£500m Derby tram network: capacity, cost and design notes for project teams
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan
First reported on The Construction Index
30 Second Briefing
A £505m proposal from the Light Rail Transit Association sets out a four-line tram network for Derby, with Line 1 looping from The Wyvern through Pride Park, Derby Midland Station, the city centre and Royal Derby Hospital, and Line 4 running from The Wyvern to Toton Lane to connect with Nottingham Express Transit via Spondon and Long Eaton. Phase one, covering Lines 1 and 4, is costed at about £300m including a 50% allowance for planning, design and site clearance, compared with £650m earmarked for the A38 junctions road scheme. Lines 2 and 3, serving the Rolls-Royce Sinfin site, Infinity Park and University of Derby campuses, are estimated at £160m and £45m respectively, signalling a rail-focused alternative for regional capacity and connectivity planning.
Technical Brief
- LRTA’s total capital estimate is £505m, benchmarked against £650m allocated for A38 junction upgrades.
- Phase one costings explicitly separate “actual tramway” construction from public realm works, excluding streetscape upgrades from tram capex.
- A 50% uplift is applied to base construction costs to cover planning, design and site clearance overheads.
- Line 1 alignment reuses the former Great Northern Railway corridor to Kingsway, reducing new earthworks and land-take.
- Line 2 is routed along the existing Birmingham railway corridor, enabling parallel rail–tram transport capacity to the south.
- Line 3 branches from Line 1 at Willow Row and terminates in an Allestree loop serving multiple University of Derby sites.
- Line 4 provides a fixed-rail interchange at Toton Lane with Nottingham Express Transit, enabling regional through-journeys without heavy rail.
- LRTA positions the tram proposal as a rail-based alternative within EMCCA’s transport consultation, competing directly with major highway spend.
Our Take
Within our 371-item Infrastructure set, very few UK urban schemes show a rail-based option undercutting a major highway project on capex, so the Derby tram’s £505m vs the A38’s £650m framing is likely to be used as a benchmark in future East Midlands transport business cases.
The relatively low standalone estimate for Line 3 (£45m) compared with Lines 1 and 4 suggests a phasing strategy where cheaper radial or hospital-serving links (e.g. towards Royal Derby Hospital or University of Derby) could be advanced early to demonstrate benefits before committing to the full network.
The 50% allowance for ‘other costs’ is at the upper end of what appears in recent UK light-rail and BRT proposals in our database, signalling that LRTA and EMCCA are trying to pre-empt typical optimism bias challenges that have delayed or downsized other city schemes in the Infrastructure category.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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