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TAUT reports on the latest developments for a green US-style ‘streetcar’ circulator for the UK’s largest urban regeneration project.

News Analysis

a Liverpool bogie car (762) plus a regauged Lisbon car (730). MPT is currently working on a Liverpool Baby Grand (245) and a Warrington open balcony car (2).

The system also has two Hong Kong-built cars, supplied to the council when the tramway was built, that would make ideal Party Trams.

Peel is also planning renewable energy centres to provide power for Wirral Waters (and the streetcar project) including energy derived from biomass and waste. Mr Mawdsley showed how Peel had supported the extension of Metrolink into Salford Quays, Greater Manchester, and how this had been key to getting organisations such as the BBC to move to the MediaCity development – another of Peel’s projects. He expected the Streetcar would do the same for Wirral Waters.

Importantly, the Streetcar would be green, affordable and community-based: a range of funding would be used, avoiding the sometimes fruitless wait for central government grant.

Streetcar: Plans from experienceScott McIntosh of leading multi-disciplinary consultancy Mott MacDonald, advisor to both Peel and Merseytravel, further explained the Streetcar concept, emphasising that this is not a “big LRT project”, but instead intended to be a focused downtown circulator of the type successfully pioneered in the USA.

There are now over 30 such lines in operation – with up to 60 more planned – the most famous examples being Kenosha, San Francisco’s F line and the Portland Streetcar. European examples were not forgotten, including Stockholm’s Djurgardenline, which is growing from a small heritage line into a real transport service for the city.

US streetcar builders are developing standards for such systems, based on worldwide experience. Wirral’s advisors are constantly benchmarking proposals against experience elsewhere, helping to ensure that the Wirral Streetcar scheme meets the best standards found elsewhere.

A challenge to the industryThe UK’s Department for Transport issued a series of challenges after the first Tram Summit in 2011, and the APPLRG presentation showed how the Wirral Streetcar satisfied all of these and responded to lessons learned from previous UK LRT schemes.

Following strong green recycling principles, the project has already acquired a number of former Blackpool single-deck cars. It is planned that these will be fitted with longer underframes to provide a disabled-accessible central section. The cars will then be refurbished with new seats and other upgrades to meet current safety requirements.

Merseytravel has rail left from the aborted Merseytram project, Peel is donating land plus the Dock Railway and transport operators across Europe are offering equipment including traction substations, bogies, and machine tools.

Educational and social institutions are also offering to become involved so the tramway becomes a way back into education and work for disadvantaged local youth.

Merseytravel and Peel commissioned an audit of the proposals from leading corporate finance specialists Deloitte in 2012. The report, received in December, says: “Reuse of trackbed suggests that the Streetcar…can be built cost effectively, without…the high-risk construction and utility risks [of]

other projects”. It adds: “The project has the potential to become a catalyst for community involvement” and “Operational and cost…analysis suggests that…a positive net cash flow can be achieved”. Deloitte recommended the scheme be further developed so a business case could be produced in 2013.

Mr Mawdsley concluded by saying that Peel expected the development to be built in phases, but hoped the first phases could be open for the International Festival of Business proposed for Merseyside in 2014. This sets a demanding schedule, but if Merseytravel and the UK Government were as supportive as the local council and industry, then he firmly believed this could be achieved.

A lively Q&A session followed with many sugesting that, if successful in the Wirral, the streetcar could provide a basis for future developments across the UK. On the question of funding, one commentator drew upon a piece of advice from the US: “If you want to get on with something, don’t involve the Feds.”

Peel has already agreed to the establishment of a Transport Fund from the planning money they would provide and the Streetcar was certainly transport. The importance of through-ticketing onto rail and ferries was discussed and the securing of such a system, preferably by smartcard, was emphasised.

The detailed presentation shows that Peel and its advisors have a clear vision of how the Streetcar can form the transport backbone of Wirral Waters – and they deserve a chance to show what they can do. It is to be hoped that Merseytravel and the Department for Transport show the same commitment. TAUTl We expect further progress in the coming months, and TAUT will report as they happen.

WIRRAL STREETCAR: PIONEERING SMALL-START SYSTEMS IN THE UK

The Peel Group, developers of the multi-billion pound Wirral Waters project – the reimagining of the Birkenhead

Docks area and the largest regeneration project in the UK – made a presentation to the UK’s All-Party Parliamentary Light Rail Group (APPLRG) at the Houses of Parliament on 22 January, outlining the latest developments on this major project.

Peel showed how its ‘Streetcar’ scheme is a vital element in providing a sustainable development and Richard Mawdsley, Projects Director at Peel, began by outlining the Wirral Waters story to date, progress made since its launch in 2006 and the importance of the proposed light rail system as a catalyst to the regeneration of the Birkenhead Dock system.

