The Guardian’s ‘On This Day’ feature for June 24 (click here to view) contained a report on the opening of the Charing Cross – Hampstead tube, now part of the Northern Line. Sir Edgar Speyer (Chairman of the Underground Electric Railways Company) is quoted as saying “…it was a matter of regret that the problem [...]

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Major changes in the operation of the DLR, coupled with ongoing project work and the onset of the recession, resulted in an increase in grants from Transport for London to the TfL subsidiary that owns and manages the Docklands Light Railway in the year to 31 March 2009, according to its annual accounts. Operation and [...]

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About 10 years ago, Blackpool realised that its tramway was falling apart, quite literally. The track was knackered, the electrical infrastructure north of Cleveleys had never been touched and the depot infrastructure was tired. The solution? Submit ambitious plans to upgrade into a modern super-tramway with fully accessible contemporary trams, new track and infrastructure. Many [...]

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Like many people, I suspect, I was initially very pleased about the announcement in April about the Department for Transport’s green light for a tram-train experiment in South Yorkshire. Then I read it again, and started to think. The story in Modern Railways last month ran something like this: The Department for Transport has announced [...]

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Over the years since TAS started monitoring the development of rapid transit schemes, there have been several swings of the pendulum. In the very early 1990s, there was an upsurge of interest, with feasibility studies undertaken in as many as 40 towns and cities around the UK.  As might have been expected, many of these quickly concluded that there [...]

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