On 22 Feb 2007 05:58:39 -0800, wrote:

The point about Uxbridge Road (made consistently on the www.tfwl site)
is that no mode of transport along the road itself simply replacing
the 207/427/607 buses will cure the congestion. It is TfL who claim
that by changing mode this will magically happen!

I don't think anyone's claiming that congestion will be "cured". In
fact, IIRC, TfL predict that congestion will increase even with the
tram - it just won't increase by as much as it would without.

The tram is
certainly not planned to be very fast (19 kph = 13 mph!).

No doubt still faster than car traffic on the same road.

The plan would be for it to be slower than the 607

Really? The tram would have faster acceleration, better priority
measures, and faster loading/unloading. Even with extra stops, I can't
see how it could be slower than the 607.

Strangely, however, I can't find any information online about speed or
end-to-end journey time. In the TfL documents it's almost conspicuous
by its absence (unless I've missed it).

and in fact no faster than a
bus (diesel or electric) would be with similar restricted stops (one
every 400 metres).

With a normal bus, you'd need 60 buses per hour to achieve the same
capacity as 20 trams per hour. At that frequency, priority at
junctions (i.e. lights change in favour of bus/tram as it approaches)
isn't possible, as routes crossing Uxbridge Road would never get a
green.

Whether the new
junctions and layouts along the route will work has of course never
been proved by TfL who have never done any simulations,

What's all this then?

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/trams/download...-Modelling.pdf

"3. What models have been developed for WLT?
[...]
- A range of individual junction models for all signalised junctions
on the Uxbridge Road"

so the trams
could well not move faster than the buses but in fact much slower.
This of course is one of the reasons why the scheme is now opposed by
the councils of all the boroughs through which it is planned to pass.

If that's true, I see no reason why TfL should respect their
opposition.

The problem with the Uxbridge Road is that large numbers of journeys
are not simply along it but use it for only part of the journey. These
represent the vast bulk of the current car journeys (all the evidence
is available publicly in the MORI poll question answers and even more
evidence is available to TfL if they chose to look).

I can't find anything in either of the MORI polls that suggests this.
What answer are you looking at?

What exact proportion is "vast bulk", anyway? One thing the MORI poll
does say is that 46% of those who travel by car along Uxbridge Road
would be likely to make use of the tram at least some of the time.

If you want to get people
out of cars you have to improve the whole network of services in the
West London area including buses off and across the Uxbridge Road.
With a much cheaper and more flexible electric trolleybus trunk option
you have money left to do that.

How does that offer any advantage (apart from reducing local
emissions) over not bothering with trams or trolleybuses at all, and
just improving the conventional bus services in the area?

If you waste all your money on a slow
inflexible street running tram and worsen the bus routes (to make them
tram 'feeders' as proposed ) you are actually likely to encourage more
car usage not less.

Rubbish. Feeder buses for light rail systems work well elsewhere.