Say what you will, Bath’s ‘Bring Back Our Trams’ lobby is very persistent and now they’ve come up with a whole new set of reasons why the ‘powers that be’ should put their hands in their pockets and pay for a city network to be installed.
Bath Area Trams Association is in detailed discussions with an American transportation system manufacturer who may just have come up with futuristic track following mode of transport that could be the answer to their authority-persuading prayers.
The Association Chair is Dave Andrews who joined me via Zoom
Below is a promotional video from TIG/m – the Californian company in talks with Bath Area Trams Association.
Trams are a nice idea, and I applaud the concept of them being hydrogen powered with no overhead clutter. However, this technology is coming to buses as well, and buses have great advantages over trams in terms of flexibility. Installing the infastructure for trams would be horrendously expensive (who would pay – WECA ?), cause huge traffic disruption during construction and be of little benefit compared to clean buses. I have yet to be persuaded.
Chris Rogers sent the following comments – via email:
Look no Wires
There are several ways of achieving this: hydrogen power, battery power or ground level power supply – which has a power rail in the ground which only switches on when a tram is above it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground-level_power_supply
Look no Rails
There are even experiments with rail-less trams which follow a line on the road. It doesn’t remove tyre particle pollution, but it is cheap because there is no need to dig up the road. Routes can be updated relatively easily.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_Rail_Rapid_Transit
What is the advantage over buses?
A tram follows the route very precisely, so it doesn’t need as much space on the road and routes can be put into narrower streets. Since the tram can’t go round illegally parked vehicles it is reasonable to tow them away immediately. Drivers learn this quickly and stop doing it.