I went to watch the Test match at Old Trafford on Saturday, and found myself idly musing on Liverpool's late and much lamented tram project.
Not, I have to admit, the most exciting subject to occupy your mind on a sunny Saturday afternoon, but compared to the rival attractions of watching England eke out runs at an exhilarating rate of about five an hour, it passed the time quite nicely, thank you very much.

I had picked up a friend at his home in Cheshire, and driven as far as Altrincham. (This also meant that for me, the great Test tradition of knocking back improbable amounts of warm beer from plastic glasses was reduced to the status of a spectator sport only mildly more diverting than the events being played out in the middle)
From Altrincham, we hopped on a tram which rattled along quite noisily at a speed occasionally touching 50mph, amid much banter about warp factors and how much more the lithium crystals could take. You really had to be there.
But despite our merry quips, within a few minutes we were pulling up, quite literally on the doorstep of the home of Lancashire Cricket Club. It was quick, convenient, and a lot more environmentally friendly than going by car.
At the end of the afternoon, the entertainment value of the day having been lifted significantly by England's sudden batting collapse, we traipsed out confidently expecting to face an hour of that other great British sport of queueing before getting our return transport. Not a bit of it. We stood in a very calm, highly organised queue for approximately ten minutes before getting onto the platform and boarding the tram which whisked us back to our waiting car. We were back in Altrincham half an hour after stumps.
Liverpool's tram system was criticised on a number of counts, not least of them the fact that the first route chosen, from Kirkby to the city centre, was picked more because of the amount of grants it was likely to attract than for its convenience to users. Yet now, with Everton in negotiations to build a new stadium as part of a major new mixed use development in the town, you can't help but think what a terrific asset that tram route would have become. The subsequent plan to develop a tram link to Liverpool John Lennon Airport would have been massively useful, and a terrific boost to our tourism economy.
The government found it expedient to pull the plug on Liverpool's tram plans, having apparently cooled on the entire light railway principle. Millions of pounds of public money hd to be squandered to get the Merseytram project to the stage it had reached when the Whitehall coup de grace was delivered.
Today the city has a road system teetering under the weight of the traffic its regeneration is attracting, and not enough efficient, clean and reliable public transport alternatives to satisfy what is becoming a growing need.
Merseytravel still has a tram plan in its sights for the future, but the chances of seeing it get the Whitehall support it needs now seem remote indeed. The government clearly has much greater public spending imperatives at present, like commissioning exciting new logos for the London Olympics. Hardly cricket, is it?

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