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Ken: I will replace buses in Oxford St with trams
Katharine Barney, Evening Standard28.02.08
Ken Livingstone has unveiled plans to ban all vehicles from Oxford Street, including buses, and install a shuttle tram.
The £200million move will effectively pedestrianise one of London's busiest shopping streets.
The project, which will be paid for by two new commercial blocks at the western end of Oxford Street, will also see areas of Marble Arch grassed over and become part of Hyde Park.
Black cabs would be forced to pick up shoppers from adjoining streets, either side of Oxford Street.
Mr Livingstone hoped to start work on the the tram system after the 2012 Olympics, with the scheme to be completed by 2018.
Speaking at a debate held by property developers with fellow mayoral candidates Brian Paddick and Si‚n Berry, Mr Livingstone said: "If re-elected I intend to start installing a tram running the length of Oxford Street. There are some factors which pose difficulties but we have thought about it and there are ways of overcoming them. It will either be a shuttle tram or will be linked to the crossriver tram.
"We would demolish the gyratory system [at Marble Arch], handing part of it back to greenland and building two developments on part of it which will fund the project.
"People getting a taxi would have to use the roads running north and south of Oxford Street. We would phase the buses out slowly and maybe run some along Wigmore Street."
The Mayor has previously proposed a similar scheme - but abandoned it in the face of opposition.
Oxford Street is used by some of London's busiest bus routes, very few of which terminate close to it. For most it is a part of their route between different parts of London. Critics of the previous scheme had warned it would be virtually impossible to move buses off the street to neighbouring routes because they do not have sufficient capacity.
Just seven per cent of pedestrians in the West End use buses and 68 per cent would support a trafficfree West End, according to latest figures released by the New West End Company, which represents shops on Bond Street, Oxford Street and Regent Street.
The scheme is supported by both Mr Paddick and Ms Berry, although Ms Berry said she wanted to see the buses on Oxford Street immediately replaced by a bendy bus shuttle running from Centrepoint to Marble Arch.
Ms Berry has announced proposals to pedestrianise the whole of the West End once a week.
The three candidates also proposed redevelopments for the east end of Oxford Street.
Reader views (25)
It is a very good idea, also it should be extended westwards via Holland Park, Shepherds Bush, Acton, Ealing, Hanwell, Southall onto Uxbridge. This will encourage motorists onto public transport, therefore saving the planet.
- Denis Hawkins, Hanwell, England
Well done Ken, yet another madcap idea that is ill thought out - how did this person ever get elected?
All this does is move buses to the smaller streets, that are incapable of coping with the traffic, the ones that have wonderful listed Georgian buildings.
- Kevin, London, UK
Why do the simple when a hugely expensive "investment" programme could be used instead?
Why do buses go so slowly down Oxford St? Because other buses stop to pick up passengers and they can't overtake, also because of the traffic lights at the junction with Regent Street.
Two possible solutions:
1. Get rid of all bus stops from Oxford St and create a terminus near Marble Arch (required anyway for the tram system), or
2. Make both Oxford St and Wigmore St one way. West-East buses use Wigmore St, East-West buses use Oxford St. Keep the bus stops, but create the space for a flowing lane and pull-ins. Private vehicles would have to go East-West via Mayfair - but no change there...
Cost of above, perhaps 1% of the tram? Could also be implemented by Christmas?
- Fred, London, UK
Sounds like a great idea, at present Oxford Street is a real problem today.
- Nicholas Newman, Oxford
Good luck dear Londoners!
We have the same thing in Geneva for years and you can easily imagine what are the traffic jams in the busy streets in town during the installation of the tracks.
- Anne-Laure, geneva switzerland
On your bike Ken, its time to leave office.
- Malcolm, chingford
Go Ken, catch that Tram out of London and don't come back!
- George, Hempstead
Been hoping they would do this for years. You just choke on fumes from the buses along Oxford at the moment, and the time it takes for them to crawl from Marble Arch to Charring Cross Road is beyond belief.
- Dave, London N10
What a crazy idea! Ken Livingstone seems to only bring in crazy ideas which nobody wants - CONgestion Charge, Bendy Buses, Re-Phased traffic lights, TfL Enforcement Squads, Corruption in city hall...
I agree with Nobby - Let's have a Livingstone-Free London!
- Dan Howard, London,UK
What about the Southwark tram?
Ken seems to have forgotten about us south of the river.
- Giles, London
Good idea... will one of Lee Jasper's friends be organising this one? Or will Oxford Street be a scam... sorry meant to say tram free zone?
- Stephanie Harwood, UK
Nobby, one of the best ideas I've heard yet ...
- Marianne, SW France
Great idea for a city like London but life is going to be slowed down and employers have to understand! Doubt it!
- Shanta Sultana, London
Trams are a splendid idea. I hope they are electric. Marble Arch and Oxford Street are choked with traffic and the air is filthy with exhaust fumes.
- Peter, Cirencester
Will they be bendy trams?
- Neil, London uk
It's a physical impossible.
- Jason, London
I don't understand this fixation about trams, except the snobbish notion that you won't get 'posh' people on to buses, which is nonsense. A tram can do nothing that a bus can't do ,at much less cost, and you can't send a tram on diversion when someone digs the road up. Will all these red buses go down Wigmore St, or through Soho? Get real! This sounds like Ken camouflaging one of his cosy deals with property developers with a bogus 'planning gain'. The way he talks about his future role makes you suspect that he already has the election ballot papers filled in and stored somewhere to save us all the bother.
- Mdj, Leyton, e10 London
He has got my vote. I wish trams were introduced into Greater London
The traffic is almost at a standstill in these boroughs.
- R.L.Cooper, Hornchurch- Essex- greater London -London-England
Trams would be too bulky on Oxford Street - we need the space for pedestrians... a monorail, like the one in Sydney, would free up more space at street level and could be constructed in a fraction of the time... and it would look pretty cool too.
- Paul, London
Ken lost the plot a while ago when he allowed free travel to yobs - er sorry - children on the buses. Problem is, Barmy Boris is not an acceptable alternative with his crack-pot ideas.
- Peter, Enfield, England
Why did Ken Livingstone cross the road? There was no traffic left to run him over.
- Charles Siu, London, UK
Wonderful idea - replace the bus jams with tram jams and have new bus and taxi jams on already jammed neighbouring roads. Oh and where will his free bikes go?
- John, Bromley
No chance, as he will lose his job soon.
- Malcolm, Chingford
Nothing new about this - last time it was killed by protests. Ken Livingstone is just trying to spin a yarn in advance of being kicked out.
- Patrick, London, England
How about a Livingstone-free London? That's a scheme I would vote for.
- Nobby Clark, Perth, the Scottish one
