Trams should be city’s future transport route
“DERBY’S road infrastructure is failing”, a Derby City Council planning official is reported as having said, (“Road system ‘failing’ to cope with housing plans”, June 14), referring to a planned development near Oakwood for 600 houses.
This calls into question the assumption that the car should be the major transport mode. This is now outdated thinking, and with a climate change catastrophe being increasingly recognised, an alternative form of planning is required.
New developments should be designed to minimise car use, and encourage reducing journeys, and provide a good public transport alternative.
Since the 1960s, Derby has pursued a car use philosophy. This has resulted in bus use for journeys to work only being 5%, with the routing mainly to the city centre, whilst most employment is elsewhere, ending up with the largest employer, Rolls-Royce, having no regular service!
Car use has been further encouraged by the development of out-of-town retail parks, which have contributed to the dire state the city centre is in now.
We need to develop a public transport system that is a real alternative, and increase the miserable 5% share to something ideally over 50%. Buses are not capable of doing this running on congested public roads, and indeed they would have insufficient capacity anyway. A city the size of Derby needs a tram system, and we only need to go down the A52 to see what trams can do.
Nottingham’s public transport proportion is well over 30%, and Greater Manchester – another tram area – is aiming to exceed 50%. It is probably not generally known that supposed car bastions in the USA such as LA and Dallas have large and developing tram systems.
Much new development is now outside the city boundary, but surely the creation of the East Midlands Combined County Authority should ease this.
Nottingham Express Transit (NET) should be extended into Derby, and a network within Derby developed. This should include major traffic flows from suburbs to employment areas, such as R-R, the city centre, Midland Station, Pride Park, the Royal Derby, university sites and student accommodation, and the retail parks. Yes, it will cost, but there is a cost to doing nothing. It would make the economy and environment much better.
As much as possible, the tramway should run on private track; it enables a faster and more reliable service, and is cheaper if paths are available. The old Great Northern railway is one such.
David Gibson