PUSHING FOR THE GREEN LIGHT

This article reports on the Third Annual Light Rail Conference, held at Aston University, Birmingham, in May 1990. Its main themes included: (1) how to devise a means of transport that would be attractive to car users; (2) how to justify light rail in terms of better service than buses; (3) the need for support from planning authorities and other development agencies, if plans are to succeed; (4) lack of co-ordination between land use planning, new road building, and light rail proposals; (5) the need for careful consideration of light rail routes, with traffic-generating land uses taking precedence over ease of construction; (6) visual prominence for light rail, and the attractiveness of surface and overhead running; and (7) the importance of how light rail schemes are presented to the public. Over 40 cities and towns in the United Kingdom now have light rail proposals at various stages of advancement. Important findings included: (1) the Docklands Light Railway has been sufficiently flexible to adapt to much higher demands than originally anticipated; (2) light rail can provide a service attractive to car users, significantly better than buses or suburban rail, but traffic-generating land uses have often not been near public transport; (3) Manchester Metrolink has now obtained financial support. (TRRL)