Leeds - seems very poorly served by the suburban rail lines that exist there and lack of stations on them as well as poor frequency. Feel a relatively cheap and fast way to improve connectivity there alongside a Nuremburg style tram-metro
Bristol - Likewise not amazing suburban service on the lines that do exist although slowly improving. Have you written/ read much on a metro system or concepts to improve the local trains?
Trams in smaller cities - do you think they should be prioritised in already prosperous/touristy places like Bath/ York, or as a stimulus in less well off places?
What would you suggest for BCP (Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole), which is small ish 400k but extends to 580k with immediate hinterland, has a single suburban railway and used to have trams but now just buses and cars?
Unsure, it’s not a place I’m familiar with I’m afraid! Based purely on size tram-trains are probably the right technology, but network design is a whole other matter – I’d need to look into international examples of tram network design in a small polycentric conurbation…
As a Sheffield resident I would say above all else its existing tram network is woefully underutilised. It is not very well segregated (especially West Street) and isn't significantly/transformatively quicker than the bus for door to door journeys (even to most of the city centre) in most instances.
I would also posit that the particular topography of Sheffield ensures that even if potential users aren't far from nodes as the crow flies, if using the tram involves a walk up/downhill it's likely to be a much less attractive option compared to a bus which comes closer to home. The same would be true of an increased commuter heavy rail provision here, which naturally would serve only the few communities on the valley floors most effectively (what flooding!?). We would ideally need four tracks on the main line to be restored too, as you know well(!)
One potentially counter/antidote, the development of denser housing focused around potential nodes, has also not (yet) been undertaken with any particular intent here.
Ultimately I think it all boils down to the classic question of how we get as many people within commutable distance/time of our city centres. In different places that will indeed be realised through different solutions, with the tram certainly not being a universal silver bullet.
Obviously a new era of 'Abundance'/'you can just do things' would be wonderful, with a tram on every street corner etc... however I feel the current mindset of the British people and state (Bat Tunnel-ocracy) simply doesn't lead to conditions where mass-demolitions for the construction of transformative tram-boulevards etc are likely to be welcomed in any way. Perhaps the blank canvas of new towns will be a good way to remind people of what can be achieved...
If you ever want to come up and enjoy a guided tour do let me know!
(Goes without saying really, but an integrated ticketing system would help too - currently a tram and bus journey across the city comes at a premium price for not an especially obvious reward. Of course a seamless London-style multimodal tap-on tap-off would hopefully be a game changer anywhere in terms of encouraging/facilitating smooth mixed-mode journeys. I expect this is in the pipeline though via our Mayor.)
I lived in Sheffield for most of last year and took the tram twice (once to go for a hike, and once to see a friend in a suburb). It just doesn't really go anywhere useful?
Or maybe I'm just too much a hipster, bc I would have used a Kelham Island -> Moor Market -> Nether Edge tram a lot. Unfortunately, the roads seem like they're too narrow for a tram to be cheap unless you knock whole neighbourhoods down :/
Was also very surprised that all tickets were sold by a human being.
Even with the hills, it's a good size for bikes (or ebikes) -- if cycling in Sheffield weren't so scary.
I think your hipster lifestyle perhaps may not have been conducive to optimal tram enjoyment(!) it does serve a number of the largest-footfall destinations (rail station, stadiums, Meadowhall, Arena, Fargate etc). Just a real shame it's then been in stasis since the 90s (including ticketing arrangements)
FWIW nearly all key thoroughfares into the city (including even to Nether Edge) were able to accommodate a very widespread tram network until the 1950s, so the alignments could work in theory if needed! Would obviously just need a corresponding commitment to segregation from cars and bikes. But yes today that's obviously much harder to achieve.
(Further exacerbated by topography - the city largely isn't a flat grid where you can just plonk a new tram/bike corridor down one block over from the main road. Hence why IMO existing segregated (rail) corridors should be doubled down on for tram/s-bahn if necessary, but buses and bikes are probably best elsewhere
I think your hipster lifestyle perhaps may not have been conducive to optimal tram enjoyment(!) it does serve a number of the largest-footfall destinations (rail station, stadiums, Meadowhall, Arena, Fargate etc). Just a real shame it's then been in stasis since the 90s (including ticketing arrangements)
FWIW nearly all key thoroughfares into the city (including even to Nether Edge) were able to accommodate a very widespread tram network until the 1950s, so the alignments could work in theory if needed! Would obviously just need a corresponding commitment to segregation from cars and bikes. But yes today that's obviously much harder to achieve.
(Further exacerbated by topography - the city largely isn't a flat grid where you can just plonk a new tram/bike corridor down one block over from the main road. Hence why IMO existing segregated (rail) corridors should be doubled down on for tram/s-bahn if necessary, but buses and bikes are probably best elsewhere
1. Build a tunnel for S-Bahn trains with a portal where Charlotte Road intersects with the railway line. It would then go to Midland Station (but angled E–W) and then go through the city centre. Maybe stations at Furnival Square, City Hall, West Bar and Wicker? An alignment something like that would be sensible I think.
Then in the north it would have branches to:
- Stocksbridge (and then via a restored line to Penistone and Hudds)
- Meadowhall and the lines radiating out from that station
- Worksop etc and Rotherham Central
This would connect all of the suburban lines with through-running trains.
Midland station could then be rebuilt with eight island platforms, which would handle all the long-distance traffic (and only the long distance traffic).
2. Build a light metro in Bristol, so we can work out how to build it cheaply.
3. Build a light metro in Sheffield to places like the west and north of the city which don't have any stations.
Really good read, a few thoughts/ questions.
