Department for Transport figures show that in the last 10 years, the number of passenger journeys made by light rail has increased by 123 per cent from 73 million in 1995-96 to 162 million in 2005-06.

Since NET (Nottingham Express Transit) Line One opened in March 2004, it has achieved over 8.4m passengers in the first year of operation and 9.7m in the second.

Public transport usage in the NET corridor is up by 20% in the peak periods road congestion has been reduced by as much as 9%.

30% of NET tram passengers have directly transferred from car or use park and ride.

Light rail has a proven ability to attract motorists out of cars - car use has dropped by nearly 19% in Croydon, south London, since the tram scheme began operations in 2000.

Significant modal shift - between 20% and 40% - from the private car has occurred in cities where LRT has been introduced.

22 million car trips a year have been taken off the roads by light rail schemes in the UK.

There has been a 52% increase in patronage on UK light rail schemes since 1999 according to the Department for Transport.

Department for Transport statistics show that overall traffic levels have increased by over 80% and car traffic levels have increased by more than 85% since 1980.

A survey, carried out in 14 European cities, which has conducted research on the effectiveness of light rail on modal split, showed that on average 11% of the new passengers formerly came by car (Hass-Klau, C. et al, 2003, Bus or Light Rail: Making the Right Choice)

In 2002/03 Manchester Metrolink carried 18.8 million passengers. Metrolink's research suggested that about 2 million car journeys had been taken off the road each year, equivalent to 10% of total car journeys along the Metrolink corridor.

In Karlsruhe, Germany, the Karlsruhe-Bretten integrated public transport system saw a 600% increase in public transport patronage, 40% of passengers were former car users and only 25% of the light rail users were previous Deutsche Bahn rail users (PTEG, 2005, What Light Rail can do for cities, Appendices, Steer Davies Gleeve).

In Rennes, the proportion of people coming into the city by public transport rose from 35% to 50% following the introduction of the light metro. Looking only at the metro corridor this percentage rises even further to 60%, demonstrating a reduction in car usage.

The Croydon light rail scheme, Tramlink has encouraged an excess of £2 billion in inward investment into the area, including two major retail schemes (£1.5 billion), an arena and office development, a rebuilt and redeveloped major concert hall, two multi screen cinema complexes with bars/restaurants and sports club facilities, industrial warehouse/retail development, office development and housing development.

A particularly under-privileged area of Croydon has seen a 35% reduction in joblessness since Tramlink was launched.

Since Tramlink was built, residential property prices in Croydon have increased by 14% more in those areas close to the tram.

The Transport for London business case for Cross River Tram quotes economic benefits of more than £1.5 billion and a benefit-cost ratio of more than 3 (or 2 when allowing for the most pessimistic cost estimates).