Preston tram plans take step forward

Proposals to bring passenger tram services back to Preston after an absence of 85 years have taken a step forward.Preston Trampower has gained planning consent for a 200-metre long section of line using part of the old Longridge railway between Skeffington Road and West View Leisure Centre in Ribbleton.The demonstrator line will include new track, overhead lines and a new station platform, as well as new lighting and an adjacent cycleway and footpath.Preston Trampower is aiming to begin work on the project early next year with the potential to start offering demonstration rides to stakeholders and other interested parties later in 2021. It would be the first-time passenger trams have run in Preston since the mid-1930s.The project is part of a wider plans to introduce a 5km long Guild Line running from the M6 motorway at Junction 31A, down the line of the old Longridge railway, through Ribbleton and Deepdale into the heart of the city centre’s University Quarter.Preston Trampower has lined up Eric Wright Civil Engineering to undertake the work to complete the demonstration section of the line.A planning application for the wider £25m Guild Line project is expected to be submitted in 2021. The project will be privately funded, with Cheshire-based Snowball Alternative Finance appointed to seek ‘green’ investment funding.PWA Planning has advised Preston Trampower on the planning application. The project team also includes Smithers Purslow and Reid Jones Partnership as architects and civil and structural engineers, and O’Neill and Partner as chartered surveyor and construction cost consultant.