A major expansion of Nottingham Express Transit which would see it running to Derby, East Midlands Airport and the proposed HS2 station at Toton has been named as a priority project as part of devolution negotiations. The 19 local councils in the N2D2 region (Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire) have agreed that this is one of the major projects needed in the region although at this stage there is no firm commitment or indeed any exact plans to achieve this.
A recently released document stated that local councils are determined to “reach a unified position on the strategic transport interventions required to maximise the growth potential of the region”. Nottingham Express Transit have been asked to carry out an investigation into the feasibility of the plans by N2D2 with a £200,000 grant being put forward for this. Although a line to Derby is a long-term goal this is described in the document as being a “potential” idea with the current main focus being on East Midlands Airport and the Toton HS2 line.
No timescale is in place for the lines to be constructed – indeed if they ever are – and no costs have also been revealed. However a report on the BBC website has suggested that a line all the way to Derby would likely cost at least £200 million.
I heard much of the expense comes from having to buy trams that can go from 4ft 8 1/2″ to 4ft gauge as they get into Derby…
Phill it would be just like 4ft 8 1/2in Leeds and 4ft Bradford did about a century ago
I travelled for the first time on Nottingham’s new routes last week, having journeyed from Herefordshire to have that pleasure. The routes are really excellent. However one of the trams I had to travel on was one of those with all-over advertising. How awful is that. One simply cannot see out of the main windows. Dreadful!!! It spoilt my day and I changed out of that vehicle as soon as I could!
You want a hidious tram livery see Croydon Tramlink for an example. The Croydon Tramlink trams looked quite presentable in their first gen inspired livery unlike the current vomit inducing Croydon livery. Also the retro Birmingham and Sheffield Corporation liveries are a vast improvement on the liveries gracing the rest of their respective fleets
In response to John Gilberts comment, I’ve never had a problem seeing through the all over adverts on the Nottingham trams (and I wear glasses), and I ride on them frequently with living in the Shire, the adverts are sort of pixelated so as to allow light through and for people to be able to see outside, if they weren’t made or applied for that to be so then it would be like looking at a brick wall which is quite simply not the case. Pity that you feel that this spoilt your day out.