The problem with Coventry’s Very Light Rail

Earlier this month, Coventry City Council unveiled the test runs of their first-of-a-kind ‘VLR’ (Very Light Rail). Featuring battery-powered carriages (a tram), 30cm-deep road rails (again…a tram), and a capacity of around 50 passengers per vehicle (no, seriously – this is a tram), the one-of-a-kind travel network promises to link some lucky Coventry citizens by December 2026 in a development described as ‘revolutionary to transport’.

Eager to uncover more about this electric ‘revolution’, I delved deep into VLR research, uncovering news articles dating back to 2018, when the University’s very own Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) originally unveiled the network development plan. My plans for this to be the first article lauding the new golden era of modern transportation were unfortunately thwarted when I discovered that this ‘VLR’ was little more than a glorified tram.

A tram is defined as a vehicle that operates electrically on public roads; Coventry’s VLR seems to be just this. A ‘light rail system’ is a vehicle that operates on specially built ‘road rails’ (embedded into the road). The ‘light’ description comes from the lower operating costs alongside the diminished speed and passenger capacities of these vehicles. The only difference from the humble tram, popularised in cities such as Manchester, is that the VLR does not require overhead electrical cables. While the lack of cables is an environmental win and makes for a quicker development process (putting HS2 to shame), one can hardly feel it makes up for the cons of the Very Light Rail.

Many Coventry residents seem to believe their money would be better spent elsewhere – on nicer buses, more lights for street safety, or perhaps on the filling of potholes

The recent light rail showcase saw Coventry City Council invite its citizens to clamber aboard for ‘test runs’, an invitation which was met with clamours of unrest and negative opinion. Some felt the Very Light Rail project would not alleviate but contribute to Coventry’s travel problem, adding unwanted congestion onto already crowded roads. Combined with Coventry’s infamous bus network and a relatively well-linked railway station, the Very Light Rail seems to be a clever, if unnecessary service duplicate, hidden beneath the façade of being ‘one-of-a-kind’. Despite costing significantly less than a new train network, the facts and figures don’t lie, with this tram-bus hybrid setting the Department of Transport back a whopping 12 million pounds. Many Coventry residents seem to believe their money would be better spent elsewhere – on nicer buses, more lights for street safety, or perhaps on the filling of potholes (I hasten to add here the likelihood of this happening is zero, and I for one will not be the person to create false hopes in these trying times).

However, the project still manages to highlight a few positives. Coventry has a history of being left behind and is perhaps stuck in limbo as a city, it is smaller than metropolises like Birmingham, Manchester, and London, and yet also struggles to find commonality in the countryside aesthetics of Warwick and Stratford-upon-Avon. In this sense, then, they’re updating what they do have and trying to breathe new life into a city that’s so often overlooked. Moreover, the VLR would undoubtedly add to the local economy, alongside giving Coventry City Council ownership rights to a new type of transport allowing them to sell the idea to other councils and inject even more money into the local area.

As Kylie said in her hit ‘The Loco-Motion’, ‘I know you’ll get to like it if you give it a chance now’. Perhaps this is what we should be striving to do with Coventry’s VLR

This is truly applaudable. However, ignoring the localised grievances of potholes and street safety (Coventry Telegraph illustrated these sentiments with the colourful headline ‘a totally unnecessary project’) makes the project seem little more than an overly expensive novelty.  In fact, Coventry’s current travel links are relatively up-to-speed, providing crucial London-Euston and Birmingham New Street connections. The proximity to these larger and obviously more connected cities highlights the potential uselessness of the project.

As Kylie said in her hit ‘The Loco-Motion’, “I know you’ll get to like it if you give it a chance now”. Perhaps this is what we should be striving to do with Coventry’s VLR. Maybe the beauty of this travel experience is in its unique ineptitude – both as a way of spending council funds and as a hopelessly inadequate piece of competition for the nearby railways. Coventry’s VLR should best be enjoyed for what it truly is – a glorified, slow, and overly expensive tram. All aboard everybody – ‘let’s do the slow-comotion’…