting of the Merseytram committee yesterday passed a resolution condemning the council and expressing "grave concerns" at its actions.

It said the council had "jeopardised the delivery of the Merseytram scheme" on a number of levels.

"It has undermined the support of the private sector, the Department for Transport, Her Majesty's Treasury, national, regional and local stakeholders, and the Merseyside public for the three line Merseytram network," it said.

The committee said the council had ignored the policies agreed by the five Merseyside authorities in the Local Transport Plan and risked "losing multi million pounds worth of savings made by constructing the first two lines of the Merseytram network in parallel."

The council's plan of using a route to JLA through Belle Vale, Halewood and Garston using the old loop line was similarly condemned.

The committee warned the council's actions could lead to funding for Merseyside being lost to other areas and ignored the negative impact it would have on Knowsley.

A crisis meeting between Merseytravel and senior officials and councillors from Liverpool and Knowsley councils has now been called for later this week.

The Merseytram committee resolution finally expressed its "extreme concern at the actions of the Liberal Democrat controlled city council, which jeopardise another key project from the Magnificent Seven projects at the heart of the European Capital of Culture Programme in 2008."

Cllr Peter Millea, executive member for regeneration, said: "It is not correct to say that the council is jeopardising the building of lines one and two, because the funding for line two isn't even in place yet.

"And the route we are proposing would take it into Knowsley via Halewood. This could be further extended into the borough when plans for line three are worked up.

"We are simply asking Merseytravel to look again at line two to take into account the expansion of the airport and regeneration of south Liverpool."

Source: Daily Post

[Kev]

At such a late stage, this doesnt seem on does it?

The Loop line will mean that people who get off at John Lennon Airport, Exchange will have to go throught Notty Ash before they get into the city center, theyll just jump in a taxi as they do now.

It does seem odd after such a long time in development and with 'what seems like a solid' proposal for line 1 and 2, which is still close to its budget (Unlike manchesters that now stands at £700million) that the Council are doing this...the whole thing could go t1ts up.   

[Howie]

Rail vote threatens to put tram project in jeopardy

A VOTE to re-nationalise the railways was condemned by a Merseyside MP during a brief and stormy debate at the Labour Party conference yesterday.

Knowsley North MP George Howarth made a passionate plea for delegates to back away from committing the Government to reversing Tory privatisation of the network.

He said it would spell doom for both Merseytram and the Second Mersey Crossing.

 

Full story here.


Where are you comin' from George? Have you got a vested interest in runnin' day trips to the Sonae factory or something?

See the Kirkby Times web site for further comment on George Howarth, tram projects, Sonae, etc., etc.

[Kev]

A ROW over the routing of the new trams service could derail the £750m Paradise Street project, the developers claimed today.

Today business leaders urged all sides to put aside their differences and get Paradise Street back on track before the city suffers a second humiliation, just months after the collapse of the Fourth Grace.



>>>MORE

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Please, no more

[Kev]

LIVERPOOL leader Mike Storey has promised to bang heads together to bring Merseytram back on track.

>>more