Advice for towns and cities that are considering trams

My town or city wants a tram. How can Tram Network help?

Thanks to our internal expertise, industry contacts, and input into national policy, we help you unlock opportunities to bring trams to your area. We also work with engineers and other experts in the field to give you the best advice which isn’t just a pipe dream.

What advantages do trams offer over buses?

• Far higher capacity – 70-90 passengers on a double decker bus versus 200-300 for a standard tram
• Greater timetable consistency – meaning you can rely on them for your commute
• Smoother ride and accessible – all existing UK trams feature full level-boarding
• Energy efficiency – trams have 10x less rolling resistance than buses
• Opportunity for value uplift – while bus routes change frequently, the higher investment and permanent infrastructure for trams gives confidence that they’ll stay, encouraging investment along the route
• People prefer trams – a 2012 German/Swiss study found a 75% preference for trams over buses. This is important if your goal is to reduce congestion and encourage people out of cars.

How is a modern tram different from the small trams we got rid of in the 1950s and 60s?

Traditional trams were much smaller vehicles, more like buses on rails. Modern trams, however, are more comparable with a metro due to their vehicle size, higher capacity, smoother ride, level boarding and multiple doors for fast off/on-boarding. A modern tram also usually runs on a dedicated right of way separate from cars, leading to faster speeds and safer operation.

How can trams help reduce reliance on cars and cut congestion?

People are more willing to switch from cars to trams than they are to switch from cars to buses. Trams are a more reliable form of transport than buses, which means you can rely on them for your commute. In Birmingham, the same journey is approximately twice as fast by tram as by bus, with far greater consistency day to day. That’s because modern trams run on segregated rights of way, with few conflicts with cars and other modes of transport. Many doors and level boarding also allow for far quicker stops.

How can trams help boost housebuilding?

Trams could be one of the biggest levers for housing growth for three main reasons:

• The speed and transport efficiency of trams allow for dense residential buildings along the tram route, especially around tram stops. Proximity to tram stops often increases land and property values, incentivizing developers to invest in building housing in these areas.
• Trams offer the option of reducing parking standards, allowing for less land wasted on car parks.
• Trams can be a catalyst for revitalising city centres, allowing for denser home building in parts of our cities which have been neglected for decades but may already have infrastructure in place.
• The higher cost and permanent nature of tram infrastructure gives investors greater certainty that homes built along the line will be served by the tram for the long-term.

Examples of trams boosting housebuilding include Manchester, Vauban in Freiburg, Germany, the Portland Streetcar in the US, and in Lund, Sweden, where 13,000 new homes are being built alongside a new tram.

Aren’t trams very expensive?

Trams are more expensive in the short term but the higher investment can pay off when factored against the boost to housebuilding, retail, city centre regeneration and the local economy overall, the potential placemaking benefits, long term social benefits of improved connectivity and a boost to quality of life.

There are a number of ways to keep costs down, however:

• Use simple, standard designs which have been proven to work elsewhere, rather than opting for tempting yet potentially expensive new technologies
• Use standardised station designs
• To avoid costly street redesigns, to maintain reliability and to ensure safety, cars should be banned from the streets the tram runs along, with strict segregated rights of way elsewhere
• Avoid moving too many utilities.

Must trams have overhead wires?

The overhead wires of modern trams are less visually intrusive than they used to be, but a number of new technologies means that trams don’t need to have overhead wires anymore. Common alternatives include:

• Batteries: several tram manufacturers now offer battery-powered trams
• Supercapacitors: though they offer less storage capacity than batteries, supercapacitors can recharge far more quickly, in under a minute
• Rail-powered: some trams can be powered by a third rail.

These technologies tend to be more expensive than standard overhead wires, but this is one area seeing a lot of innovation in recent years and so costs are coming down.

Contact Tram Network

To talk to Tram Network about how we can help your town or city, email Michael Solomon Williams: michael.solomonwilliams@bettertransport.org.uk