West London Tram

West London Tram
The Uxbridge Road at Hillingdon, part of the proposed route of the tramway
Overview
Owner	Transport for London
Locale	West London, England
Transit type	Tram
Number of lines	1
Number of stations	40
Operation
Operation will start	Abandoned proposal
Technical
System length	12 mi (19 km)
Track gauge	Standard gauge

West London Tram
Uxbridge station Civic Centre, Uxbridge RAF Uxbridge Greenway for Brunel University Hillingdon Village Long Lane Hillingdon Heath Hayes End Lansbury Drive Church Road, Hayes Shakespeare Avenue The Grapes Grand Union Canal Grand Union Canal (Paddington Arm) Southall Broadway Southall/High Street Dormers Wells Ironbridge Ealing Hospital Hanwell Bridge Hanwell Broadway Hanwell Cemeteries West Ealing Northfield Avenue St Leonard's Road Ealing Town Hall Ealing Broadway station Ealing Common Park Ealing Common station Twyford Crescent Acton Square Acton Town Hall North London Line Acton Park The King's Arms Bromyard Avenue Askew Road The Adelaide Bloemfontein Road Shepherd's Bush Market station Shepherd's Bush station

The West London Tram (also known as West London Transit) was a proposed on-street light rail line that was to run along the Uxbridge Road (A4020) corridor in West London, England. The scheme was promoted by Transport for London (TfL). It was postponed indefinitely on 2 August 2007, as it was opposed by the councils of all three bisected London Boroughs.

The tram route was planned to run between Uxbridge and Shepherd's Bush, serving Hayes (north), Hillingdon, Southall, Hanwell, West Ealing, Ealing and Acton en route, and would have replaced three equivalent London Buses routes. The proposed route was the same route as London's tram route 7 from about 1905 until 1951.

Overview

Tramlink in Croydon in October 1999

Shepherd's Bush bus station, originally intended as the eastern tram terminus

The revival of interest in tramways and light rail transit systems around the start of the 21st century led to the re-introduction of electric trams to a number of British cities and towns such as Manchester, Sheffield, and Croydon. The West London Tram scheme was first announced in 2002 by the then Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, along with other projects such as the Cross River Tram and the Thames Gateway Transit bus rapid transit scheme.

Livingstone promoted the project as a solution to traffic congestion problems in the west of London. It was forecast that the tramway would carry 50 million passengers a year and, based on research of Croydon Tramlink, promoters anticipated around 19% of those passengers would switch from using a car to the tram for their journey. The scheme was budgeted at a cost of approximately £200 million, and the line would come into service by 2009.

The tram was designed to run along the congested Uxbridge Road from Uxbridge to Shepherd's Bush and replace the heavily used 207, 427 and 607 bus routes. Had the route been constructed it would have revived a tram route established in 1904 and which was replaced by a trolleybus route 607 which was itself superseded by the present bus routes.

The trams were to run on a completely on-street route, with a mixture of stretches shared with road traffic, "accessible" routes (controlled lanes which road traffic would be permitted to enter temporarily, for example to avoid an obstruction), and segregated stretches of track which would be for tram use only, mostly along the central reservation of the Uxbridge Road. The tram was partly envisaged as a "feeder" service for other modes of transit, transporting passengers to interchange points with London Underground, London Overground and the future Crossrail service.

Progress

The West London Tram scheme proved to be a contentious proposal, with public opinion along the route more or less divided on the issue. Several consultation exercises and opinion polls reported contradictory results of narrow majorities both for and against the tram.

Opposition

The scheme was opposed by the local councils of the boroughs along the intended tramway route: Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham and Hillingdon. Ealing council had initially supported the project, but following a change of council after the local elections, the new ruling Conservative Party council voted against the tramway.