Cherry picked data…
Not saying the UK/Ireland couldn’t benefit from more tram systems but how were the cities picked? Because it seems like you could cherry pick them to say anything. Also strange it ignores heavy rail and doesn’t seem to like buses.
In the EU there are currently six cities with a population over 350k, which lack an urban rail system. Bologna is supposed to open a tram system this year, so it is probably five soon. One of those is Sintra, which technically has a tram line, but it is used with historic cars as a museum service, so I count it as lacking one. Also Vilnius, Plovdiv, Bologna and Varna have trolleybuses. The sixth one is Las Palma, which has only buses and due to being on an island not even a train station.
Heavy rail is for transport between municpalities and everybody has a bus system at least in Europe. For a city of a certain size (200k or so) a well designed public transport system is going to have such high ridership, that a tram or other urban rail system is needed. So a lack of one is a pretty bad sign.
Heavy rail is for transport between municpalities and everybody has a bus system at least in Europe.
Well London for example has a lot of suburban heavy rail, it’s not on this list of course because of the tube, but conventional rail fills in a lot of gaps that the tube doesn’t cover and actually works well. You could sort of say the same for Leeds/Bradford, though probably not as good, it’s in an area with a dense rail network which probably explains why light rail never took off there - I’m not from the area so I can’t really say how well it works. I’m a big advocate for trams and light rail but there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for all cities, cities with different geography, density, etc need different transport. That’s why I said about quality in my other post, the overall quality of a city’s public transport network should be judged, not just the modes of transport.
Bradford has two railway stations and those are pretty close together. They are also 700m apart and do not have track connecting them. In other words you can not use heavy rail for any reasonable journey within Bradford. Leeds is better, but we are still talking trains coming every 30min and six stations within the city and some massive gaps in the network. Similar story for Belfast.
I’m a big advocate for trams and light rail but there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for all cities, cities with different geography, density, etc need different transport.
British cities do have high enough density for light rail and the geography is mostly pretty flat. It is honestly the most obvious way to improve the public transport in cities like Leeds and Bradford in a big way. To be fair Leeds might want to think about a light automated metro as well.
I’m not disagreeing with you there.
Do we hate buses now?
Buses are useful because they can change based upon demand. If s neighborhood grows, more buses can be added. If a neighborhood shrinks, you can remove buses.
In the city where I live, I exclusively use trams. I avoid buses at all costs and only use them as a desperate last resort. Reason is because trams drive way nicer, in my opinion, than buses. Because in a full bus, standing and being whiplashed from wall to wall is unpleasant, especially with a shopping bag or a case or something else in your hand.
For larger cities buses just don’t have enough capacity to be a good transit system. They do have their place in smaller cities and as a complement to a tram/metro for connections where the demand isn’t as high.
I don’t say trams are bad, but it’s just dumb that OP seems to demonize busses that are totally fine solutions in some contexts. If you plan a new city SimCity style, sure, go for trains first. But real cities are more difficult and have a history, and it rarely makes sense to throw all of that overboard just to have the most efficient (currently) solution
Leipzig mentioned 🇺🇦
Слава Україні!
They need another column for the approximate population of twats.
Thanks, Beeching.
