West London Tram
TheUxbridge Road atHillingdon, part of the proposed route of the tramway
Overview
Owner	Transport for London
Locale	West London, England
Transit type	Tram
Number of lines	1
Number of stations	40
Operation
Operation will start	Abandoned proposal
Technical
System length	12 mi (19 km)
Track gauge	Standard gauge

v t e West London Tram
Legend
Uxbridge station Civic Centre, Uxbridge RAF Uxbridge Greenway forBrunel University Hillingdon Village Long Lane Hillingdon Heath Hayes End Lansbury Drive Church Road, Hayes Shakespeare Avenue The Grapes Grand Union Canal Grand Union Canal (Paddington Arm) Southall Broadway Southall/High Street Dormers Wells Ironbridge Ealing Hospital Hanwell Bridge Hanwell Broadway Hanwell Cemeteries West Ealing Northfield Avenue St Leonard's Road Ealing Town Hall Ealing Broadway station Ealing Common Park Ealing Common station Twyford Crescent Acton Square Acton Town Hall North London Line Acton Park The King's Arms Bromyard Avenue Askew Road The Adelaide Bloemfontein Road Shepherd's Bush Market station Shepherd's Bush station

TheWest London Tram (also known asWest London Transit) was a proposedon-streetlight rail line that was to run along theUxbridge Road (A4020) corridor inWest London, England. The scheme was promoted byTransport for London (TfL).^[1] It was postponed indefinitely on 2 August 2007, as it was opposed by the councils of all three bisected London Boroughs.^[2]

The tram route was planned to run betweenUxbridge andShepherd's Bush, servingHayes (north),Hillingdon,Southall,Hanwell,West Ealing,Ealing andActon en route,^[3] and would have replaced three equivalentLondon Buses routes. The proposed route was the same route asLondon's tram route 7 from about 1905 until 1951.

Therevival of interest in tramways and light rail transit systems around the start of the 21st century led to the re-introduction of electric trams to a number of British cities and towns such asManchester,Sheffield, andCroydon. The West London Tram scheme was first announced in 2002 by the thenMayor of London,Ken Livingstone, along with other projects such as theCross River Tram and theThames Gateway Transitbus rapid transit scheme.^[4]

Livingstone promoted the project as a solution totraffic congestion problems in the west of London. It was forecast that the tramway would carry 50 million passengers a year and, based on research of Croydon Tramlink, promoters anticipated around 19% of those passengers would switch from using a car to the tram for their journey. The scheme was budgeted at a cost of approximately £200 million, and the line would come into service by 2009.^[4]

The tram was designed to run along the congestedUxbridge Road fromUxbridge toShepherd's Bush and replace the heavily used207,427 and607 bus routes. Had the route been constructed it would have revived a tram route established in 1904 and which was replaced by atrolleybus route 607 which was itself superseded by the present bus routes.^[5][6]

The trams were to run on a completely on-street route, with a mixture of stretches shared with road traffic, "accessible" routes (controlled lanes which road traffic would be permitted to enter temporarily, for example to avoid an obstruction), and segregated stretches of track which would be for tram use only, mostly along the central reservation of the Uxbridge Road. The tram was partly envisaged as a "feeder" service for other modes of transit, transporting passengers to interchange points withLondon Underground,London Overground and the futureCrossrail service.^[7]

The West London Tram scheme proved to be a contentious proposal, with public opinion along the route more or less divided on the issue. Several consultation exercises and opinion polls reported contradictory results of narrow majorities both for and against the tram.

