Trams in Edinburgh

[RandomMusings]

I'm interested to find out what people think about the tram system currently going in place in Edinburgh - waste of money or step forward? Also, the quality of the bbc journalism strikes again:

[quote="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/8059987.stm]Richard Jeffrey, the new chief executive of Tie, conceded the tram project would not be completed by July 2001, as originally planned.[/quote]

No wonder it looks unlikely to be open now if it was due in July 2001!

[EDIT: Gah, they've altered the story already.... to say July 2011]

(also, on a side note - most amusing story of the day goes to http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/here ... 059349.stm - it's been a slow day!)

[Hennessy]

Last time I was in Edinburgh I sat in a cab for half an hour with a fervent SNP-supporting black cab driver who expected somehow that Alex Salmond would put an end to the tram plan and cure cancer, solve world hunger, end poverty etc etc ad nauseam.

Residual hatred of marxist-socialist black cab drivers aside (I am a Londoner after all) I think it would be a good idea. Buses, although they do great work in thinning the population of parasitic cyclists by slamming into them, have drawbacks in their unpredictability on the road and also their near-constant delays. Trams solve this problem by having only one well-defined route and continual right of way on that route. Any squashed cyclists is therefore a bonus.

The country's thoroughfares used to be covered in tram lanes, and the system is a good one in historic city centres where there is not much space left for road-widening initiatives and we all lack the cast-iron backbones of our Victorian forefathers to dig up new subways on the scale seen a century and a half ago.

Plus there is probably some sort of environmental angle to it to keep the green freaks happy. Everybody wins. Except cyclists, and nobody wants them to win anyway.

[mispy]

I'm not sure usual tram rules apply here. The trams run from Leith, along Princes St and then out to the airport. That's it. I believe there was more planned, but due to the massive overspend/lateness, it's been abandoned. The route is already well served with buses I've never had any problem with, and now the extra routes have been cancelled (anything to do with the need for a new, eye-wateringly expensive Forth Bridge? Couldn't possibly comment.) it all seems even more massively pointless.

The upset caused has been huge, especially trying to get into town from the west end, or from the New Town over to the Meadows sort of area. Compensation was given to businesses (although in my opinion it wasn't enough to compensate for the horrible contraflow system on Leith Walk for ten months) but I really think the city as a whole has suffered - dust, racket, workmen, holdups.

Generally a terrible idea, although I can see longer routes/journey times are a bonus for cabbies.

[Aureliano]

I'm sure I'll come to love the tram line in the end, as a whole network of them work delightfully well back home in Helsinki (which has more or less the same population and city centre geography/traffic as Edinburgh).

Having said that, there's also nothing more soul-destroying than trying to walk across town in a hurry, with your usual routes blocked by massive construction and signs reading: "Catch the first tram in 2011 !"