Edinburgh tram network

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This article or section contains information about planned or expected public transportation in the United Kingdom.

It may contain information of a speculative nature and the content may change significantly as more information becomes available.

Edinburgh Trams is a project to build a new tramway in Edinburgh, where local public transport has been limited to buses since the closing of the city’s original tramway on 16 November 1956.

Following years of transport studies in Edinburgh — two bills were submitted to the Scottish Parliament to reintroduce a tram network to Edinburgh. Both bills were passed in March/April 2006, and received Royal Assent. Movement of underground utilities commenced in Spring 2007, once the draft business case had been accepted by the Scottish Executive.^[1]

As of June 2008, construction work in underway based on a design by System Design Services (SDS, a joint design contract lead by Parsons Brinckerhoff and Halcrow). The project is being overseen by Transport Initiatives Edinburgh (tie), a company wholly owned by the City of Edinburgh Council. Work relocating utilities is ongoing and construction of the tram infrastructure commenced following the award of the final contracts to BBS and CAF in May 2008^[2]. Once the network becomes operational it will be operated by Transdev who were awarded the contract in 2004 to help develop, and eventually operate the network.

Ticketing and fares will be fully integrated with Lothian Buses. The fare for a single journey on the tram network will be the same as on Lothian Buses, expected to be around £1.25 when the network opens in 2011. Day tickets and Ridacards will be valid on both the trams and buses.^[3]

Estimated date of opening for Phase 1a is July 2011, at a cost of £512 million.^[4]

1 Critical scrutiny
2 Lines
3 Tram vehicles
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Critical scrutiny

The Scottish National Party (SNP) published its intention to scrap the scheme,^[5] along with the Edinburgh Airport rail link in its manifesto for the Scottish Parliament general election, 2007, to save a total of £1.1bn.

Following a vote in the Scottish Parliament, the Scottish Executive agreed to continue with the line from the Airport to Leith on condition that no more public money would be supplied if the project overran. A report by Audit Scotland, commissioned by the SNP-led Scottish government, confirmed that the cost projections were sound.^[6]^[7]

On 25 October 2007 Edinburgh City Council gave approval to the Final Business Case. Approval was given by the Council^[8] on 22 December 2007 for TIE to sign contracts with CAF^[9] for the supply of the vehicles and BBS (a consortium of Siemens AG and Bilfinger Berger)^[10] for the design, construction and building of the network. Contract negotiations are expected to be concluded in January 2008 with construction of the network commencing in February 2008.^[11]

[edit] Lines

The proposal consists of three lines, of which lines One and Two have parliamentary permission. For funding reasons, the network will be built in three phases. Phase 1a would consist of an 18.5km line from Newhaven to Edinburgh Airport via Princes Street. Phase 1b would be a 5.5km line from Haymarket to Granton Square. Phase 2 would link Granton Square and Newhaven together. Phase 3 would extend the airport line to Newbridge. It is hoped that phase one of the network will be operational by 2011.

The network will be operated from a depot that will be situated close to the A8 roundabout just north of the Gyle tram stop.

[edit] Line 1 (North Edinburgh)

Route map

The first route will be a circular route between the City Centre, Leith, Newhaven and Granton. It will be integrated with the cycle and pedestrian path along the Roseburn wildlife corridor or the former railway between West Coates and Granton.

Please note that routeings, station names, and station locations are subject to change.

Name	Phase	Transport Interchange	Serves
Haymarket	Phase 1a	Haymarket railway station Lothian Buses Line 2 (West Edinburgh)	Edinburgh International Conference Centre
Shandwick Place	Phase 1a
Princes Street	Phase 1a		Princes Street National Gallery of Scotland
St Andrew Square ( Edinburgh Waverley)	Phase 1a	Lothian Buses Edinburgh Bus Station Waverley Station	St Andrew Square St. James Centre
Picardy Place	Phase 1a		Omni Centre Edinburgh Playhouse
McDonald Road	Phase 1a		Easter Road Stadium
Balfour Street	Phase 1a		Pilrig Park
Foot of the Walk	Phase 1a	Lothian Buses
Constitution Street	Phase 1a
Port of Leith (formerly Ocean Drive)	Phase 1a		Scottish Executive building
Ocean Terminal	Phase 1a		Ocean Terminal Royal Yacht Britannia
Newhaven	Phase 1a		Newhaven
Lower Granton	Phase 2
Granton (formerly Granton Square)	Phase 1b
Saltire Square (formerly Granton Waterfront)	Phase 1b
Caroline Park	Phase 1b		Telford College
West Pilton (formerly West Granton)	Phase 1b
Crewe Toll	Phase 1b	Lothian Buses	Fettes College
Telford road	Phase 1b		Western General Hospital
Craigleith	Phase 1b		Craigleith Retail Park
Ravelston Dykes	Phase 1b		Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art Stewart's Melville College The Mary Erskine School St. George's School
Roseburn	Phase 1b
The line continues to Haymarket to complete the loop

