On Tue, 08 Nov 2005 11:35:26 +0000, David Bradley
wrote:

If you actually knew this area (and therefore what you are talking about) you
would know that most people including bus travellers) don't travel primarily
along Uxbridge Road,

I'm not saying you're wrong, but I'm somewhat surprised by this
statement, considering the Uxbridge Road has for many years had an
"express" bus route (the 607) which is rare in London, it's one of the
first suburban routes to have received bendy buses, and it's the only
route in the London suburbs (Croydon aside) to have a serious proposal
for trams.

In any case, knowing what proportion of people are travelling
primarily along Uxbridge Road takes more than just "knowing the area"
- it surely requires detailed transport studies.

and that many of the most serious congestion problems are
on north-south routes and other east/west routes, eg Greenford. No public
transport 'improvement' on Uxbridge Road will do anything about that,

I don't see that as an argument against the tram. No single scheme can
be a universal panacea for the whole of west London, unless
inordinately expensive.

If the money earmarked for the tram were instead spread around many
different routes, the total reduction in congestion would probably be
much smaller. Taking the trolleybus idea, there would only be enough
money to wire up an extremely limited number of routes, and in any
case, just replacing diesel buses with electric ones doesn't
(arguably) achieve much in the way of congestion relief.

and a
tram scheme which pushes other road users off Uxbridge Road is bound to make
conditions worse on these other routes including for numerous bus services.

That is far too broad a statement - some roads will be worse, some
will be better, and for some there will be no change. Detailed
projections are available at:
http://www.ealingfoe.org.uk/TramItem...ithoutTram.htm

Overall, however, there will be a huge net reduction in the total
number of cars on the road.

I believe you are being disingenuous in claiming neutrality - you are
clearly pro-tram and anti-trolley,

Everything she said is entirely consistent with being neutral. You are
jumping to conclusions, to say the least.

and no amount of reasoned argument is gonng to persuade you otherwise.

On what grounds do you make this statement? I have seen nothing
whatsoever in this group that would support it.