THE HEADLINE on Hugh Jaeger’s trams letter (May 27) was absolutely correct. Yes “it’s time we considered the facts about trams.”

Unfortunately the real facts tell a different story.

We are neither for or against the concept of trams in Oxford, after all our company used to run them at one stage!

I am worried, if you will forgive the pun, the idea of trams in Oxford is building-up a head of steam and many wrong assumptions are going unchallenged.

I attended the Trams for Oxford workshop and listened to all the arguments.

Buses can work just as well as trams with effective segregation; it’s the allocation of road space in a unique city that is the issue.

At the workshop it was acknowledged that the capital costs of trams will never be covered by the users.

So where is the money coming from? Construction costs were around £28m per km in Nottingham and if digging starts in historic Oxford it’s likely to be much higher.

For the total cost of building Line 1 in Nottingham, buses could have run on the same corridor at the same frequency with free fares for 50 years.

Fare evasion in Europe on trams is as high as 50 per cent and typically around 20 per cent. Who is going to control this?

Most systems saw conductors introduced to control this, thus doubling the staffing costs.

Recent tram construction projects have overrun and been more costly than anticipated.

You only have to speak those who went through this in Birmingham and Edinburgh recently to see this.

In fact, I would encourage people to go and look at Corporation Street in Birmingham now to see the visual impact of construction.

One thing that we all agree on is that good access to all areas of the city centre is a must for public transport. But don’t let ideas for a might-never-happen tram project stop work now on what can be achieved using the buses of the future.

PHIL SOUTHALL
Managing Director, Oxford Bus Company