TRANSPORT for London (TfL) has not exaggerated any figures to do with future use of the Uxbridge Road.

A future increase of 70 per cent is expected by 2011 if the tram does not go ahead. With the road now near capacity at peak times, clearly a fresh look is needed into how the road is used and roadspace allocated to users of the route.

The trolleybus will need the road closures to go ahead, just as the tram, if it is not to be stuck in ever increasing traffic and to be value for money.

However the trolleybus just won't attract the number of car users that a tram will, or if it does there will not be enough space inside the vehicle for them.

There is little point investing in a system if it is not built to cater for the number of people required, and if a trolleybus system was implemented it would be overcrowded during peak times in years to come.

The tram will be built to handle passenger numbers of around 320 per tram.

The trolleybus cannot accommodate this amount of people, and so more buses will have to run during the peaks, increasing congestion at junctions of the Uxbridge Road with North-South roads.

Also without a kerb guidance system, the technology of which is still new and not necessarily proven, disabled access would not be the level boarding you get with trams.

A tram is the best solution for future capacity problems and reducing overall traffic levels in West London.

The trolleybus, in this case, just isn't value for money.

Jeffrey Asante, via email