Cross-river tram line opens after four years of works

The city's new cross-river tram line carried its first passengers on Monday morning, four years after work began and eleven months later than first planned. The opening service left the east bank depot at 5.42am with 63 people on board, most of them holding the commemorative tickets handed out at the gate.

The line runs for seven kilometres and has fourteen stops, from the eastern housing estates to the university quarter on the west bank. It is the first direct rail link between the two halves of the city. Until now the journey meant two buses and, at peak times, about fifty minutes.

Trams will run every eight minutes from 5.30am until midnight, and every fifteen minutes on Sundays. The transport authority says the end-to-end journey takes 24 minutes.

What it cost

The project was budgeted at 212 million and finished at 238 million. The authority attributes most of the overrun to the new river bridge, where the foundations had to be redesigned after ground surveys found softer clay than expected.

Fares are the same as on the bus network, and existing season tickets are valid without a supplement. Two bus routes that duplicated the line will be withdrawn at the end of October; a third will be shortened to feed the tram at the market stop.

What passengers said

Reactions on the first morning were mostly practical. A nurse travelling to the west bank hospital said the tram saved her twenty minutes each way. A market trader said he would wait to see whether deliveries could still reach his stall now that the street is closed to through traffic.

The authority will publish passenger numbers after the first month. It expects 21,000 journeys a day by the end of the year.