Edinburgh Trams

I only used the tram on one occasion as I wasn’t sure how far it was from my hotel into the centre. As it turned out it was only 2 stops and was only a 10 minute walk… Quicker than the tram in the traffic! I wouldn’t recommend using them if you’re going down Princes Street as the many bikes and cars also use the same lanes which can mean you are sat waiting for some time… They are good value though at only £3.50 for a day ticket (excluding the airport). I assume they would be good when you leave the busy streets though.

I hail from the Netherlands, so to me: this tram line is a joke. A very expensive one and unles they are going to expand the route it won’t be worth it for a long while.
The major negative points to me are:
1. It adds no improvement to travel time.
2. Congestion on Princes Street is a question of ‘when’ instead of ‘if’.
3. When up ahead the track something is wrong — there is no alternative than to wait in the tram. — as it is only ONE track no alternate routes can be considered.
I am using it from Edinburgh Park to Westend — which is a fairly smooth uneventful ride. After that. it is touch and go. Most of the time due to the other traffic using the tram lines as well this will end up in massive delays. — With other traffic I mean: cars, taxis, trucks, mopeds, bikes, pedestrians and emergency vehicles — ALL of them have right of use on this tram track.
sort it out Transport for Edinburgh.

Labour has made a five star mess of this. was this really what scotland’s parliament needed to do. what about the unused suburban rail system.

having to reduce services, sell off city property not maintain schools, etc. etc. etc.
Someone needs to answer for all the money wasted on this white elephant.

Dear lord, what a ridiculous saga. As many others have pointed out, Edinburgh already has a brilliant bus service. The city is fairly small and due to parking restrictions in town, barely anyone uses cars anyway resulting in only a couple of windows a day when the roads are congested (between 8am and 9:30am, and 5pm-​6pm). As far as I can see the trams have caused chaos and even when they’re up and running will only service a tiny fraction of the city; the majority of which is walking distance anyway, or served by the ubiquitos 22.
The focus should have been on maintaining the already amazing bus service, encouraging people to use it more (the fare going up from £1 to £1.10 to £1.20 was rubbish) and paying for other essential maintenence in town. I think it’s important to remember too that the SNP has consistently voted against trams; it was Labour’s pet project and yet again the Lib Dems took any opportunity they could to jump into bed with the bigger party and sided with Labour. Not to get political or anything…

After the Second World War, the then Edinburgh Council started to develop «per-​fab» housing on the perifery of the City. It was found to be too expensive to extend the tram lines into the new and developing Council Estates and a decision was taken to replace the trams with busses which are not hampered by rails and can be directed into new routes without trouble or chaos. It is beyond comprehension that the Controlling Labour Council, having suffered a defeat by the Citizens for Congestion Charging, should impose a reserection of a «Tramway System».
In the past trams ran from East to West and from North to South and in Circles within the City, and now the suggest replacement is 1 Line, on a route which is already served adequately by busses.
Whilst £ ³⁵⁰⁄₄₀₀ million has already beem spent, the chaos which has ensued, the disruption to bussiness and Edinburgh Citizens and an extending delivery date with extreme escalating costs, this project should NOW be shelved. The Councillors who pushed this project through should be held to account. It will be interesting to hear if I receive a reply from Mr. Gordon MacKenzie, Head of Transportation in Edinburgh, concerning the tram situation, but I doubt if I will.
Sould anyone be interested, I was driving along Princes Street, during the evening of the last journey of trams in Edinburgh and have a number of photographs of this procession, and that includes one of the Horse Drawn Trams brought out from the Tansport Museum for the occasion.
I would be pleased to assist in any way possible to de-​rail this abortion of a project and return Edinburgh to its World Status as «The Athens of the North».