BackgroundBirkenhead Docks stretches for 4.8km (three miles) inland from the River Mersey, directly opposite Liverpool and within the poorer inner eastern part of the Wirral Peninsula.

The docks were largely constructed in the second half of the 19th Century and adjoin the grid street pattern of Birkenhead – a legacy of the visionary Laird Birkenhead ‘new town’ planned by John Laird in the early 1800s as ‘the City of the Future’. Physical glimpses of Laird’s vision remain, evidenced by Birkenhead Park, the first public park in the world, Hamilton Square and the historic Dock system.

Changing trade patterns and the growth of containerisation led to a movement to new port facilities at Seaforth (where 33m tonnes of freight are handled a year) while Birkenhead and Liverpool Docks fell into disuse and decay.

The Mersey Docks and Harbour Company was acquired by Peel Ports, a division of property and transport giant Peel Group, in 2005. The Peel Group is a private real estate, transport and infrastructure investment company and one of the most dynamic and diverse property companies in the UK.

Wirral WatersPeel launched the Wirral Waters regeneration plan for Birkenhead in 2006. With a total area of 500 acres (202.3 hectares), it is set to create over 20 000 new jobs – and become a new city quarter for the Liverpool City Region.

Wirral Waters seeks to compete with the best waterfront cities in the world, such as Vancouver, Copenhagen and Hamburg. Learning and inspiration has been gathered from the rejuvenation of similar port cities and the importance of infrastructure investment is key to Peel’s model. In many ways it can be compared to London Docklands – and it has the same requirements for accessibility.

The development has certainly caught the imagination of Wirral Council and local residents. The proposals gained official planning approval in 2012, following a six-year process to secure the consent, and the UK Government has firmly endorsed the project by granting it Enterprise Zone status – one of the first four ‘vanguard’ EZs.

The 465 000m2 development is envisioned as a walkable community, with residents and visitors using sustainable transport modes – the Streetcar plan is therefore key. It is interesting that Peel uses the term ‘streetcar’ to emphasise that this is a lower impact and

more flexible technology than light rail as it has developed over recent decades; it is planned to be a system that can fit in with the development and grow with it.

The streetcar scheme grew out of ideas developed for Merseytravel, the local Passenger Transport Executive, and enthusiastically supported by its Director General from 2009-11.

‘Every five minutes, taking five minutes’The system is intended to provide two overlapping and complementary services: an all-day, every-day commercial service linking into Merseyrail services at Hamilton Square station in Birkenhead and a heritage/tourist service linking the Ferry Terminals at Woodside and Seacombe.

All the Merseyrail Wirral train services run through Hamilton Square station, offering a one-seat ride to all Wirral destinations and a service to central Liverpool that will run ‘every five minutes, taking five minutes’.

The Streetcar lines will run from Hamilton Square to join the existing heritage tramway line, running over the tramway to Egerton Dock. The line then provides two routes: l A one-way loop line running through Wirral Waters, with no major building being more than 250m from a Streetcar stop. l An ‘express’ line using the former Birkenhead Docks Railway alongside Corporation Street to link to the huge Peel International Trade Centre being developed to the east of Wirral Waters. The line will then run on to a further interchange with Merseyrail at Birkenhead North station (where there is a huge park-and-ride site) and then on to the proposed Bidston Moss leisure and retail development, terminating in Bidston Country Park, next to the lake – a distance of around 4.5km (2.8 miles).

The two lines will use streetcars refurbished to provide full disabled access, running up to six times per hour from 06.00 to 00.00.

Integrated with this service will be an extended heritage line, aimed at the economically important leisure market. This will start at the Woodside Ferry terminal, running via the existing line to Egerton dock and the east side of the Wirral Waters Loop. From here it will turn off alongside the sea lock and run alongside the Riverside Walk, which gives spectacular views of the Liverpool Pier Head and Cruise Liner Terminal, to terminate at Seacombe Ferry.

On the way the line links a number of tourism attractions, including the Transport Museum. Combined with the Ferry this will form a ‘string of pearls’ of attractions. It is hoped an agreement can be reached to allow the beautifully-restored fleet of heritage trams provided by the Merseyside Tramway Preservation Society to operate this service.

The MTPS has an open top Birkenhead car (20), a Wallasey open balcony car (78) Computer-generated image showing the Wirral Waters development. There is a very US boulevard feel, into

which the Streetcar project will fit perfectly. Peel Holdings

The planned development stages of the Wirral Streetcar project, also showing existing Merseyrail and ferry transfer points. Parkinson Inc: Urban Design