THE great tram revival was meant to rescue Britain’s city centres from gridlock by tempting motorists out of their cars. It was promoted with great enthusiasm and the conviction that the middle classes, who would never consider catching a bus, would flock to the sleek new trams.

But the experiment appears to have failed and ministers are withdrawing support from a series of tram projects. They have quietly dropped a key commitment to double the number of tram journeys to 240 million by 2010.

London scrapped its network in 1952, and within a decade almost every other British metropolis — with the heroic exception of Blackpool — had followed suit. While Spanish and Italian cities now fall over themselves to reintroduce trams, British transport planners are not convinced. To them, the streetcar is not named desire.

Alistair Darling, the Transport Secretary, has refused to approve a tram line linking Portsmouth and Gosport via a tunnel under the harbour after the estimated costs rose in 18 months by £100 million to £270 million. A tram scheme for Leeds and new lines in the West Midlands and Tyne and Wear have been put on hold. Hull’s plan for trams has been rejected outright and schemes proposed for Bristol, Cardiff, Blackpool, Cambridge, Leicester and Middlesbrough are now unlikely to leave the drawing board.

Doubts have even been raised about the two schemes which ministers have already approved. The Government has told local authorities in Manchester that it will not contribute an extra penny to extend the city’s system. Merseyside, which does not yet have a tram, has been given the same message. Mr Darling has told Labour MPs that the Treasury has questioned whether tram schemes represent value for money and has indicated that no extra funds will be made available.

The Government’s ten-year transport plan, published in 2000, pledged to build up to 25 new tram lines by 2010. The only new line to open so far has been the Croydon Tramlink, which carried under 19 million passengers last year, eight million fewer than predicted.

Michael Faulkner, head of local transport policy at the Department for Transport, said there was a “growing awareness of what can go wrong with light rapid transit”. He told a conference in London on the future of trams: “The private market has started to take a more pessimistic view of the sector and we have also seen some worrying cost pressures. That has left us a lot to do to try to revive confidence in light rail.”

The Government is relying on contracts with the private sector to build and operate tram schemes, but several companies have made serious losses. Carillion said in July it would make a £10 million loss on its involvement in the Nottingham tram, due to open early next year after repeated delays. The company said it “would not touch other tram projects with a barge pole” because there were too many risks involved.

Mr Faulkner said the commitment to double the number of tram passengers had been “subsumed into a wider target which includes buses”. He accepted that the new target, to increase bus and tram passengers by 12 per cent by 2010, could be achieved simply by adding more buses.

Tony Young, a trams consultant, told the conference that Britain had failed to copy France’s success in introducing trams. He said French tram systems were designed to link universities, hospitals and city centres, whereas British networks often failed to connect with key destinations. The result had been that French lines were far more popular, with six times as many passengers per mile in Montpelier and Lyons as in Birmingham.

British tram lines are also forced to compete with deregulated bus services, which can undercut them on fares. On the Continent, local authorities usually control bus services and can ensure they do not siphon passengers away from trams.

David Begg, chairman of the Commission for Integrated Transport, said that modern buses running on properly enforced bus lanes were a much more cost-effective solution for many cities. “The bus has a negative image while trams are seen as more like a railway and therefore more acceptable,” he said. “But the modern bendy buses in London are hugely popular and are changing people’s perceptions of bus travel.

The one consolation for tram enthusiasts is that the Strategic Rail Authority is planning to save money by converting some National Rail lines into tram lines.

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