The UK light rail sector finds itself at an interesting crossroads. After years of debate about the role of urban transport in supporting economic growth, decarbonisation, and regeneration, light rail is firmly back on the agenda. Combined authorities, regional mayors, and local authorities are once again exploring tram and mass transit schemes as they seek solutions to growing urban populations, changing travel patterns, and ambitious net-zero targets.
But while the benefits of light rail are widely recognised, a fundamental question remains: can a tram system designed and built today keep pace with customer expectations over the next 30 years?
According to industry leaders from UKTram and Siemens Mobility, the answer is yes, but only if future needs are considered from the outset. During a recent Interchange webinar, industry experts discussed the challenges and opportunities facing the next generation of tram systems, highlighting the principles that will be essential if today’s schemes are to remain relevant for decades to come.
Beyond transport
For James Hammett, managing director of UKTram, the current political and industry environment presents a significant opportunity.
“There’s never been a better time to be talking about light rail,” he explained. “Government and regional leaders increasingly recognise that tramways aren’t simply transport systems. They’re tools for placemaking, economic growth, regeneration, and decarbonisation.”
That shift in thinking is important.
Historically, transport schemes have often been assessed primarily on passenger numbers or journey time savings. Increasingly, however, authorities are taking a broader view, considering how fixed transport infrastructure can stimulate investment, improve connectivity, and transform entire urban areas.
A tram network, Hammett argues, should be viewed as part of a city’s long-term development strategy rather than as a standalone transport intervention.
Changing expectations
While the core purpose of a tram system remains unchanged, passenger expectations are evolving faster than ever.
Consumers increasingly expect services to be available instantly and delivered seamlessly. The same expectations are now influencing public transport. Passengers want real-time information, integrated ticketing, personalised journey planning, and confidence that their connections will work when they arrive.
“In transport, we’re competing against the convenience people experience in other aspects of their lives,” said Hammett. “People expect information immediately. They expect journeys to be easy and intuitive.”
The challenge is that while digital technology evolves rapidly, trams may operate for 30 years or more.
That means today’s infrastructure must be designed to accommodate technologies that do not yet exist.
The passenger
For Rob Thomas, head of sales at Siemens Mobility Rail Infrastructure UK, futureproofing begins with understanding customer needs rather than selecting technology.
“The technology isn’t the starting point,” he explained. “The starting point is the passenger experience and understanding what outcomes customers actually want.”
While safety, reliability, and operational performance remain fundamental requirements, technology should be viewed as an enabler rather than an objective in itself.
Journey planning applications, integrated ticketing systems, passenger information platforms, and future digital services can all sit on top of a robust operational core.
The key, Thomas argues, is avoiding the temptation to specify known solutions too early.
“We should be focusing on the outcomes we want to achieve rather than simply repeating what was done on previous projects.”
Early collaboration
Both speakers highlighted early engagement between authorities, operators, maintainers, and suppliers as one of the most important factors in delivering successful schemes.
Too often, key decisions are fixed before the organisations responsible for delivering and maintaining the railway have been consulted.
Bringing suppliers into the conversation earlier enables stakeholders to better understand costs, explore alternatives, and identify opportunities for innovation.
It also creates a more integrated approach to designing systems that can evolve over time.
The principle extends beyond construction.
Considering maintenance, upgrades, renewals, and future expansion during the initial design phase may increase upfront planning effort but can significantly reduce whole-life costs later.
Affordability
A recurring challenge facing light rail remains cost.
Questions around affordability continue to dominate transport discussions, with comparisons frequently made between UK schemes and those delivered elsewhere in Europe. However, Hammett believes those comparisons can sometimes be misleading.
“What often gets included in tramway costs isn’t necessarily the tramway itself,” he explained.
Major schemes frequently include extensive public realm improvements, utility diversions, streetscape enhancements, and wider regeneration work. These elements are often accounted for within the overall project budget, making direct comparisons difficult.
