YEARS OF NOTTINGHAM 10 EXPRESS TRANSIT In association with The Safest Choice Panel Lifter Rail Movement & Scrap Recovery Lifts and removes / installs 60ft concrete panels High capacity Unimog and trolley system is in minutes – completely eliminating tandem crane approved for lifting and moving up to 709ft LWRs lifting and manual handling – which can then – eliminating rail dragging and manual handling. be removed or installed utilising the Unimog rail In scrap recovery mode, up to a mile of scrap rail movement system. No need for isolations, which can be burned, lifted and recovered to access point offers huge advantages. Here the Panel Lifter is for removal by NDS road Haulage. No isolation seen carrying out re-modelling works at Stirling is required for our unique rail movement / scrap Station in July 2013. recovery method. FLASS Trac Rail Transposer Fine Lining and Sleeper Spacing accurately aligns The Trac Rail Transposer offers the safest and most and spaces up to 15 sleepers per lift, with an efficient way to install or remove rail with output overall rate of 10-12 lengths per hour, making rail rates of which up to 88 lengths per hour have been installation and clipping easier and faster. Track achieved. TRTs in multiple can move and install laid using the FLASS machine eliminates manual switches (all sizes), crossings and LWR lengths – handling and snagging works, and also reduces completely eliminating manual handling. The TRT tamping requirements, making a material saving to only occupies the line it is working on, enabling the the overall cost of renewals. Here we see the FLASS adjacent line still to be used for passing movements in action on the Edinburgh Tram project. and is suitable for all types of rail and conductor rail. T: 01465 831 350 | E: [email protected] | W: www.mccullochrail.com All McCulloch Rail equipment has been designed and manufactured specifically with the rail industry in mind and can operate without isolation and under ALO conditions. All equipment has full Network Rail approval. ‘NET: A SHINING EXAMPLE OF SUCCESS’ AN INTRODUCTION FROM COUNCILLOR JANE URQUHART It is fitting that this year Nottingham is hosting the 9th Annual UK Light Rail Conference soon after the tenth anniversary of the opening of Line One of Nottingham’s tram system. Both have grown, year on year, to become shining examples of success. Nottingham Express Transit (NET) was, at the time of its opening, one of the largest and most innovative Private Finance Initiative projects in Britain. It has provided some 90 million passenger journeys over the last decade and is received positively by passengers, as highlighted in the recent Passenger Focus Tram Passenger Survey. The widespread economic benefits Street life: Between Lace Market and Old Market Square NET has supported continue to be seen today. Nottingham is now a thriving economic engine and areas to the north “Nottingham is a forward-thinking city... But if the of Nottingham – which suffered much deprivation following the decimation of city is to grow, we must continue to invest.” Nottinghamshire’s mining communities – have been stimulated by new housing and ng2 business park and many other transport growth through the WPL is retail in part because of better transport workplaces, to which around 55 000 evidence of this. But if the city is to grow, links to Nottingham city centre thanks to employees commute, will benefit. we must continue to invest. the tram and the Robin Hood line. In total, over GBP750m (approx. We have worked hard to secure However, NET Line One was never EUR915m) is currently being invested investment to expand our tram network, intended to be built in isolation. into the city’s road, tram and rail redevelop the railway station, provide It was always envisaged as part of a infrastructure. The redevelopment of electric buses and free-to-use cycles, more expansive network. Years of Nottingham’s railway station is almost and to improve our roads. This is all thoughtful planning, political stability, a complete. Its integration with the part of our commitment to laying the can-do attitude and good partnership extended tram network and new facilities foundations for future growth so that working are leading to a transformation for cyclists and motorists transform it the city is well-placed to respond to a of Nottingham, spearheaded by the into a genuine transport ‘hub’. recovering economy, and to create a construction of two more tramlines. The expanded tram network and more prosperous Nottingham for those The network expansion in Nottingham railway station redevelopment wouldn’t who live and work here. is one of the largest rail construction have been possible without Nottingham’s projects in the country, and the biggest Workplace Parking Levy (WPL), the civil engineering project in the East first and only such scheme in the UK Midlands. The addition of two new lines that places a levy on city employers will mean that over 30% of