Nottingham studies tramway expansion

A £300 000 study will be used to identify the best candidates for the expansion of the Nottingham, England, tramway system. the East Midlands Combined County Authority (EMCCA) that covers Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire will commission the study to identify how an NET expansion would support Nottingham’s housing market and employment growth. One option would see the tramway extended to Gedling, while others include service from Clifton South P+R to the Fairham Pastures development near Clifton or the potential Chetwynd Barracks development in Chilwell from Toton P+R. A detailed business case for the three extensions will be put together in partnership with Nottingham City Council. 

 

Tim Hesketh, CEO of Tramlink, said, ‘the work needs to start to do further detailed design, to look at what’s required in terms of land acquisition, and public consultation to make it become a reality. There's millions of pounds of work to happen before we even think about procurement and who's going to run it. There's a lot of hard graft and a lot of money to be spent in getting us to that stage and we're quite happy to be part of that hard graft’. Tramlink’s contract to run the NET network runs out in 2034, when responsibility will pass to the EMCCA. Funding for tramway projects comes from the government’s city region sustainable transport settlement, that includes £66M for the East Midlands. 

 

NET is a 32km (20-mile) two-line tramway that was opened in stages in 2004 and 2015. About 15.5M passengers are carried each year using 15 Bombardier Incentro and 22 Alstom Citadis trams. NET is run as a concession by a consortium Tramlink Nottingham Ltd, with shareholders including Alstom, Keels, Vinci and Wellglade.