Examination of Witnesses (Questions 400
- 403)
MONDAY 14 MARCH 2005
MR JOHN
PARRY, MR
CASPAR LUCAS
AND MAJOR
KIT HOLDEN
Q400 Chairman: So you have not heard
of any particular arguments.
Mr Parry: No, we just sympathise.
It is a different organisation, and Bristol Electric Railbus bought
a previous vehicle from us, number 10.
Q401 Clive Efford: Why did it stop?
Why was it not funded?
Mr Parry: Because Bristol City
Council realised it was a successful experiment at Bristol Harbourside
but it had to be subsidised because there were very few passengers;
it is a windswept harbourside, and the City Council then wanted
to go ahead with a full-sized light rail scheme, which they were
encouraged by the Government to do, but now it looks as though
their funding has been cut and so it is now being revived, the
idea of an ultra light service from Princes Street to Ashton Gate.
Q402 Clive Efford: But if your services
there were successful, being on a line with low demand, why did
they not do it on a bigger scale as a light rail scheme or an
ultra light rail scheme?
Mr Parry: I think due to the size
of the vehicles. At that time, in 1998 and 2001, the engineering
capability of our organisation was to produce a vehicle with a
capacity of 50; but working with our supply chain partners, including
Brush Traction, the major locomotive builder, we have now brought
forward a concept where we can go to 80 passengers and 170 passengers;
so we are now moving much nearer into the field of not super-trams
but reasonable sized tramways, and using a non-electric infrastructure,
which we think is profoundly significant as far as your other
discussions went—infrastructure and diversion of services
and things like that. It is all to do with the confounded electricity
that these huge costs are being incurred in building these tramways;
so we think that there needs to be more gumption on behalf of
the public sector to say, "let us try to put in a tram system
somewhere which will meet the environmental objectives—it
emits low noise, it is nil emission—and eliminates the need
for the overhead infrastructure, particularly the current running
in the rails which caused the stray currents that you were asking
about, which means that you have to divert all these services.
Q403 Chairman: Mr Parry, on the hopeful
note that we will get some gumption in the public sector, I thank
you all for coming to see us this afternoon.
Mr Parry: My colleagues and I
are most grateful to you, Chairman, and to your colleagues on
the Committee for giving us a sympathetic hearing.
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