Greater who provide 11 or more parking places. Councillor Nottingham’s population will live within Introducing this required strong leadership Jane Urquhart 800m of a tram stop. Some of the in the face of opposition, but cities don’t Portfolio Holder city’s largest employers, including the benefit without making tough decisions. for Planning and Transport, Queen’s Medical Centre, the University Nottingham is a forward-thinking city. Nottingham of Nottingham’s main campus, the Our innovative approach to funding City Council WORDS AND IMAGES: Neil Pulling (unless otherwise stated) COMMERCIAL: Andy Adams, Geoff Butler DESIGN: Debbie Nolan PRODUCTION: Lanna Blyth EDITOR: Simon Johnston. With grateful thanks to Councillor Jane Urquhart, Chris Deas and Sarah Alton at Nottingham City Council; Phil Hewitt and Richard Horsley at Tramlink Nottingham; Paul Robinson of Nottingham Trams, Alistair Gordon of Keolis; Pat Armstong. COVER CAPTION: 75 years separate the completion of Nottingham’s Council House and of its tramway. A special publication from Tramways & Urban Transit © 2014 Tramways & Urban Transit 10 YEARS OF NET / 3 BACKGROUND TO THE TRANSFORMATION On 9 March 2004, tram 203 formed the The official launch on 8 March was first Nottingham Express Transit (NET) by the Lord Mayor of Nottingham and, BOTTOM: Then UK Transport Minister Alistair Darling on launch day, public service. The 05.58 from Phoenix with some irony, Alistair Darling, a 8 March 2004. Nottingham City Council Park was shortly followed by departures Secretary of State for Transport who from the two other termini. Since 2004, presided over several tram project BELOW: Alistair Darling with the about 90 million trips have been made cancellations. The country’s systems each Sheriff of Nottingham, Councillor Derek Creswell. Nottingham City Council over a largely unchanged infrastructure. took their own often difficult path into It is the shortest of British light rail existence, something contributing to their operations at 14.4km (9 miles), of which many dissimilarities. about 4km (2.5 miles) is on-street. It has, Except for Blackpool, there have however, undergone organisational change been no legacy systems in the UK to and by late 2014 NET will have more than modernise, exemplified by Nottingham’s doubled its length and tram fleet. The way original electric tramway lasting only from it functions will also have altered. 1901 until 1936. Neither has there arisen Indicative of challenges for the UK’s LRT the consensus or the momentum needed industry, upon entering its tenth year, NET to install new systems, as apparent in remained the country’s newest system. France and Spain. The time between construction starting Nottingham is the only modern UK in June 2000 and the 2004 opening closely system not in a metropolitan county, matched a Labour Government policy thereby not having a Passenger Transport shift from support for up to 25 tramways Executive (PTE). Most of NET as opened to dismissing the mode in favour of buses. in 2004 is within the City of Nottingham 4 / 10 YEARS OF NET Tramways & Urban Transit 10 YEARS OF NOTTINGHAM EXPRESS TRANSIT boundaries, now a unitary 207 nears the Old Market non-metropolitan district council. Square stop in June 2010. The urban spread includes boroughs within Nottinghamshire’s county administration, the ‘two-tier system.’ This exists in a context of national Government retaining powers over local transport, yet also with independent, competing, bus operators. Such circumstances influenced how NET originated, developed and functions. ASSETS UNDER THREAT The East Midlands city enjoys recognition out of proportion to being the UK’s ninth most populous continuous urban area with 729 977 residents (2011 census), 305 700 within City Council boundaries. Coal mines remained active around the city’s edge into the 1980s, yet when the ‘Holy Trinity’ employers still British cities, and Nottingham was Nottingham has never been an archetypal held sway, with Raleigh cycles, John Player no exception. industrial city. Much remains to convey tobacco and Boots the Chemist taking With the Victoria and Broadmarsh its long history. Street names like Nottingham’s name around the world. centres, Nottingham was an early adopter Poultry, Beastmarket Hill and Bridlesmith Vigour and income came from a large of shopping malls. Unlike later competitors Gate truthfully suggest the antiquity student presence and being a retail and like Sheffield’s Meadowhall and Leicester’s of a settlement begun on high ground entertainment centre. Fosse Park (both within 65km, 40 north of the Trent’s flood plain, with A regular test cricket venue, Trent miles) that were more accessible by car, Castle Rock a reminder of its strategic Bridge has also spread the city’s name Nottingham’s equivalents were firmly importance and growing as a centre for internationally, as for a briefer period central, reached via off-putting clogged an agricultural hinterland to the east.