Page 21 Agenda Item 5

North Lambeth Area Committee 31 st Jan 2007 Cross River Proposal 309/06-07

All wards in North Lambeth Area

Report provided by Transport for . Page 22

Cross River Tram proposal:

Report for the North Lambeth Area Committee 31 January 2007

The Cross River Tram proposal The Cross River Tram (CRT) is a proposal for a 16.5km street running tram operating through the centre of London. CRT will create a strategic link between areas in North and South London. A core route is proposed between Euston and Waterloo with branches to Camden & Kings Cross in the north and and in the south. CRT is a joint proposal by (TfL), Cross River Partnership 1 and the London Boroughs of Camden, , Lambeth and City of Westminster. Transport for London’s (TfL) 5 Year Investment Programme includes funding to develop the design for CRT. Subject to future funding availability to construct the tram, CRT is expected to start operation in 2016. The CRT will offer an attractive alternative for people travelling on some of the most crowded stretches of the Northern, Piccadilly and Victoria lines, and will provide faster connections to those areas currently less well served by rail or underground. Comfortable and convenient will be spacious, air conditioned and run smoothly and quietly. Trams will avoid other traffic wherever possible by running on separate lanes and having priority over other traffic at junctions, making journeys faster and more reliable.

Enhancing the environment

CRT will help to reduce traffic pollution and congestion on London’s streets. Trams are powered by electricity so they produce no direct emissions. Some new trams can recycle their own energy by up to thirty per cent. Croydon has encouraged more people to use public transport and has led to a reduction in the number of car journeys by nearly four million trips a year. The tram would also provide the opportunity to enhance the areas along the route. Transport for London will work the boroughs to provide new pavements, streetlights, pedestrian crossings and other improvements. Trams are highly accessible to everyone offering step free, gap free, level boarding easy for users who are less able or travelling with prams.

Attracting Jobs and Investment

1 Formed in 1995 the Cross River Partnership, an alliance of 14 public and private organisations and the four central London local authorities, was created to make the link between wealth and prosperity in central London and deprived areas and to make the river less of a physical and social barrier. Responsible for more than a hundred projects in, over and around the river, it offers those living in less prosperous areas access to the jobs and opportunities offered by a world-class city and supports the geographical and economic expansion of the capital south of the river.

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London is a world class city that is growing both economically and in population and it needs an excellent transport system to support this growth. Cross River Tram will address some of this predicted growth by improving transport to key regeneration projects.

Under current plans, £7 billion is being invested to improve areas such as King’s Cross, , Brixton and the in Southwark. These developments could generate around 78,000 jobs. Cross River Tram will significantly improve access to opportunities, linking these and other neighbourhoods to around one million jobs in central London. In the UK trams have already played a major role in bringing new jobs, investment and growth to local communities. Croydon Tramlink, which has proved to very successful. Areas served by Tramlink have benefited from an average drop in unemployment of around 10% since 2000. Large employers have moved to Croydon citing good transport links as a key factor in making their choice. This has helped bring in £1.5bn of extra investment into the area.

Some of the other benefits of the CRT

• Carry an estimated 66 million passengers a year and will interchange with 12 stations and four major rail stations, including the future international terminal at St.Pancras

• Focus attention on London with an eye-catching asset to tourism

• Halve journey times into central London for some sections of the route

• The same price as the bus the tram will be part of the Oystercard system so passengers can "hop on and off"

• Faster connections to certain areas currently less well served by rail or underground

Example journey times Camden to 13 minutes Aylesbury Estate to Waterloo 14 minutes Brixton to 20 minutes Peckham to 26 minutes

Background

We have been working on the proposals for Cross River Tram with the Cross River Partnership (CRP) and the boroughs.

TfL, with CRP have developed the proposal for a Cross River Tram.

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In 2001 we carried out a public consultation exercise asking people about a potential light and King’s Cross. The response from this consultation was positive and in 2002 the Mayor announced that he wanted to take the scheme forward.

We have looked at many options along the route with the key boroughs and CRP, only progressing those that are viable and can be delivered. To assess the possible route options we have looked at the potential advantages and disadvantages of each very carefully.

