COMMENT: Trams idea certainly on right lines (From Worcester News)

COMMENT: Trams idea certainly on right lines

8:09am Monday 31st March 2008 in News

MIGHTY oaks from little acorns grow... your Worcester News uses this age-old saying with its customary caution.

Nevertheless, it does seem to us that this idea of a trams network serving Worcester need not necessarily be just a pipedream.

Derek Prodger tells us that his transport team at the county council is drawing up a feasibility study based on a similar scheme being tested in Sheffield. Trams would use existing railway tracks, rather than requiring their own rails.

We like the sound of it. Worcester is almost circled by existing track and it doesn't take an enormous leap of the imagination to see how it could work. In fact, this newspaper dares to dream of a public transport system - for once - actually working and solving the city's chronic traffic problem. Nevertheless, there are certain realities that need to be taken into account.

First, there is the danger of the usual tedious political tit-for-tat.

We could envisage a scenario where the county bids for Whitehall cash, the money's not forthcoming, and we have the obligatory ideological sniping.

Even so, with transport minister Ruth Kelly making encouraging noises, we should perhaps be cautiously optimistic.

Second, Worcester has submitted seemingly water-tight bids before only to meet with disappointment.

But as public enthusiasm for park-and-ride goes off the boil, while the congestion becomes worse, there is nothing to be lost and everything to be gained by embracing this bold and radical plan.

This trams project is most certainly on the right lines.