Transport campaigners have urged the North East’s leaders to revisit dreams of installing a network of street trams across the region.

There are renewed calls for a push towards creating new tram systems in areas like Newcastle’s West End, Bensham in Gateshead, or the south of Sunderland – heavily-populated areas that are not on the Tyne and Wear Metro system.

It comes after a new report advocated for a renaissance of the electric mass transit vehicles across the UK, with Sheffield and Manchester among only seven British cities using them compared to 60 in Germany, to help cut pollution from cars and reconnect communities.

Our region once boasted an array of tram services, but the last of them were shut down in the 1950s.

There have been plans this century to bring them back, with an early-2000s vision having outlined proposals for trams to be restored to the streets of Tyneside and Wearside and eventually replace the Metro under operator Nexus’ ‘Project Orpheus’.

That idea would have brought up to 60 miles of tram lines to places like the Newcastle Quayside, Killingworth, Cramlington, Denton, Walbottle, Walker, the Metrocentre, Team Valley, Washington, Wrekenton, Ryhope, and Seaham, delivering new public transport connections to locations without access to the Metro.

Such plans never came to fruition and trams appear to have gradually disappeared off the agenda in the two decades since– with the current North East Transport Plan, a sprawling document which outlines multi-billion pound ambitions to radically transform the region’s transport system by 2035, containing no mention of trams whatsoever.

Focus has instead turned to projects like the extension of the Metro to Washington, through a restoration of the mothballed Leamside railway line, and taking control of bus services out of the hands of private companies, both of which are key pledges of the new North East mayor Kim McGuinness.

But a ‘Back on Track’ report published last week by Britain Remade and Create Streets has urged the Government to make it quicker, easier, and cheaper for new tram systems to be built.

The analysis outlines how trams are “barely in the public eye” in the UK while nations like Germany, France and China have been on building sprees, saying they can “combine the capacity advantages of trains with the immediacy and lower cost of buses”.

The North East Public Transport Users Group welcomed the fundings and has now pleaded with the region’s leadership to “think again” about the prospect of street trams.

A spokesperson told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “This report shows how other European cities have expanded their tram networks in recent decades, including lots of places of a similar size to Newcastle. Trams bring many benefits over buses, including higher speeds and lower energy use, but the biggest benefit is permanence – with tram tracks built into the road, people can plan their lives around the service. This doesn’t apply to bus routes, as the residents of Newcastle Great Park have found in recent years.

“Newcastle and Gateshead had an extensive tram network until the 1950s and could have trams again if the costs could be better controlled. Areas like the West End of Newcastle, Bensham and Team Valley in Gateshead, or southern Sunderland aren’t currently served by the Metro but could easily be provided with a fast and attractive tram service.

"These plans were included in ‘Project Orpheus’ in the 2000s and we encourage the North East Combined Authority to think again about the benefits of trams as part of an integrated transport system for our region.”

Tram cars began operating in the North East in the 1800s, originally pulled by horses or steam-powered before being electrified.

The old Newcastle and Gateshead tramway services that ran on Tyneside connected communities either side of the river, after trams first crossed the High Level Bridge in 1923, and served areas including Gosforth, Walker, Bensham, Low Fell, and Dunston.

Trams also operated in South Shields, Jarrow, Sunderland, and the North Tyneside coastline, but have become a thing of the past in the North East.

Nicholas Boys Smith, founding chairman of Create Streets, said that the ripping up of tram systems around the UK had been a “historic wrong turn” and that the country had now “unintentionally made it very expensive to create new trams”.

The ‘Back on Track’ report recommends that regional mayors are handed the powers to sign off on new tram projects and levy taxes to pay for them, rather than relying on the Government.

Mr Boys Smith added: ‘It’s time for trams. We took a historic wrong turn when we ripped up our tram syste

m in the 1950s, undermining the fundamental ease of movement and interaction for business and pleasure which underpins all successful places.  “Europe and the US have realised this. Now we need to as well. If we are to decarbonise transport, cut air pollution, and boost urban productivity and growth then reliable and fast public transport is critical.”

North East Mayor Kim McGuinness said she had “ambitious” plans for the regions’ transport but confirmed that trams are not in the picture currently.

She added: “My priorities are expanding the Metro to Washington and reopening the Leamside Line, which will help to connect our communities to more opportunities – for jobs, education and leisure and I am absolutely determined to see this happen. While we are a big fan of trams, they are not part of my immediate plans.

“The iconic Metro system was the first of its kind in the UK and uses best-in-class light rail technology to transport millions of passengers around the region each year. But high-quality transport infrastructure takes a long time to plan and deliver and is expensive to build – so the most important thing right now is to get to work on things we can deliver over the next few years. 

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"Over the longer term we will consider all options to introduce better public transport connections to more places around the region, and these will include better buses, rail links, Metro extensions, and tram systems.

“Over coming months, we will produce a draft of our new Local Transport Plan which will set out how we intend to implement a green and integrated transport system to help the region to build the greenest and best-connected transport network in the UK.

"Over the autumn we will hold a public consultation into the Plan, so that we can take on board feedback and ideas from people around the North East.”