Informal workshop with Transport for London (TfL) looking at traffic modelling in West London to see if you can ram a tram without causing a jam. So far – they can’t. One interesting notion came to light. TfL’s traffic modelling consultant kept assuring members of the Transport Committee that people made choices that meant once they couldn’t use the tram route, they would change the way they drove, where they worked, the mode they travelled, etc, etc.

When I pushed him in saying that if you stick a giant tram down a main road – people actually had no choice but were being thus forced to change their life patterns – he conceded. I wish they could get over some of the pinch points – but I don’t see them being able to do it well enough not to ruin their business case for the tram. The business case is shaky anyway and hugely expensive. They ought to take a look at a modern electric trolleybus for one quarter the price. Particularly as the experts said at the formal scrutiny session that the tram would be out of date virtually by the time it was built.

Anyway – it was a really useful meeting and the TfL director of the project is really working hard to try and get this through. In the end, if the Mayor says it goes ahead, it does – regardless of consultation. We’ll see. I don’t think he will have the money anyway. Ken can faff about for a few years with inquiries and feasibility and on and on. By the time to real funding is needed who knows where we will be…

(To see further details of my view on the tram, have a look at http://www.glalibdems.org.uk/news/178.html).