What is the secret sauce for transport change? Political leadership and a willingness to take risks; at least according to my guest in this week’s Interchat, Nicola Small.
Nicola is Programme Director for one of my favourite transport projects, Coventry Very Light Rail.
In this Interchat, recorded at the Interchange conference in Manchester in March, she tells me about Very Light Rail and the extraordinary achievement in developing such a ground-breaking (literally) innovation project in a local authority.
I say it’s ground-breaking: the core achievement of Coventry Very Light Rail is how little ground needs to be broken: 300 mm depth as opposed to 600 mm for a conventional tram project. As a result, the cost is somewhere between a third and half that of building a conventional tram.
Moreover, since we spoke in March, the CVLR team have established that their highly innovative track pallets are capable of carrying a full-sized conventional tram.
I really encourage you to listen to this episode as it shows just what is possible when a public sector organisation sets out to challenge the norms.
Interchats are a series of short conversations recorded on the conference floor at Interchange 26 in Manchester.
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