NotATrainspott
Established Member
- Joined
- 2 Feb 2013
- Messages
- 3,224
The difficulty is that you can't have tram and bus stops side by side, so whatever you do is not going to suit somebody. Given that the tram is of minor importance to public transport in Edinburgh, it's better that the buses have the more convenient stops.
Hopefully the southeast extension will never be built.
When a tram route is built, it becomes the primary means of public transport along that corridor. The reason it is planned to go along Leith Walk is because there are so many buses doing the same journey that it is efficient to replace them with longer electric trams. The same would become true of the corridor to the south east. Remember too that it is possible to split the tram line into several branches as it gets further from the city, serving more people while making the best use of the expensive city centre tram infrastructure. Also, given that both bus and tram are under one operator it is possible to arrange services so that efficient connections can be made.
Couldn't agree more. The city should not suffer any more disruption and grief to extend this municipal vanity project. There is a major inquiry going on into the whole fiasco that left us with half a tram line at the cost of a billion pounds. Once that reports, despite an orgy of document shredding in the council's offices,hopefully no one will let them anywhere near a major infrastructure project ever again.
The city has already seen the worst of the work, so to make a complete waste of all that (plus all the infrastructure and equipment waiting to be used) would be a travesty. The concept of a tram in Edinburgh serving the Leith or Royal Infirmary corridors is not a ridiculous one. TIE no longer exist and the people at the helm would never be allowed to touch the project again.
Seconded. I would also guess the publics already very limmited appitite for ny future projects will be suppressed by the promise of another 5 years of disruption from next year when the St James Quarter Redevelopment starts.
The public have now tried the tram and the evidence is there to say that they like it, very, very much. They've met their whole-year passenger number predictions and the only way is up. Now that people on Leith Walk can experience what it will be like for them to have a tram in service - remember, they'll be there for decades, centuries even - the short-term pain of the construction works is no longer an insurmountable problem.
Though amusing that the SNP said not a penny more would be given to the Tram network and have now agreed to fund their next expansion.
Given that the tram exists in some form, it is only sensible to properly complete it such that it makes an operating profit. That can only be done with the full route to Newhaven. The other branches can make the route even more profitable given that the most expensive parts of the scheme would see higher passenger numbers on the backs of relatively inexpensive infrastructure on the cycle path to Granton or on the route out to the south east. One of the other possibilities is that the idea of a congestion charge may return to the city now that people know the money would go towards extra successful tram extensions.