Having made mention earlier this year in a transport plan that they were considering introducing a tram network in the area, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council are now continuing to explore plans, whilst also giving no guarantees that it may actually happen.
For the first time, as part of this latest look at the idea, they have also revealed where the first (only?) routes may be built and its to exclusively run in Bournemouth. Starting within Bournemouth Town Centre it would head out of the town and serve AFC Bournemouth’s home ground – the Vitality Stadium – as well as the Royal Bournemouth Hospital before it would split off in two direction. Going eastbound it would go to the large Castlepoint shopping complex whilst the other way would see it go to Bournemouth Airport. These routes would replicate the popular Morebus M1 and M2 routes.
Bournemouth – like many other towns and cities across the UK – suffers from traffic congestion and the idea behind introducing a tram system would be to help solve this by taking a lot of the cars off the road.
The goal in the 15-year plan is that there would be some form of mass transit running by 2041. But BCP Council have made it clear they are making no commitments at this stage, recognising the costs that would be involved in construction.