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Save Ealing's Streets 10 REASONS |
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10 REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD OPPOSE THE TRAM |
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1. COST |
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Would you spend £648m of public money on a scheme that fails to address West London’s transport priorities? That’s what TfL proposes. Will the tram improve commuting into Central London? No. Will it serve major regeneration areas such as the Southall Gas Works Site, Hayes or West Drayton? No, it won’t go to these places. Will it serve major attractions like Heathrow or Wembley, or areas where employment is growing like Chiswick Park or Stockley Park? No. Neither is it well integrated with existing public transport interchanges. NO CONVINCING STRATEGIC CASE has ever been made for this project and if this scheme goes ahead West London would lose the opportunity to do something really useful with the money. |
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2. GRAND EXPERIMENT with permanent consequences |
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The West London tram will be the first LIGHT RAILWAY to run entirely on a road in Britain. This makes it a totally untested urban transport solution – with unknown and PERMANENT consequences. Other traffic experiments such as bus lanes or the congestion charge can be removed or modified if they go wrong; but not the tram – once built it will be impossible to remove. |
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3. LESS ROOM FOR OTHER TRAFFIC |
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By reducing the entire length of the Uxbridge Road to a single lane in each direction, and by giving the tram priority over other traffic through narrow pinchpoints like Acton and Ealing Broadway, the scheme will cut the capacity of this vital West London artery by up to a HALF. The tram’s priority will create barriers all along the route for vehicles travelling north or south. |
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4. DIVERSION OF TRAFFIC INTO RESIDENTIAL ROADS |
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Where will the traffic that is displaced by the tram go? Much will rat run down residential roads, bringing INCREASED POLLUTION AND NOISE to these streets, as well as increasing the risk of accidents in areas where families live. |
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5. AN INFLEXIBLE SERVICE |
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What will happen if there is an accident - or a flood or an explosion or even a carnival that closes the Uxbridge Road? Unlike buses, THE TRAM CAN NOT BE DIVERTED if the road is closed, and when this happens the travelling public will be unable to move. |
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6. FEWER STOPS THAN THE BUSES |
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The tram will have about HALF as many stops as the 207 and 427 buses, so many people will have to walk further. |
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7. A SLOWER SERVICE THAN THE 607 BUS |
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The tram will be SLOWER than the current 607 bus. Off peak the tram will take more than an hour compared to 44 minutes for the 607. |
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8. LOSS OF TREES & THREAT TO THE ENVIRONMENT |
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In Ealing many mature TREES that line the route will be lost. In Hillingdon, part of the Minet Country Park, designated as a Grade I site of Nature Importance and part of the green belt, will become a tram test track. |
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9. FOUR YEARS OF GRIDLOCK |
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January
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It will take four years to adapt the route for the tram, and this will create MASSIVE DISRUPTION AND CONGESTION. Sections of the Uxbridge Road will be closed for up to a year, and along the route vital sports grounds and areas of open space will become construction sites – further losses to the community. |
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10. THREAT TO LOCAL BUSINESSES |
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January
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Where shops have no rear access, deliveries during the construction period will be by trolley. During these four years local BUSINESSES WILL STRUGGLE to get supplies, and the survival of some will be threatened as their customers struggle to reach them. |
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