In some cases, the infrastructure supporting urban regeneration can represent a substantial proportion of total project expenditure. This reinforces the need to evaluate schemes holistically, considering the regeneration and economic benefits they deliver rather than focusing solely on the transport infrastructure.
Digital design
One area where technology is already delivering significant benefits is project delivery.
Modern survey techniques, digital models, and off-site testing are helping reduce risk, improve integration, and minimise disruption.
Utility diversions remain one of the most significant challenges during tramway construction. Despite advances in mapping technology, unexpected buried services continue to cause delays and increase costs.
However, improvements in ground scanning technologies and digital modelling are providing increasingly accurate information before construction begins.
Meanwhile, digital twins and integration facilities are allowing railway systems to be tested before they ever reach site.
Drawing on experience from major rail programmes, including the Elizabeth line and East Coast Digital Programme, Siemens Mobility uses off-site integration facilities to bring together signalling and control systems before deployment.
These environments allow faults and compatibility issues to be identified and resolved without affecting operational railways. Problems that may take days or weeks to resolve on a live network can often be addressed rapidly within a controlled test environment.
Integrated mobility
Perhaps the strongest theme to emerge from the discussion was the need to think beyond individual transport modes.
Future passengers are unlikely to care whether their journey involves a tram, train, bus, bike, e-scooter, or demand-responsive transport service.
What matters is that the journey feels seamless.
That means providing consistent information, integrated ticketing, real-time updates, and intuitive passenger guidance across multiple modes.
“The customer doesn’t initially think in transport modes,” said Hammett. “They think about getting from A to B.”
Accessibility forms a critical part of that experience.
While modern light rail systems already score highly for accessibility through features such as level boarding and predictable stopping positions, more attention is needed on the first and last mile of journeys.
The challenge is no longer simply getting passengers onto a tram. It is ensuring they can easily reach the stop in the first place and complete their journey at the other end.
Looking further ahead, data and artificial intelligence could play an increasingly important role.
Operators already collect large volumes of information relating to vehicle performance, passenger numbers, and service reliability.
The next step is using that data more intelligently.
Real-time passenger load information, predictive maintenance, dynamic journey guidance, and automated disruption management could all help improve both customer experience and operational efficiency.
Much like modern sat-nav systems reroute drivers around congestion, future mobility platforms could automatically recommend alternative routes when disruption occurs.
The technology is largely available today. The challenge lies in integrating systems and ensuring information flows seamlessly between operators, assets and passengers.
The next generation
While much of the discussion focused on infrastructure and technology, both speakers highlighted another critical consideration – people. Future tram networks will only be successful if there is a skilled workforce available to operate, maintain, and improve them over the coming decades.
As technology evolves, attracting the next generation of engineers, technicians, operators, and innovators will become increasingly important. Because futureproofing a tramway is about more than designing adaptable infrastructure. It’s about creating a transport system – and an industry – that can continue evolving long after the ribbon has been cut.
Future-ready systems
The discussion identified several key principles for building light rail systems capable of meeting future demand:
- Start with passenger outcomes, not technology.
- Adopt a whole-system view of mobility.
- Engage operators, maintainers and suppliers early.
- Design infrastructure that can be upgraded and expanded.
- Use digital tools and off-site testing to reduce risk.
- Standardise where possible.
- Focus on whole-life value rather than upfront cost alone.
- Consider workforce skills alongside technology requirements.
- Enable seamless integration across transport modes.
- Build flexibility into systems to accommodate future innovation.
If those principles are followed, the sector appears confident that tram systems built today will remain relevant tomorrow – and for many decades beyond.
Discover more
This article captures just some of the insights shared during a recent Interchange webinar featuring James Hammett, managing director of UKTram, and Rob Thomas, head of sales at Siemens Mobility Rail Infrastructure UK.
To watch the discussion in full and explore the challenges and opportunities facing the next generation of tram systems, scan the QR code, or search Interchange webinar with Siemens on YouTube.
For more information about Siemens Mobility’s light rail and transport technology solutions, get in touch with the team: [email protected]
Image credit: Siemens Mobility