The Light Rail Transit Association (LRTA) was established in 1937 by a group of people concerned about the proposed closures of tramways in London. The Association has grown over the intervening years into an international body with over 2,000 members around the world, half outside the United Kingdom. Although the LRTA’s members come from all walks of life, they share a common concern with the development of good quality public transport featuring light rail and tramways. Many are professionals working in the transport industries. The Association’s monthly magazine, Tramways & Urban Transit is widely regarded as essential reading around the world by those concerned with the development, building, operation and use of light rail and tramway systems.
The Association’s objectives are to educate people about light rail and modern tramways and to advocate the adoption of such systems as core components of modern integrated transport systems. The Association carries out its campaigning under the banner TramForward.
The LRTA is disappointed that no reference is made to use of Trams and Light Rail in the aim to reduce emissions from transport. It seems to be totally focussed on private transport, apart from a section on decarbonising buses.
Light rail can help towards the Government’s decarbonising agenda in three ways: it has a proven record of attracting passengers from cars, it is energy-efficient and, being electrically driven, it can be powered from renewable resources. Furthermore, it enhances the image of public transport generally.
We should be looking at reducing all emissions and energy use from transport and encouraging a modal shift to rail-based transport will achieve this. Rail transport comes in two types, heavy and light. Light rail also has different categories, from trams, which to some extent use street running, to segregated systems such as the DLR and Tyne &Wear Metro. All rail systems have the large advantage of having an intrinsic low energy use due to the very low rolling resistance of steel wheel on steel rail, and in-built guidance which allows a vehicle or train of vehicles to transport more passengers than road vehicles. Trams and Light Rail have proven success in achieving modal shift from car use that no bus-based system can match and the quality of ride is predictably superior to rubber-tyred vehicles.
With trams, we have a form of transport that is very flexible. It can operate in-street amongst other traffic and pedestrians, it can then go on to reserved tracks either alongside roads, including “grass tracks” which give a great environmental advantage, or operate on private-right-of- way as a railway, including underground and elevated sections.
In all forms it is the most easily electrifiable form of transport; one electrical conductor already exists in the rails, and a simple overhead wire can complete the circuit. This basic simplicity gives very high energy efficiency, around 90%. The vehicle is also lighter, as it is not carrying its energy supply around with it, and doesn’t have to be taken out of service for refuelling. There has recently been a misplaced idea that the electrification system is a major cost - actually it is less than 10% of typical system co - and that “wire-free” is the way forward. Any such alternative is much lower in energy efficiency, and comes with its own costs, some of which will become apparent when costly batteries need replacing. The worst of all is hydrogen, which has an overall efficiency of around 30%, along with severe dangers from leaks of very high pressure systems.
With conventional electrification, using a small energy store such as supercapacitors on the vehicle would enable much higher recovery of regenerated energy, and keep the peaks of accelerating and negative decelerating current out of the supply system, enabling an almost ten-fold reduction of current rating, with consequent reduction of mass and cost.
Light rail produces no harmful emissions at the point of use, unlike petrol or diesel engine road vehicles. It should also be recognised that changing from fossil-fuelled road vehicles to electrically-propelled road vehicles will not eliminate the deadly production of PM2.5 particulates which is caused by tyre and road wear. Higher vehicle weight may indeed make it worse! Light rail, with its steel wheels on steel tracks, removes this source of pollution.
As regards the question of taxation, it should be made clear what the purpose of this is. Is it to maintain tax revenue for the Government as the take from fuel duty declines; is it to provide financial support for public transport investment and/or operation; or is it to encourage motorist to switch from private to public transport?
The LRTA agrees that some form of “pay as you go” tax, particularly if it also replaces vehicle tax, would help to encourage public transport use by reducing the standing charge on vehicles as opposed to a charge on use. This would encourage a move towards the situation found in Germany, where there is lower usage of private vehicles in spite of a higher number of vehicles per head of population.
The LRTA has no specific view on which charging method would be best but the transition to a new system needs to be carefully managed to ensure that drivers of internal combustion vehicles do not feel that they are being charged twice. This group, which is likely to be the least affluent, may find switching to potentially more expensive electric vehicles a problem.
February 2021