The tram route A core route is proposed between Euston and Waterloo with branches to Camden and King’s Cross in the north and Brixton and Peckham in the south. The route is still to be decided. Public consultation is underway which will feed into the decision making process on the proposed route.

Consultation on tram route options A formal public consultation on route options for Cross River Tram started in November 2006 and will continue until 30 January 2007. Because the proposed Cross River Tram is a big scheme running through four boroughs we have divided the route into five sections to make it easy to understand and gather views on the route otpions: Section one – the main section of the route – Euston to Waterloo Section two – Euston to King’s Cross Section three – Euston to Camden Town Section four – Waterloo to Oval, Oval to Brixton and Brixton town centre Section five – Waterloo to Peckham and Peckham town centre The consultation included the distribution of approximately 270,000 brochures including every business and residential address within 1km of the proposed routes and advertisements in local newspapers. Each consultation booklet had a post paid return form for people to indicate their route preferences. Events have also been held through the route consultation to enable local stakeholders to get more information and talk to people about various aspects of the project. Events have been advertised in the press and the internet. The consultation materials are also available on the TfL website.

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Consultation in Lambeth The route options that are being consulted on in Lambeth are: 1. Between Waterloo to Oval

• Two route options 2. Between Oval to Brixton

• Two route options 3. In Brixton Town Centre

• Two route options (copies of the consultation documents detailing the route options will be made available at the meeting). The advantages and disadvantages of each option are set out in the consultation document. In Lambeth the consultation events took place in central Brixton on 8 & 9 December 2006. A mock tram was used to attract interest and over 800 people stopped to talk about the tram proposal and route options.

All feedback from the preferred route consultation will be collated and analysed and a summary of the response from stakeholders and individual members of the public will be sent to everyone who requests one. TfL will decide on a route in discussion with the London boroughs concerned. Public preferences and comments on the route options will be considered as part of the decision on the preferred route.

Once the single preferred route is agreed TfL will work with the boroughs on the tram route to request that Full Council formally ratifies the preferred route and adopt planning policies (e.g. in their Unitary Development Plans or Local Development Frameworks) that ensure the route is not threatened by future developments.

CRT key milestones

Consultation on route options

Public preferences on the route options are sought during this stage and will be considered as part of the decision on the preferred route.

Projected date: November 2006 – Feb 2007

Consultation on depot locations and local issues

Working with local groups and communities to identify local issues.

Projected date: March – May 2007

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Identify preferred route

After considering feedback from the consultation, as well as input from the borough councils and technical issues (such as traffic and utilities) a single preferred route is identified from all of the options. TfL identifies and adopts preferred route.

Projected date: Summer 2007

Preferred route adopted and safeguarded

Projected date: Autumn 2007 onwards

As outlined above, TfL will work with the boroughs to protect the preferred route.

Consultation on preferred route

Consultation with people living around route to identify and as far as possible address any concerns they have about the route.

Projected date: Autumn 2007 - 2009

Application for a Transport & Works Act (TWA) order

Working with the boroughs, TfL develops detailed plans for how the route will be designed and constructed. These are submitted to the Secretary of State for the Department for Transport as an application for a TWA order.

Before the application there will be a statutory consultation period so that stakeholders can ask questions and look at the detailed plans of the design before it is submitted.

Projected date: 2009

Public inquiry

Once the application has been made, the Secretary of State will decide whether a public inquiry takes place. A public inquiry gives interested parties the opportunity to present their views about the CRT.

Projected date: 2009

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Secretary of State decision

The inspector chairing the public inquiry will draft a report to the Secretary of State to help make the decision whether to grant TfL the powers necessary to built the CRT route. The Secretary of State can ask for amendments or conditions base don evidence given during the enquiry before granting permission.

Construction & commissioning

Construction contractors working for TfL will build the route. This is scheduled to start after the 2012 Olympics and will take between 3 and 4 years.

Projected date - 2012 - 2016

Tram service starts

Trams running along all parts of the route.

Projected date- 2016

Debbie Canavan Major Projects Communications Tel: 020 71264885 Mob: 07894005853 [email protected]

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