The company behind the new-generation tram proposal for Galway has disputed the findings of a year-long transport study, insisting its system would cost the exchequer nothing to set up and prompt a five-fold increase in public transport users who would never be persuaded out of their cars and onto buses.

The final report of the Public Transport Feasibility Study has come firmly down on the side of an upgraded bus network, effectively ruling out a tram system for the city as too expensive.

The report – which has taken a year to complete and was presented to Galway’s City Council’s special policy committee this week – found that a light rail transit (LRT) system would cost nearly €700m or 80% more to build than a bus rapid transit network (BRT), would take ten years to start and cause significant disruption to services during construction and beyond.

According to the consultants MVA, which carried out the study on behalf of the Galway City Council, it would cost €699m to set up a light rail system, as opposed to €115m to get a ‘bendy bus’ network off the ground, with a further €89m required to enhance the current bus system.
A proposal for a Light

Touch LRT – or the so called GLUAS proposal – which supporters have claimed would cost a maximum €250m to set up – was dismissed by the consultants as a “very high risk approach” to fixing our congestion woes.

The backers of GLUAS claim the new technology rail installations would involve less excavation of the road surface, going down just 300mm, which would result in less road disruption during installation. The trams would weigh just 22 tons, compared to over 30 tons that the more common trams weigh.

The system would involve renewable power generation facilities to supply power locally and any surplus would be sold back to the electricity grid. They point to a 40m critical section of the Sheffield Supertram, where 300 trams a day were using the same technology, which had operated without a hitch for 14 years.

However the MVA consultants were unimpressed.

“To date, the light touch LRT has not been widely tested or used and as such would represent a high risk strategy for addressing Galway City’s public transport deficiencies.” However they recommend further research into the system, which would require further funding.

Professor Lewis Lesley of Tram Power said the consultants had not carried out any in-depth examination of the GLUAS submission and had only examined the heavy-duty tram option.

He said these same consultants had recommended that a railway line be converted to a busway in Preston, which would have taken until 2028 to get up and running. Tram Power was now installing their system on this project.

“A more cynical person might ask the City Council if they appointed MVA to carry out the study because they wanted to sink the GLUAS option. Gift horse and mouth comes to mind – we are offering to set this up for free in the city, which we would pay for out of the fare box,” said Prof Lesley.

Their feasibility study found that they could get private investors and a loan to finance two lines running from Barna to Merlin Park over the Quincentenary Bridge, paying for a bridge to be built beside the Salmon Weir Bridge, with a second line to run from Dangan along Eglinton Street to Briarhill.

For more, read page 6 of this week's City Tribune.