philipmartin wrote:Croydon Tram Link videos: fender bender.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYwJOwzQueA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Just a plain Croydon ram ride:: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVJNlpN8RAc" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I used to go up to London for various kinds of business and I would visit Croydon frequently to see how the construction was going on. When it was complete I visited the whole system. It seemed an excellent facility and provided useful transport for the area. It is in an outer London suburban area with a town centre. Since it was built about 20 years ago there have been other proposals for trams in other parts of London but none have been built yet. However at the same period a number of tram systems were built in other parts of the country. This represented a revival of trams after all the previous systems - except Blackpool - were closed in the 1950s and 60s. I have also visited new systems in Sheffield, Manchester, Birmingham and Newcastle.
The Croydon system made use of several closed heavy rail routes - hence the tunnels shown in the film. The main advantage over the heavy rail was more frequent stops, and more frequent service.
It does seem that the drivers have been ignoring the safety rules for tight corners - going too fast on curves. I hope that an enquiry will find out why and that there will be no more accidents of that kind. In general most of the system was carefully segregated from ordinary road vehicles. There is not much travel on ordinary roads, mixed with cars and lorries.