The Combe Down and the Oldfield Park routes
both leave the City Centre Circle at Dorchester Street Both routes
cross the river and diverge at the old Wells
Road junction.
The Combe Down route runs up the route previously taken by the
Wells Road before the Churchill Bridge One-way System was built.
This is now a cut-off section of roadway. At the Railway Inn,
the tramway would become twin-track and would join the Wells Road
traffic to the Bear Flat. It would be advantageous to avoid this
section of heavily congested road if at all possible; but, so
far, no way of achieving this has been identified.
The Bear Flat would have a central platform, with a track each side, where the central paved strip exists at present. The tracks could then converge to a single track with passing places and continue up the central reservation of Wellsway, utilising a widened centre grass strip.
Alternatively, two tracks could be provided which would run in traffic lanes for part of their length, but nevertheless avoid traffic jams. Between Midford Road and the Red Lion Roundabout, the track to the Odd Down P+R would move from the uphill carriageway to the central (grassed) reservation, thus avoiding traffic queues which build back from the roundabout in the evening rush hour. The track in the downhill carriageway would move to the centre of the road before it reached the junction with Hatfield Road, so as to avoid morning rush hour queues building back from the Bear Flat.
The Odd Down route would cross the centre of the Red Lion roundabout and continue to a terminus at the Odd Down Park+Ride site., again using a combination of side and centre running to avoid traffic.
The Combe Down branch would follow Midford Road as far as Glasshouse, then turn east along Bradford Road, to Foxhill. A link to the University site could continue from here.