A big waste of money! Costing nearly a billion pounds for a replacement for the 22 bus, as far as I can see.
What really gets me is the fact this was bulldozed through, the use of PR and phoney campaign groups, and contracts signed on the day before the council elections.
Even if the trams were to bring good value to Edinburgh (which I don’t believe they will), are they worth cutting school budgets for? This is the reality that we’re faced with.
Ruining our economy. Slowing our city.

terrible shocking obscene waste of money with contracts not negotiated. Edinburgh now held ransom to any hike in any costs awful… the people of Edinburgh have set up ‘spot the tram worker’ competition becuse they are never seen anyone actually workbon the vast expanses of dug up roads and blocked off streets.

I’m looking forward to having trams back on Edinburgh’s streets and I hope that line 1a will just be the first of many. But I also want a transport system in Edinburgh which is fully integrated which means easy interchange between all the transport modes — trams, buses, railways and the airport — so I hope that the first line will in fact achieve that notably by running direct to the airport terminal. O’wise it is a piece of expensive tomfoolery.

I would be more impressed with the trams (having seen the success of the Luas in Dublin) if the tram lines actually served more of the city! At time of writing, the line runs along what are the best bus routes in the city, whilst bus services get cut elsewhere. I do wish that more consideration was given to re-​opening the suburban railway stations and having a halt at Edinburgh Airport. An argument against the halt at the Airport was that passengers would still have to be bussed to the terminal — it now transpires that the tram line will not actually go to the terminal and passengers willhave tp be bussed (a greater distance) anyway.
Complete waste of time and money, and as for keeping Princes Street permanently closed to traffic bar trams and bicycles — think of us poor sods who have to use the buses!

OMG
The city begins to be trapped in chaos when I am ready to go to University of Edinburgh for further study. What bad luck I have~~ I’ll complete my master years in chaos ediburgh~~ At the very first, I thought edinburgh had a fantastic public transport system. After careful search for transport informations, I learn it’s only the start of the construction of the TRAM. Oh, it must be the start of chaos and mess

The best bit is that trams don’t even run to the airport. They are going to stop short and you are going to have to get a bus the rest of the way.
This really is Edinburgh’s white elephant

3 more years of chaos on the roads and I’m sure that in 2011 the roads will still be an absolute mess!!!
I think there have been constant road works on my route to the work for the last 16 months now it is ridiculous. Roads are constantly being dug up an relaid. I also feel sorry for the many small shops and businesses that have disappeared due to the trams. Take Leith walk for example.
The trams won’t really benefit me as I live out with town. After all my criticism I am sure they will benefit some people who live on the tram routes but these routes are already serviced with a fantastic bus service.
I think they are doing all they can to take our cars off the road really.
Anyway rant over, I’ll see if my opinion changes when the trams are up and running!

Good idea, which will make the transport around Edinburgh even easier and faster for everyone. Unfortunetely it does involve all the work being done in order to prepare the roads, which makes the city centre very hard to move arounf at the moment. At the moment it looks as a bad idea, because of all the chaos it cause, but it will be in Edinburgh for years and it will make it easier to move around the city when work is finished.

Obviously a bad idea for cars and traffic around Edinburgh. Not much point to this idea, many people will just go on it once or twice for the experience then just forget/​be annoyed by them for the rest of eternity. Too much money and hassle for such a bad idea.

Have to agree that Edinburgh streets are a mess at the moment — and once they finish the first round of roadworks they will start again and actually start laying the tracks.
It will be 2011 before the first tram runs. I do think will be a good thing when we have them but is it worth the upheaval and hassle? No I don’t think it is!

Somebody thought it would be a great idea to build a tram system in Edinburgh. Edinburgh is a really terrible place to drive around in and we have a superb bus service (voted best in the uk for several years).
So far the project has doubled in price and routes have been cut in half. So for one tramline from leith to the airport Traffic has been in chaos, and all the roads are dug up in no particular order for over a year so far. Only two more years to go and the amount of roadway available to cars and buses will be halved.
A stupid project for crazy money and chaos. Welcome to Edinburgh.