Tram extensions are put on hold

PANDEMIC AND SCRAPPING OF HS2 HUB ENDS HOPES OF NEW LINES FOR NOW

ANY new extensions to Nottingham’s tram network have been “delayed” indefinitely.

The Post has previously reported on three extensions that had been proposed for the network.

The first was for the line at Clifton South park and ride to be extended into the 3,000-home Fairham development, which is under construction close to the A453.

Another extension, and perhaps now the most unlikely following the publication of the Integrated Rail Plan, was suggested from the Toton Lane park and tide and into Long Eaton via the now-scrapped HS2 hub at Toton.

The third and final route was proposed to run through The Meadows, past Trent Bridge and towards Colwick.

This route would have been the longest of all the extension proposals and could have eventually gone on to Gedling.

While funding had been allocated for the furthering of these schemes, many plans had been made before the coronavirus pandemic and now the proposals are once again up in the air as a result.

Tramlink Nottingham is one of three companies behind the tram network in the city and typically deals with the finance side of operations.

Tim Hesketh is the chief executive officer.

He spoke to the Post about the network and future plans, which have been put on the backburner amid the pandemic.

“There is an aspiration, although not necessarily the finances, to extend the tram network,” he said.

The three extensions had been approved in principle to move to the next stage of development in March 2020, just before the pandemic struck.

An expert says a number of hurdles would have to be overcome but these had been deemed feasible.

However when the UK was placed into lockdown that month, passenger numbers and, in turn, income generated from ticket fares crashed through the floor.

As a result the Department for Transport was forced to cover this huge gap via millions of pounds in grant money.

Nottingham’s tram network was just one to benefit from this grant money, but a lack of any future certainty – accentuated by new Covid variants such as Omicron – means risky investments in new routes are now on hold until a “new normal” is identified.

“At the moment those are all on hold,” Mr Hesketh said.

“We would like to take the development of those further forward and as part of our financial restructuring we would like to release some funds back into the project to allow that to happen.

“But we can’t promise that yet. Ultimately the capital cost of building and extending those lines, buying new rolling stock to go on them, is something that is going to have to be looked at separately to the current project and we would very much like to be part of that.

“It is an inordinately long process to get something like that from the design stage to reality. There is a huge process of public consultation to go through and there is a huge, essentially planning application but a far more complicated version of that, called a Transport and Works Order, to go through.”

Mr Hesketh suggested, possibly, that it would have been a minimum of five years, to the point where work could have begun.

“That has been delayed,” he added. “But it doesn’t mean they are shelved completely. The link to HS2 is unlikely to be taken forward, because if HS2 is now coming to Nottingham why take Nottingham to HS2?

“It’s not off the cards altogether. Ideally in the long term we would like to extend the tram all the way into Derby but that is a long way from being a reality.”