"Recliner" wrote in message
news
tim... wrote:


"Basil Jet" wrote in message
news

https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/trams/the-future-of-trams

"Since 2000, we have seen the number of passengers on trams increase from
14
million to 32 million passengers in 2015. Passenger numbers are expected
to
reach nearly 60 million by 2030.

We need to upgrade the trams network to accommodate this growth"

Um, how does building a new line to serve a new area create extra
capacity
to accommodate growth on the current network?

and then there's

"The second phase would unlock the potential of the Wandle Valley and St
Helier areas for housing,"

Um, what part of these areas that is not already built on do they think
has
not been deliberately left as open space for leisure purposes?

I don't know that area, so can't comment on the specific.

Well I do, as I spent the first 30 years of my life living there (and still
occasionally pass through).

But even so, I mis-understood the area that they meant by Wandle valley.

As they linked it with "and St Helier" I assumed that they meant the bit of
the river from around Morden Road station to Carshalton, which (more or
less) is adjacent to St Helier, and likely to be serviced, at last in part,
by a new tram to Sutton.

That part of the river, where it is not already built up, flows through the
very small amount of "high quality" open space that exists in the area, for
which the suggestion of building upon it would not go down well with the
community (not to mention the Eco Numpties).

However, it seems (having now read the whole document and not just the
summary) that they mean the area around the Waddon Trading estates (where
IKEA is) which, as this is mostly brown-field run down industrial sites,
does seem ripe for redevelopment, where that has not happened already. So
I'll concede that one to them.

But as for St Helier.

It is mostly packed in terraced 2/3 bedroom houses with tiny gardens
interspersed with deliberately planned open green space.

And, apart from a couple of run down and closed pubs, I can't think of a
redundant commercial property in the area at all.

As far as I can see the only way that you could build more than a very
nominal increase in properties in the area is to build on the deliberately
left open, open space. (some of which is already earmarked for a replacement
hospital, when/if they have funding)

tim