The cost of the Sheffield Tram

The question is: Why is spending money on the tram deemed a success, yet spending equal amounts of money on cyclists is unaffordable?

Concerning the Sheffield Tram system, how much has each two-way journey cost the tax-payer, and why are similar investments not being made for cycling?

The South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (SYPTE) paid £240 million for the tram system in 1994. In the first couple of years it was a deemed a failure, and was sold to Stagecoach in 1997, for the pittance of £1.15 million. However, more and more people now use the tram, with 15 million journeys per year, and it is now considered by some councillors an environmental, and transport success.

Yearly Stats

In the years 1994 - 2014, the total number of hop-on journeys was 230.5 million. So when adjusted for inflation (£240m -> £426m), each two-way journey has been subsidised by

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£3.70

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This assumes that Stagecoach dont pay anything for the tram other than the initial leasing cost £1.15m, and as far as I'm aware, they dont. In fact the SYPTE are currently funding a £32 million improvement.

This seems like quite a lot of money to be paying for each two-way journey, but I have no problem with that as it's a sustainable mode that gets some people out of cars. However, I'd like to know why, at this cost, the tram is deemed a roaring success yet our councillors and government will not fund decent quality cycle infrastructure with the same financial parity.

In fact, in a recent discussion a councillor, Jack Scott, said it was right to remove a key cycle-way which circumnavigated the dangerous Brookhill roundabout, to make way for the tram. This infamous featured as a prominent #cyclesafe cycling horror story in The Times.

Tweet, arguing that he tram has been a success, "envied by many":

In Sheffield there are around 4500 routine cyclists, and this number is growing. If, like the tram, we spent £3.70 per two-way journey per cyclist over 20 years, we could build a staggeringly good cycle-network that would attract many more cyclists and would indeed be truly sustainable transport.

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4500 x 365 x 20 x 3.70 =

 £121 million

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So the question is again: Why is spending money on the tram deemed a success, yet spending equal amounts of money on cyclists is unaffordable?