-1 Likely cost of Tram Tracks £10m /km in Germany.

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From Professor Lewis Lesley, 1 Mar 2023:

There is a long article about Coventry in March’s New Civil Engineer, to which I have submitted the following comments:
Dear Editor,
The recent (March 2023) issue has a lot about rails of different sorts. Responding to the item ‘Travel Light”, no doubt the people involved in this research are doing their best. The UK with over 30 years without a serious tramway lost the experience and expertise that would have saved most of the problems that have beset embedded tracks in streets. Sadly few thought to see what our neighbours in Europe with continuous tramway experience could teach us.

So back to ‘first principles’ led to premature failures and replacement. One of my former students is now Operations Director of a major German tramway, where costs are about £10m/km for building robust double track tramways complete with electrification and stops. The LUAS in Dublin learnt from French experience, 30 new tramways in about 30 years. The criticisms of the NAO Report on UK tramways are still not fully appreciated, discussed my “Light Rail Developers’ Handbook”.

Lewis Lesley, Professor Emeritus, Transport Studies
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We hear through the ether that the promoters of the Coventry ULR Ultra Light Rail, a much cheaper and quicker-to-install tramway are talking to 6 different local authorities about installing their system. https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/coventry-seeks-research-partners-to-develop-very-light-rail-22-02-2023/?tkn=1 It is completely mad that Bristol and the surrounding areas do not have any light rail which is key to moving people around quickly and enabling growth, with is one of the main reasons that UK productivity is consistently behind Europe – people cannot get to work quickly over a wide area and this means international investors are reluctant to invest because they know their people can’t get to work. https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/coventrys-very-light-railway-showcased-25979772 We know from discussions we have had with Dan Norris that he likes the Manchester, Nottingham, and Sheffield trams and is envious of manchester because it can use its revenues to subsidize buses.

See Also:

-1 Likely cost of Tram Tracks £10m /km in Germany.

0 Likely Tram Track Installations costs for Bath – French Tram Engineering Experts EGIS

1 tram light rail track installation costs

2 Recent German Light Rail Tram Track costs – £13 – £20m / km

3 UK Tram track light rail installation costs – “circa £20m to £30m per route kilometre”

4 Tram track installation costs – where can the money come from to install trams in cities?

5 New Low Cost Tram Light Rail Track Systems Have Potential to Minimise Traffic Disruption and the Need to Divert Underground Services

6 Moving / re-location of services / utilities  for trams installation need not be expensive or even necessary as in Edinburgh

7 Buried underground cables pipes utilities movement diversions and tram light rail installations

8 Tram light rail track installation costs

9 Professor Lesley’s initial analysis into Bath Tram likely installation costs

10 Modern VLR, Very Light Rail track costs – around £5 – £10m/km

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