Battery-powered trams, cycling squeezed and a cash conundrum

The Capital tries to plot a route to a bigger tram network

The tram extension to Granton has been a huge success. Pic: Edinburgh Trams

Trams and controversy have had a habit of sticking closely together in Edinburgh.

As the city launches a consultation on plans to build a second tram line, starting to create a city-wide network, don’t expect that to change any time soon.

The consultation invites public opinion on the city council’s plans to construct a route from Granton to the BioQuarter, at Little France, with potential connections to Midlothian and East Lothian. That includes considerations of the impact on existing traffic and cycle infrastructure, as well as two different route options for the northern section of the route. The results of the consultation will inform the next phase of project planning, where approximately £44 million is expected to be spent on detailed designs.

While the tram from the Edinburgh Airport to Newhaven has grown hugely in popularity, the massive, expensive debacle of the first tram’s construction is still fresh enough in collective memory that the council has its work cut out to get public will behind a nearly £3 billion project. More than that, the proposed route through the north of the city has caused massive controversy, leading thousands of residents to get behind a campaign to stop the tram being built along the Roseburn Path.

Do we need more trams?

The city’s transport and environment convener councillor Stephen Jenkinson is keen to stress the consultation is not a referendum - an expansion of the tram network has been part of Edinburgh’s transport policy for decades.

There is no option, he says, but to plan for mass transport across Edinburgh. With the population of the city growing much faster than the rest of Scotland, and massive, much-needed housing development in Granton and South-East Edinburgh, Jenkinson argues the tram is the answer. It is an efficient and climate-friendly way of getting large numbers of people around the city.

Twelve million journeys are taken on the single tram link between Edinburgh Airport and Newhaven each year - that’s more than 10% of the journeys on all Lothian bus routes. With a North-South extension, the tram network would be estimated to carry almost three times as many passengers, a total of 34 million journeys, in 2032.