More trams for Croydon?

Four extra trams could be on the way for London Tramlink alongside improvements to
the platform layout at Wimbledon as part of Transport for London’s latest draft business plan. The draft business plan has this week been released into the public domain and it sets out a range of major new transport initiatives which will help to drive economic growth in the capital. As well as the Tramlink improvements it is also proposed that the section of the Docklands Light Railway between Stratford and Bow Church would be doubled allowing an increase in services on the original Stratford route.

The main focus of improvements for Tramlink in the next decade will be on the line
between Croydon and Wimbledon as they seek to increase the frequency of the service on this busy section. Four extra trams will be procured (presumably these would be Variotrams although no specific details are given) and there would be further double tracking of key sections between Croydon and Wimbledon. Both of these projects would presumably be an extension of recent projects (although with the way organisations like TfL regularly regurgitate the same information as brand new it could well be that the extra trams are already here and the Mitcham doubling completed earlier this year is the track doubling mentioned!) and would allow extra trams to run between Therapia Lane and
Wimbledon.

To aid capacity enhancement at the Wimbledon end it is planned that the platform here will be will be subject to improvement works to reduce congestion and improve reliability. No specifics of this project are given but has been a long held ambition to be able to create an extra platform at Wimbledon although there are major space constraints here with the platform being inside of the national rail station.

It is planned that both the procurement of extra trams and the Wimbledon platform works would be completed by the end of 2014/15.

Over on the Docklands Light Railway only one major project is due during the life of the business plan and that would be doubling of the track between Stratford and Bow Church on the original Stratford line. This section is currently single track and as such is a major restriction to capacity enhancement but the doubling would enable two trains to run at the same time.

This draft business plan is to be considered by the TfL board on 12^th December. Currently TfL only have secured funding from the government until the end of the 2014/5 financial year but the hope is that this plan will argue the case for a steady stream of funding over the next decade.