Nobody called this a bus after taking a ride! The trackless tram experience and what they said

The Sunshine Coast, Stirling and the Caulfield-Rowville Link in Melbourne have submitted business cases for a trackless tram.

They were among the attendees at the Net Zero Transit Symposium and launch of the trackless tram in Perth recently who stated that there are urgent and interdependent crises facing our cities.

Among these challenges, attendees said are:

Housing – especially affordable, well-located housing of an appropriate scale that meets demand.

Transport – especially public transport that can compete with the car, reduce traffic and car dependence, and create more walkable places.

Net zero targets – the next economy needs net zero cities to rapidly move towards meeting state, national and global climate targets.

These interrelated issues must be solved simultaneously through urban regeneration in appropriate inner and middle suburbs, focusing on main roads and net zero transit, attendees said. Outer suburbs and regional areas should also focus on net zero transit.

To deliver this transformative approach to urban development, we need a new model that incorporates the following:

1. net zero transit along certain main road corridors linking to major train lines and involving innovative mid-tier transit, such as trackless trams that boast ride quality and capacity and enable urban revitalisation.
2. net zero boulevards along certain main roads to showcase net zero transit and walkability in net zero precincts around stations and along net zero corridors.
3. net zero precincts designed with the private sector and local communities to enable dense, affordable housing and mixed-use opportunities in a walkable, green environment and provide access to net zero transit along the boulevards.
4. net zero planning tools for the urban regeneration model to provide clear evidence of any shifts in the value of housing, transport, climate, economic productivity, taxes and rates.
5. net zero procurement and delivery processes involving partnerships between public agencies, private developers and owners, and community organisations that provide local value supported by new fiscal and financial models.

Steps forward:

1. create designated net zero boulevards along selected main roads as part of mid-tier strategies and other strategies regarding movement and place, affordable housing, and net zero housing, transport and planning.
2. establish demonstration projects to show how mid-tier transit can help unlock the best net zero boulevards and net zero housing opportunities. Such projects could be sought by the government or received as unsolicited bids.
3. establish procurement processes for the demonstration boulevards to ensure the relevant partnerships can be set up from the outset, optimising value through the combination of government, operators, developers, and civil society.

Why do we need trackless trams to help create new net zero boulevards?

The background to the above statement and the symposium that delivered it was the challenge of finding a new model for solving multiple urban issues emerging in cities across the world. The challenge involves building net zero urban developments with well-located, affordable housing and quality, mid-tier transit along major corridors.

In Western Australia, the State Infrastructure Strategy in 2023 suggested we need a new mid-tier transit strategy that simultaneously addressed the issues of housing, public transport, and climate change. According to research done as part of this symposium and by the presenting speakers, we see similar contexts in all Australian cities and many other cities worldwide.

This symposium resulted from research with local governments, agencies, and industry partners across Australia through the Sustainable Built Environment National Research Centre.

The research came across Chinese trackless trams, and with the help of various partners, particularly City of Stirling, Infrastructure Technology Solutions Group and Chinese manufacturers CRRC, brought a trackless tram to Perth. The symposium celebrated the tram and a chance to consider what it meant for our cities.  

The vehicle follows a magnetic track using small magnetic nails set one metre apart along the road. It is largely autonomous, with high-speed rail sensors that enables it to adapt to the road surface ahead and create a highly stabilised ride.It was very obviously not a bus.

Attendees rode the trackless tram and focused on two fundamental questions: is it just a bus? How do we integrate mid-tier transit, urban regeneration and finance with multiple government goals?

Is it just a bus?

This question explored the opportunities that trackless trams and other new modes of mid-tier transit would generate in service delivery and accessibility. Speakers examined its potential to deliver place creation, net zero outcomes and urban regeneration not typically associated with buses in our cities.

The tram runs on electricity and is recharged onsite by a solar collector system developed in WA for remote off-grid areas.

The vehicle follows a magnetic track using small magnetic nails set one metre apart along the road. It is largely autonomous, with high-speed rail sensors that enables it to adapt to the road surface ahead and create a highly stabilised ride.

It was very obviously not a bus. The certification process identifies the vehicle as different from a bus and likely to require a new vehicle class. In simple terms, it is a very good tram-like experience, even though it runs on rubber tyres.

Participants saw that integrating the tram’s capabilities, digital connectivity and net zero quality into urban development could unlock significant, wider benefits. It’s like a smartphone compared to a landline: nobody called it a bus after riding it.

Across Perth and most other Australian cities, there is a strong desire to pursue the possibilities of mid-tier transit such as the trackless tram. It appears to help with urban regeneration, especially from the perspective of local government and communities looking for new ways to attract the best urban development.

Day 2: How do we integrate mid-tier transit, urban regeneration and finance with multiple government goals?

This question is not just a simple technical issue. It addresses the need for a new model to help procure and deliver the tram in a way that helps solve the need for substantial new housing along main roads. It will require new financial and design partnerships with the private sector and local communities. 

The Sunshine Coast, Stirling, and the Caulfield-Rowville Link (in Melbourne) have submitted business cases for a trackless tram and were among presenters at the symposium.

These projects and others from the US, Africa, Malaysia and other cities across Australia have built on research from our group, which has published much about this.

Steps now need to be taken to allow the procurement and delivery of a trackless tram and deliver it within a net zero agenda.

This should not be difficult, given the need to work together to find new solutions for affordable, well-located housing, new sources of funding, new ways of making public transport competitive, and new ways of making net zero cities.

Symposium attendees believe the focus should be on main road corridors that require new mid-tier transit, as they are the best areas for developing well-located, feasible housing for substantial new precincts.

Each Australian city is trying to achieve this kind of development through strategies that address affordable housing, movement and place, main road regeneration and net zero targets.

Victoria’s Plan Melbourne 2017–2050 strategy states that the city will need 1.6 million additional homes in places where people want to live to increase housing supply and improve affordability. It also stipulates that 70 per cent of residential development should occur in existing suburbs to create a liveable, sustainable city and curb urban sprawl.

Is there a model for such integrated redevelopment?

In the US, California changed its planning act to allow the regeneration of a series of main roads into Grand Boulevards to meet the dominant housing demand, which has shifted from single-family housing on the fringe to well-located medium- and high-density opportunities. An example is the regeneration of El Camino Real in the San Francisco Bay area, with over 40,000 new housing units. There was a clear fiscal and financial basis for this.

In Perth, a recent policy change came about with a request for private involvement in transit-oriented urbanism around stations.  However, this did not work as hoped around new outer-area stations. Regenerating selected main roads is now the agenda across all Australian cities, while in cities around the world, doors are opening to a more partnership-based model like the first tram-based urban development.

A federal government strategy on cities, such as Better Cities in the 1980s, is well overdue to facilitate this model.

The statement on a net zero transit system is an important, historic way to continue opening the doors to great urban innovations. However, procuring and delivering mid-tier transit with affordable housing and net zero boulevards will take a lot more grass-roots partnerships than we are used to.

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