According to:
http://iccroydon.icnetwork.co.uk/new...siteid=5334 0


By Ian Austen - 1 Aug 2003





"THE town's most up-to-date shopping centre faces the prospect of being
by-passed by Croydon's tram system.

A complicated wrangle over responsibility for the link means that Centrale
will miss out on the connection - even though trams will be passing only
yards from the main entrance.

The bizarre situation arises out of lengthy and unresolved negotiations over
who does what to ensure the £100m shopping centre, the bulk of which is to
open by Easter next year, is served by Tramlink.

When the St Martins Property Group got planning permission for the
development comprising more than 40 shops, restaurants and a 1,000-space car
park, Croydon Council insisted the company paid for a new tram-stop in
Tamworth Road[single track, between Reeves Corner and the Bus station -
Alan].

Centrale has duly sought to carry out the work at a cost of around £250,000,
but who is going foot the bill for the huge extra sum needed to ensure trams
can stop without wrecking existing schedules for passengers is still up in
the air.

Roger Harding, general manager of TCL - the company which runs Tramlink -
says 21 trams an hour use the central Croydon loop, passing Centrale.

If they were all to stop, the timetables regulated by Transport for London
(TfL), would face major disruption.

Mr Harding said: "It is all a question of practicalities of providing a
service which matches the present timetable. That could easily mean us
needing another tram."

The cost of buying a new tram and making necessary running changes could be
close to £6m."

SNIP

Any comments?

Regards,

- Alan (in Brussels)

"Alan (in Brussels)" wrote in message
...

According to:

http://iccroydon.icnetwork.co.uk/new...siteid=5334 0

Roger Harding, general manager of TCL - the company which runs Tramlink -

Mr Harding said: "It is all a question of practicalities of
providing a service which matches the present timetable.
That could easily mean us needing another tram."

"could easily mean us needing another tram"? You would think he would have
found out whether it does or not.

It sounds like he is saying "The new stop doesn't necessitate an extra tram,
but we are trying to milk the developers for one anyway."

--
John Rowland - Spamtrapped
Transport Plans for the London Area, updated 2001
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acro...69/tpftla.html
A man's vehicle is a symbol of his manhood.
That's why my vehicle's the Piccadilly Line -
It's the size of a county and it comes every two and a half minutes

In the message: ...
"John Rowland" wrote:

"Alan (in Brussels)" wrote in message
...

According to:


http://iccroydon.icnetwork.co.uk/new...siteid=5334 0

Roger Harding, general manager of TCL - the company which runs
Tramlink -

Mr Harding said: "It is all a question of practicalities of
providing a service which matches the present timetable.
That could easily mean us needing another tram."

"could easily mean us needing another tram"? You would think he would have
found out whether it does or not.

It sounds like he is saying "The new stop doesn't necessitate an extra
tram,
but we are trying to milk the developers for one anyway."

Indeed, and ISTM that the estimated cost of £6 million is way OTT.
In any case, I find the implication of this approach to be strange. The
rationale for adding a halt beside the new shopping centre is surely
that this will attract extra traffic, and thus extra revenue. So presumably
at least part of the cost of any action taken to increase capacity will be
offset by that extra revenue, but this is not mentioned.

I don't know if Tramlink's schedules are designed to ensure convenient
connections with National Rail services at the relevant termini, but (as
other posters have pointed out) there may be scope for modest
acceleration, even without eliminating all the single-track bottlenecks.

Regards,

Alan (in Brussels)