Could Merseytram have solved Liverpool’s transport black holes?

A £26m funding shortfall and why ‘trackless trams’ could be in our future

Dear members — close your eyes and picture the one that got away. What made them so special? And how did you let them slip? Is it a man? A woman? Close your eyes and picture them for a moment.

Perhaps you aren’t picturing an old flame at all. Not in that sense, anyway. Perhaps, instead, you’re picturing a fully-functioning Merseyside tram network; the one that was proposed in the 2000s. Liverpool’s one that got away. Indeed, many look at those halcyon days of the early noughties, when Merseytram appeared a very real possibility, just as they look back on lost summers of love. But what if all was not lost? What if — maybe, just maybe — that old flame could be rekindled? And what if metro mayor Steve Rotheram was the man to rekindle it?

That’s today’s edition, but first — your Post briefing.