Cross River Tram

The Cross River Tram, formerly Cross River Transit, is a Transport for London (TfL) proposal for a 16.5 km tram system in London, England, to connect Camden Town to King's Cross, Peckham and Brixton. It is planned to relieve overcrowding on the London Underground, and to improve transport in areas currently without good public transport, such as the Aylesbury Estate in Southwark, to support regeneration.

Trams would run up to every 4 minutes on each branch, giving a 2 minute service through central London at peak times.

Subject to approval and funding, it could be operational by 2016.

However, London Mayor Ken Livingstone told the London Assembly on 18th July 2007 that he has asked TfL to consider splitting the implementation, and build the southern section in advance of the northern section. It is not yet clear where such a split would be were this suggestion to be adopted.

Proposed route
The final route is not yet decided but in late 2006 and early 2007 TfL consulted residents on their views of the following route options:

Camden Town - Mornington Crescent - Euston - Tavistock Square - Russell Square - Holborn - Aldwych - South Bank - Waterloo Waterloo - (either Lambeth North/Imperial War Museum/Kennington Cross or Elephant & Castle) - Oval - (either Stockwell or Brixton Road) - Brixton (either Pope's Road or Brixton St Matthew's Church) Waterloo - St. George's Circus - Elephant & Castle - Heygate Street - Thurlow Street - (either Burgess Park/Chandler Way or Wells Way/Southampton Way) - Peckham Euston - (either Crowndale Road or Somers Town) - King's Cross
 * Camden Town to Waterloo
 * Waterloo to Brixton
 * Waterloo to Peckham
 * Euston to King's Cross

On 11 September 2007 TfL the published results of their 2007 consultation :


 * Euston to King's Cross - the majority of respondents preferred the route via Somers Town, except Somers Town's residents who preferred the Crowndale Road route
 * Euston to Camden Town - the majority of respondents preferred the route via Camden High Street
 * Waterloo to Oval - the majority of respondents preferred the route via Elephant & Castle
 * Oval to­ Brixton - most respondents preferred the route via Brixton Road
 * In Brixton town centre, the majority of respondents preferred the route via Effra Road
 * Waterloo to Peckham - the majority of respondents preferred the route via Burgess Park
 * In Peckham town centre, the majority of respondents preferred the route via Jocelyn Street and north of Peckham library and Cerise Road as the terminus

Opposition
The proposal has been generally well received although some community groups have shown opposition to the scheme. Several state that TfL have not been clear enough with their plans, and have not released all of the necessary information.

Peckham
Some residents in the district have complained that TfL have not voluntarily released enough information. One option for the depot involves using land near Peckham town centre which opponents say was wrongly described as derelict. Other sites are available and TfL has not yet decided where to place the Depot; consultation to decide this will follow the selection of the route to be taken. Peckham Vision, which is a group of local residents, artists, businesses, faith and other community groups campaigning for an integrated development of Peckham Town Centre, claim that TfL's preference for Peckham followed a flawed selection process in which the proposed site was wrongly described as "derelict" and not compared fairly with others. TfL's own consultants have recommended that a comprehensive review of all tram depot sites along the proposed tram route should be undertaken (Tram Berthing and Maintenance Facility Phase 2 Report Sep, 2006). Campaigners in Peckham are calling for this review to be undertaken before the public are asked to give their views on the choice of depot sites.