Editing Nottingham Express Transit (section)

===Planning and construction of phase one===
Nottingham and the surrounding urban area is the UK's seventh largest and third fastest-growing urban area.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}} Traditionally, Nottingham's economy was to a large extent based on [[manufacturing]] and [[coal mining]], and in the second half of the 20th century the area was affected by the decline in these industries. High population density, a road system constrained by crossings of the [[River Trent]], and a concentration of retail and entertainment outlets in the city centre led to road congestion and high bus usage. In the late 1980s, [[Nottingham City Council]] and [[Nottinghamshire County Council]] identified the possibility of using a modern tramway as a means of stimulating [[urban renewal]], as well as tackling road congestion.<ref name=rtpn>{{cite web |url = http://www.railway-technology.com/projects/nottingham/ |title = Nottingham Express Transit, United Kingdom |work = railway-technology.com |publisher = Kable Intelligence Limited |access-date = 5 August 2015 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150805125536/http://www.railway-technology.com/projects/nottingham/ |archive-date = 5 August 2015 |url-status = live |language = en-gb}}</ref>

Plans began from around 1990, by Nottingham Development Enterprise, under Malcolm Reece. Studies in [[Grenoble]] in France had shown that up to 20% of commuters switched from their car. Possible routes were developed by Bob McKittrick of [[Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick]]. The first route was to Hucknall, but would go through the [[Victoria Centre]] tunnel. Other routes would follow the railway to [[Carlton, Nottinghamshire|Carlton]] and the railway to Beeston; the consulting engineers' advice was to follow along railway routes, where possible.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}} By 1991, the route under the Victoria Centre was dropped, to follow the present route. It would be twenty five years before the other routes would be built.

The scheme was known as the Greater Nottingham Light Rapid Transport – GNLRT.<ref>{{cite news |publisher = Nottingham Evening Post |date = 9 March 1990 |page = 6}}</ref> The [[List of Acts of the 2nd Session of the 51st Parliament of the United Kingdom|Greater Nottingham Light Rapid Transport Act 1994]] received Royal Assent on 21 July 1994.<ref>{{cite web |url = https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/1994/15/enacted |title = Greater Nottingham Light Rapid Transit Act 1994 |website = legislation.gov.uk |date = 1994 |language = en-gb}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |publisher = Nottingham Evening Post |date = 21 July 1994 |page = 1 |language = en-gb}}</ref> At that point, the scheme required £68m of government funding.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}

During December 1998, [[Minister of State for Transport]] [[John Reid, Baron Reid of Cardowan|John Reid]] confirmed the availability of £167{{nbsp}}million funding for a new tram system, to be known as Nottingham Express Transit, to run between Nottingham and [[Hucknall]].<ref name=nphnt>{{cite news |url = http://www.nottinghampost.com/history-Nottingham-tram/story-27668114-detail/story.html |title = The history of the Nottingham tram |first = Tracy |last = Walker |work = Nottingham Post |publisher = Local World Limited |date = 25 August 2015 |access-date = 27 August 2015 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150921122712/http://www.nottinghampost.com/history-Nottingham-tram/story-27668114-detail/story.html |archive-date = 21 September 2015 |url-status = dead |df = dmy-all |language = en-gb}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url = https://www.egi.co.uk/news/government-commits-167m-to-nottingham-tram-scheme/ |title = Government commits £167m to Nottingham tram scheme |publisher = Relex Group |date = 4 December 1998 |language = en-gb}}</ref>

In March 2000, the joint promoters, Nottingham City Council and Nottinghamshire County Council, awarded a 30-year [[Private Finance Initiative]] (PFI) concession to the Arrow Light Rail Ltd consortium, with responsibility for the design, funding, building, operation and maintenance of the line. The consortium was made up of [[Adtranz]] (later subsumed into [[Bombardier Transportation]]), who were responsible for the trams, [[Carillion]], who were responsible for the infrastructure, [[Transdev]] and [[Nottingham City Transport]] (NCT).<ref name=rtpn/><ref name=tutbnt6>{{cite book |title = Nottingham Express Transit Bringing Nottingham Together |publisher = Tramways & Urban Transit in association with Tramlink Nottingham and Nottingham City Council |language = en-gb}}</ref>

As originally built, the system was {{convert|14|km|mi|order =flip}} long and served 23 [[tram stop]]s. The construction cost a total of £200{{nbsp}}million, a sum equivalent to {{nowrap|£{{Formatprice|{{Inflation|UK|200000000|2004|{{inflation-year|UK}}|r=-4}}}}}} at {{inflation-year|UK}} prices.{{Inflation-fn|UK|df=y}}<ref name=tutbnt6/>