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Proposals for a Liverpool light rail system could be revived if Labour comes to power at the next General Election, says its Mayor Steve Rotheram.
Back in 2007, Labour Transport Secretary Alistair Darling cancelled the three-line Merseytram scheme because it was considered too expensive at £325 million, although £70m was spent on development. The new figure for completion has been estimated by experts at up to £1 billion.
Leeds, Bristol and Southampton schemes were dropped at the same time for similar reasons, although plans for Leeds are on the way back.
The idea of a tramway to serve the Liverpool city population of around 500,000 has never gone away, with a variety of proposals advanced over the past decade, including battery trams on roads.
Rotheram told an audience discussing the future of the Liverpool City Region in midOctober: “We had the money before Manchester for a tram. Our local authorities couldn’t work together and we lost it.
“We spent the money on the rails but when we ended up selling them, we didn’t even get the money. We ended up fighting each other and lost the opportunity to steal a march on Manchester.”
While the blame for cancelling Merseytram was finally laid on political infighting among local authorities, it was clouded by the imposition of the impossible completion deadline before Liverpool became the European Capital of Culture in 2008.
Nevertheless, it had reached an advanced stage, with land purchased and £821,000 worth of track delivered. But after a period in storage at Immingham Docks, it was sold for just £268,000 to the Manx Electric Railway and Douglas Bay Horse Tramway on the Isle of Man.
The 11-mile Merseytram
