(22 Jul 2013, 3:11 pm)aureolin wrote Realistically it should have happened between 1997-2006, when the Labour government were more than happy to piss money up the wall on everything and anything. Instead we're doing everything on a big bang approach.
Yeah, they were happy enough to give the go-ahead for the Sunderland Extension after nearly 20 years of continuous prodding from the Wearside transport lobby. The 'Towards 2016' pamphlet that was produced around that time strongly hinted towards the development of a new fleet of Metro cars looking very similar to the Manchester Metrolink if memory serves (I used to have a copy of the booklet, I've seen it listed in the 'Bygone' section but I've haven't taken the opportunity to look at it yet!). That time window would have probably provided the optimum opportunity for some investment. I'm not talking about the replacement of the whole fleet, but one or two new Metro cars to go along with the new extension probably wouldn't have been too much of an ask now, would it?
Lol, Towards 2016. We're nearly there now. I wonder how much of what's in there has been achieved. I think we probably have more chance of seeing Hoverboards in 2015.