Two points here. You state Dartford and Gravesham yet the map only shows the route coming up from Gravesend with nothing heading towards Dartford. With Dartford basically a car park for the A2 and M25 J1/2 are there any proposals for more local links this side of the water ?
Right now Dartford has been removed from our near term plan and phase 1. This area is covered very well by fastrack after our original network was planned to extend to dartford.
The second point is more of how local people intend to use a Tram. Bluewater draws people in from both sides of the water but locally it draws people in from Bexley and Swanley and pretty much most of Dartford. Local traffic is hell on earth and the Fast track doesn't really provide a suitable service. Plenty of locals still pop over the water for a ninja trip to Lakeside. I'm interested why your focus hasn't been on the leisure aspect and a greater link between Bluewater and Lakeside. This seems like a missed oportunity.
The long term plan for the tram network will indeed look to those further away towns, and as such hope to attract users to satisfy employment needs of thurrock as well as retail and recreation.
At this time KenEx isnt looking at competing with Fastrack who have a very good service from ebbsfleet to bluewater, kenex plans to have an interchange around this location and work as a complementary service offering links to Thurrock.
You must also realise the port of tilbury cruise terminal will be running a shuttle service from ebbsfleet bringing passengers in for holidays as well as employment & freight.
There is much more to this than supporting a few ninja trips between the shopping facilities either side of the river.
The hospital is also a desirable destination for thurrock people who come under its catchment as closest health facility.
You may recall recently a new tunnel was approved between western quarry and bluewater, its design has been safeguarded for a tram
As far as I can tell; pretty much nobody. However, this isn't really the goal of the Lower Thames Crossing. If the Lower Thames Crossing serves its purpose and drives freight traffic and provides an alternative route for those using long distance travel routes then it will reduce the traffic locally. This will allow greater use of the Dartford Tunnel and QE2 Bridge for locals. I think you make a good point where there is a considerable volume of commuter traffic through the tunnel. If they had the ability to use a local tram service then yeah, I forsee a huge uptake in service. However, without additional local links nobody is going to switch their commute. As a commuter I need to leave my house, drop my car at a local station (with reasonable parking) and then on the other side I need to be able to get to my place of work. Unless the Tram drops me outside my workplace or within a reasonable walking distance; I just wouldn't use it. Consider local car use, parking charges, tram fare, buss fare the other side. TBH F"£$"£k It, I'll take the car.
A few generic questions :
Estimated Fares
Do you have any idea of fare prices end to end or will it be a more zonal approach to fares ? If there is a link to the London Resort, would a fare be included in the ticket price ? How do any projected fares compare to the price for the bus or toll ?
We would like to be competitive with prices to cross the river.
More importantly tap in / tap out with network partners would be our key goal. All very early days and this level of detail will have to be thrashed out with local operators of both bus, rail & TfL.
Journey times
Personally if the journey time was short. I can forsee people shopping in Bluewater and then nipping over to Lakeside. If this is going to be a Tram service where you are stopping every few minutes then I can't really see people using it for end to end travel. Will there be multiple routes and fast, stopping services ? What considerations have been made to journey times for commuting ?
There are a myriad of journey options across the network, not all trams will stop at every stop, rail layout enables by-passing at 'tram stops' and other points to enable 'express' trams to pass by creating shorter journey times for specific routes.
As trams enjoy priority on the highway we know what our USP is here... which has driven this project this far to date!
Trip times is an important factor for local businesses... people dont like buses as they often get caught in congestion.
There is no better place locally as an example of congestion when the M25 or Dartford crossing sprawls out in to the community.
Local resident discount
With the Tunnel offering a local residents scheme; is there any intention to offer the same ? With locals commuting between Kent and Essex the Local resident discount is an absolute Godsend. How do you entice people to switch from the car to a Tram and potentially increasing their daily costs ?
Time is a key enabler here... If you know 100% you will be in work at a given time each day and can get home in the same confidence and, not need to spend 50mins sitting in a car/bus going nowhere across the Dartford Crossing. I know what option i would take, LRDS or not.
I'm not aware of EnsignBus giving a local residents discount on their X80 service... And i also know the ferry doesn't either. Therefore would a tram need to?
I guess the network operator could use a discount scheme for locals if they so wished to entice more out of their cars and on to public transport. This is an accross the board situation...
For KenEx, ticket pricing is a long way off at this point in time... Right now we are focused on ensuring the network foundations are in the right place to support growth of the area and that of the network too, with input from all local authorities.
That's not to say pricing hasnt been spoke about, because it has and, forms a huge part of the business case...!
All new housing developments are limiting car parking spaces, the future is very much biased to using public transport. It is essential that public transport is in place to support that concept.
A2 Redevelopment
Are you working with the redevelopment of the A2 ?
Learning points
How much have you learned from previous Tram schemes. I've used the Croydon Tram scheme on a semi regular basis and find it to be very useful. What have you learned from that scheme and how have you intergrated that into your network ?
Cheers in advance.
A2 redevelopment is out side of the scope of this project - the team are aware and have a seat at the table.
The core team behind KenEx are long in the tooth for light & heavy rail development. Lessons are constantly being learned in light rail. Inspiration and lessons learned come from all four corners of the globe, not just the uk.
KenEx have a seat with UK Tram, The APPLRG and many other formal bodies. We keep well abreast of latest technology and issues seen on all the latest projects.
Exciting times for the next 30yrs - regeneration & growth for South Essex & North Kent looks set to sky rocket..
I’ve never heard that before. Could you provide a link to these studies?
'UK Tram' is a very good resource if you are interested in how cost effective trams are vs buses (long term).
You can also find a lot of information on the APPLRG website.
Well it would. How much are they willing to contribute?
Broadly speaking that will depend largely on what it is they will get in return for their investment... land price increase due to tram stop - just one small detail developers consider when planning their next project.