East Dorset Light Rail/Tram Proposal
This is a bit rough, the scales are well out especially near Christchurch, but I've been trying to come up with what a plausible tram/light rail network for East Dorset might look like. The green line would follow the old railway (now the Castleman Trailway/Hamworthy Freight Branch), most of the rest would have to be street running of some sort, with a few stretches of line through the gaps in the urban conurbation heading up towards the airport.
My aims were:
- Link Bournemouth, Poole, and Christchurch in a way that compliments the existing railway (grey on this map) rather than trying to use it as the centre of the network as other BCP/East Dorset tram proposals have, to keep space for mainline trains to London/Weymouth.
- Give good connections from mainline stations to beaches.
- Connect as many towns/areas where people live to Bournemouth Airport as possible.
- Avoid line bottlenecks like the Manchester tram system has in the centre.
- Connect the universities to Bournemouth and Poole, and to the Airport.
This is unlikely to ever happen, but let me know your thoughts on where I might have gone wrong/where you think better routes would be.
Posted Dec 1, 2025, 6:50 PM UTC
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