Re: Brisbane Light Rail

[Nick Bowden <bowden@uq.net.au>]

David McLoughlin wrote:

> Nick Bowden wrote:
> >
> > The federal gov. has apparently agree to put $65m into this project.
> > Would that money (and all the rest this is going to cost) not be better
> > spent on law and order and education. This light rail (tram) system is
> > going to be an absolute fiasco. If trams were so good, why are there so
> > few left in operation?
>
> More than 300 cities around the world operate trams, with new tramway
> systems being built and opened regularly.
>
> For example, London is busy building a tramway system based on Croydon,
> a new system is about to open in Birmingham in the Midlands, trams
> returned to Sheffield in 1994 and to Manchester a few years before that.
>
> Since the mid-1980s, new tramway systems have opened in many French
> cities including Nantes, Grenoble, Paris, Strasbourg and Rouen, with
> others under construction now. Many tramway-light rail systems have also
> been built in the United States since the 1980s, and in numerous other
> places including Hong Kong, Turkey, Tunisia, Mexico and too many other
> places to list.
>
> The new systems I cite don't even include the 300 existing tramways
> throughout Europe, Russia and elsewhere which predate and outlive the
> Brisbane tramway discgracefully closed in a massive act of civic
> vandalism by Clem Jones in 1969.
>
> Sydney opened the first segment of a new tramway system 18 months ago.
>
> Melbourne never closed its tramways and has opened many new lines and
> put 432 new trams into service since 1975, and now has 30 tram lines
> running up to 21 km from the CBD. Trams are the main form of street
> public transport in Melbourne's inner and medium-distance suburbs, with
> very few bus routes entering the city area.
>
> Sorry, you said trams were a fiasco and very few were left in operation?
>

Why are they cutting back?
http://www.usingit.be/trampage/steden.htm

I count there used to be 17 now only 3!!
http://www.railpage.org.au/tram/history.html

Some cities would benefit from a light rail/tram system. These would be large
densely populated cities where the majority of the population do not have
cars, and have always relied on public transport. The area that the BLR
covers is waliking distance of the city centre. People will still bring their
cars into the city. I am not going to drive 18kms into the nearest BLR
station, and then have to find parking (near imposible) and then get on a
tram to travel 1km. I will walk to the bus 500m and get dropped off one block
from the office. They may use the tram because they are in a hurry or to lazy
to walk around town.
The CBD of Brisbane is already stuffed up due to bad planning and by a mayor
who wants his own way.