Edinburgh tram line truncated - again!
Discussion
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-ea...
A complete shambles from beginning to end!
For those who don't know Edinburgh, Haymarket is about a mile from the city centre. So coming from the airport you will be able to take a tram to Haymarket, then change to a bus for the final mile.
Or you get on a bus at the airport and take it the whole way into the city centre.
Let me work that out now.....................
A complete shambles from beginning to end!
For those who don't know Edinburgh, Haymarket is about a mile from the city centre. So coming from the airport you will be able to take a tram to Haymarket, then change to a bus for the final mile.
Or you get on a bus at the airport and take it the whole way into the city centre.
Let me work that out now.....................
"What would cost more, Edinburgh's tram project, or covering the proposed route in gold leaf? Ewan Spence decided to work it out."
http://www.iaindale.com/posts/paint-the-streets-go...
http://www.iaindale.com/posts/paint-the-streets-go...
Someone mentioned this at work today but I took it as meaning the trams would only go from Princes street to Haymarket; that would be quite a nice solution (relatively speaking to how cocked up the entire thing is). From the airport to Haymarket? Wtf for? Who is flying up to Edinburgh to visit 'scenic' Dalry.
Edited by bicycleshorts on Friday 26th August 13:11
As someone born and bred in Edinburgh, I'm glad I no longer live there and have to put up with this complete and utter farce. I said from the beginning it would be a total waste of money, as did everyone else, but politicians are so footloose with the public purse it's criminal.
JTFC!
JTFC!
As somebody who is also Edinburgh born and bred, I am completely lost for words to describe what this bunch of incompetent councillors have done to what was a great city. Edinburgh didn't need trams, it didn't want them and it certainly doesn't need a line between the airport and Haymarket. Anybody who is familiar with Edinburgh will know how good the airport bus is - why would you want to get off the bus and then get on a tram?
In addition to this, if anybody who gets on a train at Haymarket bound for Fife looks to their left after 10 minutes, you will be rewarded with a great view of the end of Edinburgh airports runway. I might be mad but surely it would have been a LOT cheaper to build a small spur/station there - problem solved and £700 million saved.
In addition to this, if anybody who gets on a train at Haymarket bound for Fife looks to their left after 10 minutes, you will be rewarded with a great view of the end of Edinburgh airports runway. I might be mad but surely it would have been a LOT cheaper to build a small spur/station there - problem solved and £700 million saved.
tim0409 said:
As somebody who is also Edinburgh born and bred, I am completely lost for words to describe what this bunch of incompetent councillors have done to what was a great city. Edinburgh didn't need trams, it didn't want them and it certainly doesn't need a line between the airport and Haymarket. Anybody who is familiar with Edinburgh will know how good the airport bus is - why would you want to get off the bus and then get on a tram?
In addition to this, if anybody who gets on a train at Haymarket bound for Fife looks to their left after 10 minutes, you will be rewarded with a great view of the end of Edinburgh airports runway. I might be mad but surely it would have been a LOT cheaper to build a small spur/station there - problem solved and £700 million saved.
That's what the SNP wanted back in 2007 - Edinburgh Airport Rail Link.In addition to this, if anybody who gets on a train at Haymarket bound for Fife looks to their left after 10 minutes, you will be rewarded with a great view of the end of Edinburgh airports runway. I might be mad but surely it would have been a LOT cheaper to build a small spur/station there - problem solved and £700 million saved.
They're now building a new train station on the Fife line at the Gyle, next to the Trams depot. It's supposed to be an interchange with the trams. As part of the wider Edinburgh-Glasgow rail improvements, they're adding a chord north of the Airport to allow trains from Glasgow onto the Fife line so they can pass through this new station and offer more capacity/redundancy as an extra east-west route.
I was in edinburgh a couple of weeks ago (lovely city by the way) and every taxi I used all they could talk about was the s
tty tram system. I genuinely asked the first guy if it was a new tram being installed, or an old one being retired, the vitriol I got back was priceless.
Seems to be similar to the "lorry tunnel" under Dublin which used to provoke the same reaction from cabbies.
Also taxis are so cheap in Edinburgh, why bother with public transport at all? If there is a problem with congestion. Why not have a referendum on a congestion charge? It works in London.
tty tram system. I genuinely asked the first guy if it was a new tram being installed, or an old one being retired, the vitriol I got back was priceless.Seems to be similar to the "lorry tunnel" under Dublin which used to provoke the same reaction from cabbies.
Also taxis are so cheap in Edinburgh, why bother with public transport at all? If there is a problem with congestion. Why not have a referendum on a congestion charge? It works in London.
Blib said:
Fats25 said:
Why not have a referendum on a congestion charge? It works in London.
Edinburgh didn't have a real congestion problem until they started digging it up for the trams. I dropped my OH off in George St today (she runs a hotel there) and it is a complete shambles - they have started painting double yellows down it in advance of shutting Princes St (to fix the tram lines they laid last year, on which no trams will now be running) in order to divert buses.
The one man who started this all off with his anti car nonsense was Cllr (Professor) David Begg - if you are ever in Edinburgh, mention his name to a taxi driver and prepare yourself for a long monologue.
Nickyboy said:
How the hell does a single line that long cost over half a billion??
Keep up at the back! It was originally supposed to cost £500 million for a line between Edinburgh Airport and Newhaven, and an extension loop.The council underestimated the difficulty of the utilities diversions (need to shift all the pipes and cables so they're still accessible once the tracks go down) by a factor of at least 100%. They continually got into fights with contractors by changing things without warning and completely misreading their own contract. They started at the wrong end, which was also most difficult and most expensive and now a massive waste of money.
They cancelled the extension to Granton. In June the Lib Dems voted for the line to end at St Andrew Square because the cost of this option was put at £770million. God knows what the full line to Newhaven would cost. Of course, the Council don't have £231million on top of the £500million the Scottish Parliament gave them plus their own £45million contribution. So they're answer was to borrow it over 30 years with annual repayments of £15million.
In other words, they were about to deliver half a line for £1 billion! Apparently the (extremely dodgy) business case stated this would just about break even. The Haymarket option that Labour and the Tories voted for on Thursday will never do better than a £3m annual loss.
And still, they talk about future extensions! Hopefully the contractors will do the honourable thing and tell the Council to GTF.
Bunch of f
king clowns. tim0409 said:
Blib said:
Fats25 said:
Why not have a referendum on a congestion charge? It works in London.
Edinburgh didn't have a real congestion problem until they started digging it up for the trams. I dropped my OH off in George St today (she runs a hotel there) and it is a complete shambles - they have started painting double yellows down it in advance of shutting Princes St (to fix the tram lines they laid last year, on which no trams will now be running) in order to divert buses.
The one man who started this all off with his anti car nonsense was Cllr (Professor) David Begg - if you are ever in Edinburgh, mention his name to a
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