Lynne Featherstone

Off to Uxbridge to meet other members of the London Assembly’s Transport Committee where I am taking them along the entire route of the proposed West London Tram.

The project director from Transport for London and other officers join us too.

Two hours to get to Uxbridge station where we are meeting – but the sun is shining.

I’m not giving a blow by blow account of our four and a half hour exploration by foot and mini-bus of the route – suffice to say a tram would be a wonderful addition and benefit to some areas and some parts of the route. But there are real problems elsewhere with the proposed route.

The real hot spots were plain to see as we stood in Acton High Street – which would be closed to traffic and where the side roads, which would take the displaced traffic, were too tiny really. Along the route there are also questions of the roads being too narrow and the damage to businesses. In total, around 27,000 cars travel the route and would get displaced by the tram.

It’s a very tricky issue – a scheme can be a good idea in general, but if the particular route selected doesn’t work, then that’s that – it shouldn’t go ahead.

Good news is that we have Professor Goodwin – a renowned expert on traffic dispersal – coming to the Transport Committee to give us his views. I hope we can get some real answers to help with judging this balancing act.