Mayor's £500m scheme for trams
Trams will return to central London for the first time in 50 years in a £500 million package to cut congestion, it was announced today.
Mayor Ken Livingstone has given the go-ahead for a £300 million Cross River link and a £200 million tramway through west London.
The west London tram, due to be completed by 2009, is set to run from Uxbridge to Shepherds Bush - via Acton, Ealing, Hanwell and Southall town centres. The Cross River tram, earmarked for 2011, will link Camden and King's Cross, via Euston and Waterloo, to Peckham and Brixton.
Up to 122 million passengers each year are expected to use the network when it returns to the city centre for the first time since 1952.
This includes 72 million passengers on the Cross River tram and 50 million in west London. A combination of public and private financing will back the new schemes, which aim to boost public transport and regenerate regions in the capital.
They form part of a £ 560 million package of initiatives announced today to complement Mr Livingstone's controversial congestion charging scheme, to be introduced in February.
The Mayor is hoping Londoners will switch from cars to trams following the success of the Croydon Tramlink in south London.
Other measures announced today include two new bus routes: the East London Transit and the Greenwich Waterfront Transit.
The first stage of the East London Transit Scheme will run between Ilford, Barking, Barking Reach and Dagenham Dock Station. It is set to cost £35 million, carry six million passengers a year and be completed by 2006.
The Greenwich Waterfront Transit Scheme is to operate between North Greenwich and Abbey Wood by 2008, cost £25 million and carry 10 million passengers a year.