Leeds - seems very poorly served by the suburban rail lines that exist there and lack of stations on them as well as poor frequency. Feel a relatively cheap and fast way to improve connectivity there alongside a Nuremburg style tram-metro
Bristol - Likewise not amazing suburban service on the lines that do exist although slowly improving. Have you written/ read much on a metro system or concepts to improve the local trains?
Trams in smaller cities - do you think they should be prioritised in already prosperous/touristy places like Bath/ York, or as a stimulus in less well off places?
What would you suggest for BCP (Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole), which is small ish 400k but extends to 580k with immediate hinterland, has a single suburban railway and used to have trams but now just buses and cars?
Unsure, it’s not a place I’m familiar with I’m afraid! Based purely on size tram-trains are probably the right technology, but network design is a whole other matter – I’d need to look into international examples of tram network design in a small polycentric conurbation…
As a Sheffield resident I would say above all else its existing tram network is woefully underutilised. It is not very well segregated (especially West Street) and isn't significantly/transformatively quicker than the bus for door to door journeys (even to most of the city centre) in most instances.
I would also posit that the particular topography of Sheffield ensures that even if potential users aren't far from nodes as the crow flies, if using the tram involves a walk up/downhill it's likely to be a much less attractive option compared to a bus which comes closer to home. The same would be true of an increased commuter heavy rail provision here, which naturally would serve only the few communities on the valley floors most effectively (what flooding!?). We would ideally need four tracks on the main line to be restored too, as you know well(!)
One potentially counter/antidote, the development of denser housing focused around potential nodes, has also not (yet) been undertaken with any particular intent here.
Ultimately I think it all boils down to the classic question of how we get as many people within commutable distance/time of our city centres. In different places that will indeed be realised through different solutions, with the tram certainly not being a universal silver bullet.
Obviously a new era of 'Abundance'/'you can just do things' would be wonderful, with a tram on every street corner etc... however I feel the current mindset of the British people and state (Bat Tunnel-ocracy) simply doesn't lead to conditions where mass-demolitions for the construction of transformative tram-boulevards etc are likely to be welcomed in any way. Perhaps the blank canvas of new towns will be a good way to remind people of what can be achieved...
If you ever want to come up and enjoy a guided tour do let me know!
(Goes without saying really, but an integrated ticketing system would help too - currently a tram and bus journey across the city comes at a premium price for not an especially obvious reward. Of course a seamless London-style multimodal tap-on tap-off would hopefully be a game changer anywhere in terms of encouraging/facilitating smooth mixed-mode journeys. I expect this is in the pipeline though via our Mayor.)
I lived in Sheffield for most of last year and took the tram twice (once to go for a hike, and once to see a friend in a suburb). It just doesn't really go anywhere useful?
Or maybe I'm just too much a hipster, bc I would have used a Kelham Island -> Moor Market -> Nether Edge tram a lot. Unfortunately, the roads seem like they're too narrow for a tram to be cheap unless you knock whole neighbourhoods down :/
Was also very surprised that all tickets were sold by a human being.
Even with the hills, it's a good size for bikes (or ebikes) -- if cycling in Sheffield weren't so scary.
I think your hipster lifestyle perhaps may not have been conducive to optimal tram enjoyment(!) it does serve a number of the largest-footfall destinations (rail station, stadiums, Meadowhall, Arena, Fargate etc). Just a real shame it's then been in stasis since the 90s (including ticketing arrangements)
FWIW nearly all key thoroughfares into the city (including even to Nether Edge) were able to accommodate a very widespread tram network until the 1950s, so the alignments could work in theory if needed! Would obviously just need a corresponding commitment to segregation from cars and bikes. But yes today that's obviously much harder to achieve.
(Further exacerbated by topography - the city largely isn't a flat grid where you can just plonk a new tram/bike corridor down one block over from the main road. Hence why IMO existing segregated (rail) corridors should be doubled down on for tram/s-bahn if necessary, but buses and bikes are probably best elsewhere
I think your hipster lifestyle perhaps may not have been conducive to optimal tram enjoyment(!) it does serve a number of the largest-footfall destinations (rail station, stadiums, Meadowhall, Arena, Fargate etc). Just a real shame it's then been in stasis since the 90s (including ticketing arrangements)
FWIW nearly all key thoroughfares into the city (including even to Nether Edge) were able to accommodate a very widespread tram network until the 1950s, so the alignments could work in theory if needed! Would obviously just need a corresponding commitment to segregation from cars and bikes. But yes today that's obviously much harder to achieve.
(Further exacerbated by topography - the city largely isn't a flat grid where you can just plonk a new tram/bike corridor down one block over from the main road. Hence why IMO existing segregated (rail) corridors should be doubled down on for tram/s-bahn if necessary, but buses and bikes are probably best elsewhere
I think the right solution for Sheffield is:
1. Build a tunnel for S-Bahn trains with a portal where Charlotte Road intersects with the railway line. It would then go to Midland Station (but angled E–W) and then go through the city centre. Maybe stations at Furnival Square, City Hall, West Bar and Wicker? An alignment something like that would be sensible I think.
Then in the north it would have branches to:
- Stocksbridge (and then via a restored line to Penistone and Hudds)
- Meadowhall and the lines radiating out from that station
- Worksop etc and Rotherham Central
This would connect all of the suburban lines with through-running trains.
Midland station could then be rebuilt with eight island platforms, which would handle all the long-distance traffic (and only the long distance traffic).
2. Build a light metro in Bristol, so we can work out how to build it cheaply.
3. Build a light metro in Sheffield to places like the west and north of the city which don't have any stations.