the death of the trams was a lot more destructive than Beeching: the short sighted nature of it becomes clear when you look at the cities of the world that kept their trams. I lived in Brussels for a bit and their network is very good and incredibly handy: links up with the Metro and provides services to all sorts of places with the buses really being just for places where they don't have trams and where the Metro isn't handy. Shame that everywhere in the UK ripped theirs out and all we have are not overly useful systems like the one in Edinburgh.
Melbourne australia kept its tram services then expanded and modernised it which in hindsight was a good decision considering how many cities are installing/reinstalling systems
Tramlines in Canada had disappeared here in Canada by the 1960's, other than Toronto who had some forward thinking. Even Toronto tried to "modernize" with petrol buses but by 1973 the city had halted removal even adding about 10 route miles since then. Toronto was one of the first electrified systems in 1892 and was the largest (and still is) in North America. After 50 years of tram removal, the UK and Ireland started the reversal of policy by building Metrolink in Manchester. Let's hope that this policy continues...
Love that Glasgow continued to employ women tram drivers, presumably first introduced during wartime? I wonder why this wasn't more universally adopted, and if they could drive a tram then when not redeploy them at least to trolleybuses? Sadly it took some time for society to catch up.
Sadly some towns in the continent still consider closing tram lines as an option to save money. There seem to be no national strategy in urban transport anywhere.
the death of the trams was a lot more destructive than Beeching: the short sighted nature of it becomes clear when you look at the cities of the world that kept their trams. I lived in Brussels for a bit and their network is very good and incredibly handy: links up with the Metro and provides services to all sorts of places with the buses really being just for places where they don't have trams and where the Metro isn't handy. Shame that everywhere in the UK ripped theirs out and all we have are not overly useful systems like the one in Edinburgh.
Fantastic quality journalism
These days so-called documentaries consist mainly of 50 minutes of waffle just to make one point. This series however is very different.
Melbourne australia kept its tram services then expanded and modernised it which in hindsight was a good decision considering how many cities are installing/reinstalling systems
Tramlines in Canada had disappeared here in Canada by the 1960's, other than Toronto who had some forward thinking. Even Toronto tried to "modernize" with petrol buses but by 1973 the city had halted removal even adding about 10 route miles since then. Toronto was one of the first electrified systems in 1892 and was the largest (and still is) in North America. After 50 years of tram removal, the UK and Ireland started the reversal of policy by building Metrolink in Manchester. Let's hope that this policy continues...
Never heard about this line in Leeds. The ones making decisions cannot have looked to Zurich, Brussels, Prague or Melbourne (loads more). Sad.
Don't you just love the 'experts' and politicians?
Politicians...Loved the first generation and now love the second. So civilised. Hooray for Nottingam!
A good programme.
Love that Glasgow continued to employ women tram drivers, presumably first introduced during wartime? I wonder why this wasn't more universally adopted, and if they could drive a tram then when not redeploy them at least to trolleybuses? Sadly it took some time for society to catch up.
They were called Trams in the UK and here they were called the interurban...
I love This video
Sadly some towns in the continent still consider closing tram lines as an option to save money. There seem to be no national strategy in urban transport anywhere.
Since there bringing alot of tramways back convert Pacers to trams
Blackpool! Not even a mention?
At circa fifteen minutes and thirty seconds in this video the topic of 'fare dodging' is broached.
Now guided busways are being built and many teams again still not learnt the lessons.
What a shame getting rid of the leeds trams
What year was this documentary aired?
I like Googling all the people who are featured in this series.They're all dead.