Stoke on Trent - Metro System

[bettyswallocks]

Well ding dong what an idea, Just had some global nut at the door smelt a little funky. Do you know what cars are doing to the environement, we want you to walk here there and everywhere, well piss off but I just had a little think and the only way you will get me to work without damaging the environment will be for Stoke to have a system like sheffield, manchester an underground system like Geordie land, Stations that link up the towns and football grounds. Creating less congestion and jobs in the area.
We should all go and do the sing song about the monorail in the simpsons down at the (Honda) Civic Centre ;D

[onemanbang]

well as some of you might know from the original oatie I am a architect and the company i work for entered the global competition to Regen all of stoke and the surrounding areas.
one of our ideas was to have a tram system to which the council said.........."it would never work as stoke on trent is to 'hilly' and goes up and down too much" now when we placed reference to the fact stoke use to have trams and take San Francisco as a prime example of a 'hilly' are they said nothing.

Instead the company that won the competition just had the idea of a few glass bottle kilns here and there.

if any of you are interested ill post some links to the winners and our designs!

www.hulmeupright.com/newsupdate/default.asp?PageID=273

The one above is ours, just let the pictures scan through.

www.glennhowells.co.uk/projects.php?type=REGENERATION&project=55#

The one above here is the winning design.

[youngant]

Like the designs there fella. The area needs something doing does'nt it?

[bryanshawcross]

Like your better oneman.

[vodkastoke]

20 million seems like a paltry amount to regenerate our dilapidated city centre. I'd of much prefered a company like Urban Splash to be given the responsibility of using the money to regenerate the city centre.

[Kenilworth_Stokies]

There's a brilliant bit on the "Watch: 1970s A500 plans" video on this page where a couple of pensioners at the time when the D-Road was built say some very poignant things:

"If they (the roads) are 50 yards wide, they won't be big enough then!"

and:

"I think they did wrong as stopping the trams, pulling the tram lines up"

Sad really when the old duffers of the day who could remember the days of an integrated transport mass transit policy were over-ridden by those who wanted just to blast a road through the heart of the city.

[goodjobson]

Onemanbang,
I can't say I'm surprised by the council's rejection of radical idea's. They are living in the past as always, and have never been able to cotton on to what the people of the city want.
Some damn fine idea's on there mate. A tram city would work wonders for Stoke.

[Deleted]

Ex Mayor Wolfie was all for these type of projects (esp. trams / park & ride etc). Always thought it was a shame he didn't get back in ... had some good ideas did Mike ... and now he'd have £6m to spend on stuff from St-Peter! (and he only wanted £2m from the Icelanders for same deal ... Hope PC doesn't read this!!!)

Good stuff in your designs, by the way, OMB ... shame the council took the easy route (story ofStoke, mind)



ah

[myleftboot]

It would be a top idea and might reduce congestion traffic wise. Could link the five towns and maybe we could all chip in and get them to extend it up to the Britt as access up there for pedestrians is poor to say the least.

Speaking of which did anyone else here the story of the Britt possibly having a small railway station when they were building it in the mid 90's.

[mermaidsal]

It's a pity so much of the old Loop Line route's been destroyed, using what's left as the basis of a Metro would be a fantastic idea. Especially if anyone could ever persuade Stoke and Castle to work together well enough to make a Metro cover the whole area.