Why has the West London Tram Scheme (between Shepherd's Bush & Uxbridge) been axed?

Question

Surely trams would help cut road traffic & thus less air pollution as already been proven in Croydon & cites like Manchester & Nottingham & would help create more jobs in the area.

If the problem is laying rails & causing distruption, why not look into having a trolleybus system? This would have the same benefits of less road traffic, but with less expenditure needed in construction & mantainence.

As I live 7 miles from Uxbridge & I am a tram enthusiast (no jokes please) I was looking foward to seeing the system being built & riding on it.

Answer 1

Central London used to be run entirely on trams many decades ago. How cool it would have been if they had kept it like that - it would be a bit like San Francisco.

Answer 2

The newly elected Ealing Council threatened to seek a Judical Review of the decision of the Mayor of London  in promoting the Tram Scheme. The Mayor wanted to avoid a court action continuing into a re-election year and so he cut the scheme (and used the money saved elsewhere)

Answer 3

the residents complained because of there disruption to the roads while building the tram they have enough traffic all ready they don't need any more

Answer 4

There used to be a tram route along the Uxbridge Road: the tram depot at Acton still exists, although it is now used for buses. The bottlenecks at Ealing Broadway and West Ealing are not wide enough for modern trams to pass: the cost of buying property there to demolish is too expensive. The trams would have to share the road with other traffic, unlike Croydon where the majority of the routes are on reserved track. This would increase the already saturated congestion especially between Hanwell and Acton. The proposed north-south cross-river tramway between Holborn and Streatham is also in doubt.

Answer 5

I live in west London and was also looking forward to less congested roads but these lazy car divers all petitioned against it!! xx

Answer 6

Because they have overspent on the Olympics and have to scrounge the money from elsewhere