Light rail system idea to solve Taunton traffic woe

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

From thisisthewestcountry:

A Taunton man has come up with an innovative solution to the town^s congestion problems - a light railway system.

Business entrepreneur Simon Chan has proposed a system similar to London^s Docklands light railway, which would run between Taunton Railway Station and surrounding areas including Wellington, Bridgwater, Norton Fitzwarren and Staplegrove every 15 minutes.

Mr Chan, who runs IT firm Candac, in Kingston Road, has set up a Facebook group to support the plans. He said: ^Heavy rail may generally be faster but the advantage of light rail is it can have more trains running and be faster between stations like the London Underground. It would be greener and more sustainable than introducing more buses. Developments like Project Taunton are very ambitious with what they want to achieve and we are going to have more cars when Firepool is built up making the Station Road area difficult to get into. Our campaign has already attracted over 100 supporters. Taunton once had a tram network ^ we will never know what could have been achieved had it remained. A lot of the infrastructure is already there so we^re not proposing something unrealistic.^

A spokesman for the Somerset County Council, which is responsible for highways and transport, said: ^This form of transport is an expensive option and we don^t have the available funding for such a project. We know that a large proportion of the traffic in the town travels less than two miles and so we would prefer to encourage more cost-effective transport solutions such as taking the bus, walking and cycling.^

[6 OF 2 redundant adjunct of unimatrix 01]

i take it that he has planned the routes?.....

wouldnt it be cheaper to start using the norton fitzwarren platform lets face it thats nearly done and would help the wsr, reopen wellington station as already requested by many, and open another couple of stations, can people movers opperate on the main line with other units?

[JayMac]

"....Taunton once had a tram network ^ we will never know what could have been achieved had it remained. A lot of the infrastructure is already there so we^re not proposing something unrealistic.^

 

I think there are one or two of the original Taunton Electric Traction Co. OHL^▸ (Over-Head Line) posts acting as lampposts/telephone poles and relocated to Greenway Crescent, but that's as far as it goes for remaining infrastructure!!!

Pie-in-the-sky. Bristol has failed for decades to get a new light-rail system up and running. No chance for Taunton.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Well, you're probably rather more familiar with Taunton than I am, bignosemac, so I won't disagree with that ... 

[JayMac]

Here's the proof, courtesy of Google Streetview:



At the base of the post is the company's coat of arms/logo.

More information on the TETCo. can be found here