Plymouth is city ‘in need of a tram or tube system’

PLYMOUTH and Bristol have been singled out as ideal cities to have a tram or underground tube network.

A major report into the future of “green” transport has called for a rethink on the way people travel including the increased use of train electrification, hydrogen-powered locomotives and high-speed rail.

The UK’s New Green Age: A Step Change in Transport Decarbonisation, has been produced by rail manufacturer Alstom and looks at how the Government can decarbonise the transport sector.

It calls for a £10billion investment programme in UK rail and mass transit systems, to help boost regions, such as the South West, struggling with the pandemic, and which the Government have promised to “level up”.

It identifies Plymouth as a place where investment is most needed and listed the city as an area where there is a significant “gap”, specifically indicating that Plymouth would benefit from a tram, metro or tube network.

“As well as enabling people to easily travel around the city, introducing a mass transit system like this in Plymouth would reduce congestion from cars, and support new housing and economic growth,” Alstom said.

“Currently transport is the most emitting sector in the UK so measures like this will be needed soon in order for the Government to hit their ambitious decarbonisation targets.”

Plymouth had an extensive tram network in the 19th and early 20th centuries and the Joint Local Plan discussions, in 2018, included suggestions for a tram system feeding stations in Plympton, Marsh Mills and Colebrook.

The new Alstom report highlights cities without a “mass transit system” that should look at establishing one. Plymouth, Bristol and Bournemouth are spotlighted, alongside cities such as Cardiff, Swansea, Southampton, Portsmouth, Reading, Leicester, Coventry, Luton, Stoke, Derby, Leeds, Bradford, Hull and Belfast.

The study says underground metro, trams, light rail and very light rail systems are being established in cities and regions across the world.