The scheme was opposed by the local councils of theboroughs along the intended tramway route:Ealing,Hammersmith & Fulham andHillingdon. Ealing council had initially supported the project, but following a change of council after thelocal elections, the new rulingConservative Party council voted against the tramway.^[8]

Ealing was also a focus of public campaigning against the tram, where opposition was strongest. A localpressure group,Save Ealing's Streets, launched a campaign in 2004 against the construction of the tramway through Ealing and along the A40 corridor. The group voiced concerns that there were a number of "pinch points" (sections of road not wide enough to accommodate two lanes of traffic and two tram lanes) along the Uxbridge Road which would create major congestion problems and divert a significant amount of traffic through residential areas. They also took the view that the reduction in traffic resulting from the tram would not be as high as that claimed by TfL, citing TfL's own impact studies of Croydon Tramlink. The Croydon system, the group noted, runs mostly on converted railway lines with only a short section of on-street track, and traffic displacement was managed by the construction of a new bypass; the West London Tram, by contrast, would run entirely along a highway which is hemmed in by narrow residential streets, with no scope for additional road construction.^[9]

The Mayor of London commissioned a public consultation in 2004 to gauge public opinion about the project and make revisions to the plans. 440,000 consultation brochures were circulated and nearly 17,000 questionnaires completed. The results of the exercise, published in March 2005, showed that, while 54% of respondents felt there was need to reduce congestion improve public transport and on the Uxbridge Road, 59 per cent were opposed to the tramway scheme. Opponents expressed concerns about the cost of the project and an anticipated increase in traffic congestion, particularly on residential side roads.^[10][11]

The consultation - the largest ever held by Transport for London - was reportedly dismissed by MayorKen Livingstone as "unscientific", who instead cited a separate poll of 1,100 west Londoners which claimed a 54% backing for the tram.^[8][12] Another 2004 poll of 1,800 people, commissioned fromORC by theGreater London Authority, claimed 56% support for the tram.^[13]

TfL commissioned market a research programme fromIpsos MORI, who conducted 1,860 telephone interviews with residents of west London during June 2006.^[14] The results found that opinion was divided, with 40% supporting the tram scheme while 44% were opposed. A further 14% were impartial. Supporters of the scheme saw the trams as an environmentally friendly and more rapid transport solution than buses, and thought that it would reduce traffic congestion. Opponents mostly expressed the view that the tram line would increase traffic congestion as the roads were not wide enough to accommodate existing traffic and trams, and that traffic would be displaced into side roads, as well as concerns over the disruption caused by tramway construction. While a majority of residents thought that trams were environmentally friendly, a majority believed that trams take up too much space on the road. Most interviewees felt that reducing congestion on the Uxbridge Road was important, an improved bus service was favoured by many.^[14]

The West London Tram project was postponed indefinitely by TfL in August 2007. The decision followed the announcement thatcentral government was to go ahead with theCrossrail project.^[2] Opponents of the tramway were critical of the fact that £30 million had already been spent on the project before its cancellation.^[15]

TfL have pledged to work with the local boroughs to increase bus provision instead, including interchanges with the future Crossrail stations. TfL have said the tram scheme may be revisited however if further public transport capacity is needed after Crossrail is up and running.^[16]

Although there was strong opposition to the West London Tram scheme, most subjects expressed the view that congestion on the Uxbridge Road corridor was a major problem and thought that improvements to the existing bus services would be desirable.^[14]

Various transport systems have been proposed as an alternative.

• Campaigning groupTrolley Buses for West London advocated the introduction oftrolleybuses (cabled buses); while such a system would deliver the environmental benefits of electric traction vehicles running onrubber tyres would be quieter, more flexible in congestion, and not entail the maintenance of track nor its laying.^[17]

• Alternative thinkers suggest amonorail.^[9] For comparison, in 2003, a proposal was considered byHounslow London Borough Council to construct a 21-kilometre (13 mi) elevated monorail strong-piered above theA4 route fromHammersmith toHeathrow Airport. This was rejected by TfL.^[18]

• Transport for London - West London Tram: official site for scheme (site defunct; archived page)
• "West London Tram".alwaystouchout.com.
• Save Ealing's Streets: anti-tram campaign (site defunct; archived page)
• West London Friends of the Earth - West London TramArchived 25 June 2006 at theWayback Machine: pro-tram campaign
• Trolley Buses for West LondonArchived 18 July 2009 at theWayback Machine: pro- trolley buses.
• Map showing West London Transit on London Underground map

• Abandoned light rail projects in the United Kingdom
• Proposed rail infrastructure in London
• Trams in London
• Transport in the London Borough of Ealing
• Transport in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham
• Transport in the London Borough of Hillingdon

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