MPs make call for better air quality

TramForward (TF) has supported a call from the All-Party Parliamentary Light Rail Group (APPLRG) for poor urban air quality to be made an election issue, with all the main political parties including improving air quality in their manifestos.

An APPLRG meeting at the House of Commons on April 26 heard from TF and Nottingham Express Transit.

TF argued that greater use of trams would be a partial solution to the problem in busy urban corridors. It called upon central and local Government to promote trams as a significant part of the “urban transport fabric, as is the case in France, the United States and many other countries”.

Light Rail Transit Authority Chairman Andrew Braddock said Government needed to take the lead in encouraging city regions and other urban authorities to implement plans to replace the busiest bus services with tramways, in order to significantly reduce particulate emissions from diesel-fuelled vehicles.