Since writing a blog about a Southwark Streetcar I’ve been approached by various parties to discuss how we can do this in Southwark.

The most promising is a Southwark SuperTram. This comes from a company that have been working on a Preston SuperTram where they’re only a planning application away from having all the permissions they need.

A Southwark SuperTram could cost £55M and connect London Bridge with Kings College & Maudsley hospitals close to Denmark Hill station.

Within a short walk of its route 130,000 Southwark and Lambeth residents live, let alone the thousands of businesses.

Why this route? Well with t he South London Line closing it would link two hospitals into London Bridge and Guys Hospital. It keeps all the route in Southwark minimising complications to Transport for London alone. Avoiding any need for compulsory purchasing would avoid the huge complications and costs of a Transport Works Act needing parliamentary approval.

When a Cross River Tram was proposed its costs ballooned to £1.5bn for around 20km so how come £55m for 7km? Revolutionary track deployed in concrete beams only 30cm deep – LR55. light overhead lines. Trams made from of the shelf components.

To build such a tram could be done with multiple teams at 400m per team per week. Several options for where to place the depot.

And the tram journey? 15 mins end to end running every 4 or 5 minutes.

So far all politicians like the idea of trams but want Trampower to prove somewhere else it can make trams happen. I’m hopeful that with encouragement Trampower will make their Preston scheme happen and then a Southwark Supertram becomes much more convincing for everyone.

For history buffs this is a picture of the last piece of tram track removed from Camberwell.

What were our forefathers thinking.