March 14 2019

Edinburgh councillors have lent their support to an extension of the city’s tram network from York Street to Newhaven following an impassioned debate on the Final Business Case for the transport link.

Overseen by engineering giant Atkins the project will formally get underway by the end of the month as contractors finalise plans for the build during a further six-month period, at which point construction will finally begin.

It is hoped that the line will reinvigorate a swathe of brownfield land to the north of the city by bringing it within reach of the commercial centre, kick-starting delivery of new homes, offices and shops.

Jason Hogg, director of residential and land development at JLL, said: “In a city characterised by high demand for city-centre work, life, and play, we would expect to see a range of mixed use developments put forward for consideration in the next few years as a consequence of the extended network.

“The pressure of housing demand in the city centre is already having a positive impact on the regeneration of brownfield sites in and around Leith as seen by developments under construction such as the Rope Works by S1 Developments and Waterfront Plaza by Cala Homes.”

All going well trams could be ferrying passengers down to the waterfront by 2023.

6 Comments

#1 Posted by Romy Stenhousr on 14 Mar 2019 at 16:37 PM

How many businesses will go out of business ( as they did before) in the next 4 years! I have watched very empty trams pass the full buses everyday. Environmentally they are cleaner but with other welfare issues crying out for funding? Just not convinced a proper uses of funds.

#2 Posted by Philip on 14 Mar 2019 at 21:47 PM

Waterfront ‘Plaza’....Cala certain have a gift for the naff.
Good result on trams..get it built.

#3 Posted by Mike on 15 Mar 2019 at 08:01 AM

Great decision. The city would only grind to a halt had this not been approved. Buses are only getting caught up in the rest of the traffic choking the roads. Now they just need to complete the loop back to Haymarket to open up the north of the city and provide it with quality public transport links it so badly needs. Short term pain for long term gain is needed to help Edinburgh grow and thrive without more unsustainble road congestion.

#4 Posted by Daniel on 15 Mar 2019 at 09:31 AM

#1 - the money being spent on this is being borrowed against future revenues. It has not come from the Council's central funding, and were this not built it wouldn't exist for anything else.

So so tired of the anti-tram lobby deliberately conflating capital funding and general funding. They are NOT the same things.

Anyway, great news. More public transport please.

#5 Posted by Egbert on 15 Mar 2019 at 10:35 AM

#4 - hear hear - glad to hear someone pushing back against the anti-tram lobby's specious claims about council funding.
#1 - have to say your 'very empty trams' claim isn't borne out by my own experience - I pass the Haymarket section of the route daily, and use it myself regularly to get to and from sites in the west of the city - the trams are invariably full both with commuters at morning and evening rush hours and with tourists, students and residents during the daytime. By pretty much all metrics they're a success, and work well with the buses as complementary elements of an integrated network.

#6 Posted by Cadmonkey on 18 Mar 2019 at 18:21 PM

#4 Daniel
You seem to know about the finances.
So is it true that the existing tram is making an "operating profit", but this is still not generating enough profit to meet its monthly interest payments on the colossal loan? So every day that goes by the tram is actually pushing CEC into even more debt? Is that the case?

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