Why We Need The Tram

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The Tram - Why We Need It

Tram

Why We Need It

Traffic in the London Borough of Ealing grew by 11% between 1991 & 2001 and will probably grow as much or more in the next 10 years. It is growing in the borough of Hillingdon and Hammersmith & Fulham too.

Why? Because the economy is booming, the population is growing and there is a steady stream of new developments: Terminal 5, a possible 3rd runway, more shops and flats in the town centres, Daniel's, Waitrose, M&S in West Ealing, the Southall Gas works site, major housing developments in Acton - and more being planned.

The effects are already apparent and are set to get worse: congestion for many hours a day and rat running through residential roads. So what can we do?

We could try to stop the expansion - some of us tried to stop Terminal 5 without success. We may stop some of it but most of it will go ahead.
We could push for a congestion charge in West London. This would reduce the amount of through traffic so that we only got traffic which needed to come.
We could improve public transport. The tram is the best way to do this. Extending the tube would be too expensive. Improving the buses cannot deliver a good enough service to meet future demand: it would need too many vehicles and unpopular continuous bus lanes, cause more congestion at junctions, be more costly to operate per passenger, yet not have the appeal to attract car divers. Optically-guided trolley buses have not yet proved that they could operate reliably on a road like the Uxbridge Road, or attract car drivers.

See also item 1 of 'Frequently Asked Questions' for more information on why buses can't deliver (Word file, 10 pages)

The Benefits It Will Bring

Modern tram systems are an urban public transport success story. Like the popular new tram systems in Croydon, Nottingham, Sheffield, Manchester etc., the Uxbridge Road tram will:

provide vastly better public transport: faster, smoother, quieter, and more reliable, a predictable journey time, a pleasant, comfortable ride in a level floored vehicle with no steps and fully accessible to wheelchairs and buggies.
revitalise our town centres - Ealing and West Ealing, Acton, Hanwell and Southall - by bringing in more people, encouraging businesses to invest and improving the image of the area.
increase employment and reduce deprivation and social exclusion - a real problem in parts of Acton, West Ealing, Hanwell and Southall.
reduce the amount of traffic in the area, making it easier for people who do need to drive
improve the environment, reduce air and noise pollution, make our roads safer, and enable us to be healthier and less car dependent.
mean there's less need for people to own a car, so less pressure for parking spaces, and enabling new developments to be low car. Car Clubs can provide for occasional car use.

There will be less traffic in the area with the tram than without.

It's a myth that the tram will displace vast amounts of traffic into residential streets. Because it will reduce the amount of road space available on the Uxbridge Road, there will be less traffic in the area as a whole, than there would be without the tram. Detailed traffic modelling shows that the majority of residential roads in the area will get less traffic with the tram than without. See Ealing FOE web site for further information on why this is so. The minority of streets that would get more traffic will be protected in various ways, including Home Zones and other schemes to restrict access - as the Five Roads Home Zone already is.

Opposition to the tram

Many of the arguments put forward by opponents of the tram do not stand up to scrutiny. See our detailed response to Save Ealing's Streets' document "Things you need to know before you fill in TfL'S public consultation questionnaire" on the Ealing FOE web site. If opposition to the tram wins the day, Ealing and the other centres will become even more traffic-ridden, run down and unappealing. People won't want to go there, neighbourhoods will deteriorate and people living there will move away if they can. Is that really the kind of neighbourhood you want?