[edit] Line 2 (West Edinburgh)

A Lothian Buses guided bus traversing the Fastlink guided busway, soon to be replaced by Line 2

Route map

The second route will run from the City Centre out to Edinburgh Airport via Edinburgh Park, with a branch line to Newbridge. In February 2005, construction of a bus guideway, which forms part of the route, was completed. The guideway is designed for conversion to tram running, and between proposed stops 4 and 6 runs adjacent to the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, between Haymarket and Edinburgh Park stations.

The Scottish Government announced ^[12] on 27 September 2007 the cancellation of the Edinburgh Airport Rail Link and that they would build a new rail station and tram stop on the Fife Railway line this would allow fast connection to Edinburgh Airport, costs for this have not been stated and would be in addition to the currently budgeted for amount.

Please note that routes, station names, and station locations are subject to change.

Name	Phase	Transport Interchange	Serves
Between the city centre and Haymarket, trams run along Line 1.
Haymarket	Phase 1a	Haymarket railway station Lothian Buses Line 1 (North Edinburgh)	Edinburgh International Conference Centre
Murrayfield	Phase 1a		Murrayfield Stadium
Balgreen	Phase 1a		Edinburgh Zoo
Saughton	Phase 1a
Bankhead (formerly South Gyle)	Phase 1a		Stevenson College
Edinburgh Park Station	Phase 1a	Edinburgh Park railway station	Hermiston Gait retail park
Edinburgh Park Central	Phase 1a		Edinburgh Park
Gyle Centre	Phase 1a		Gyle Shopping Centre
Gogarburn	Phase 1a		Royal Bank of Scotland headquarters
Ingliston Park and Ride	Phase 1a	Lothian Buses
At this point the line diverges; one branch runs to Edinburgh Airport, the other to Newbridge North
Edinburgh Airport	Phase 1a	Edinburgh Airport Rail Link	Edinburgh Airport

Ingliston West	Phase 3		Royal Highland Showground
Ratho Station	Phase 3
Newbridge South	Phase 3
Newbridge North	Phase 3

[edit] Line 3 (South East Edinburgh)

Route map

The third tram line would run from the City Centre towards the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and finally connecting with Newcraighall railway station and park and ride, with a possible extension to Musselburgh.

The third route has yet to be submitted to the Scottish Parliament. Funding for the line depended on Edinburgh voters agreeing to a congestion charge, which was rejected in the Edinburgh road tolls referendum, 2005. As such, the proposal is on hold and does not form part of the proposed phases, but the land needed for the line will be protected for at least 10 years.^[13]

Name	Phase	Transport Interchange	Serves
Waverley station	N/A	Edinburgh Waverley railway station Lothian Buses Line 1 (North Edinburgh)
High Street	N/A		Royal Mile
South Bridge	N/A
Nicolson Square	N/A		University of Edinburgh George Square campus
St Patrick Square	N/A
The Meadows	N/A		The Meadows
Newington Road	N/A		Newington
Minto Street	N/A
Newington Station	N/A		Interchange with South Suburban Railway at Newington Station
Craigmillar Park	N/A		University of Edinburgh King's Buildings campus (at some distance)
Cameron Toll	N/A		Cameron Toll Shopping Centre
The Inch	N/A
Moredun	N/A		Moredun
RIE/Bio Medipark	N/A		Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh
Greendykes	N/A		Greendykes
Craigmillar	N/A		Craigmillar
Niddrie	N/A		Niddrie
The Wisp	N/A
Fort Kinnaird	N/A		Fort Kinnaird Retail Park
Newcraighall	N/A	Newcraighall railway station

[edit] Tram vehicles

The contract to build the trams is worth up to £40 million, and manufacturers were required to meet "tie's" (Transport Initiatives Edinburgh) specifications. Tenders were submitted in mid October 2006. The trams will be manufactured by CAF who was selected from amongst the four manufacturers who submitted tenders. Alstom, Bombardier, and Siemens were the other companies competing to build the 27 vehicles.

The trams will have to cope with the steep slopes of Edinburgh while being 30 to 40 m (100 to 130 ft) long, possibly the longest in the UK. They will be 100% low floor built to meet the UK Rail Vehicle Access Regulations in the Disability Discrimination Act 2005 for disabled people. Passenger capacity will be more than 200 with a vehicle top speed at 70 to 80 km/h (45 to 50 mph). The system will be fitted with CCTV on the tramstops as well as in the tram. Special requirements that Edinburgh city has put on the bi-directional vehicles are low noise and a visual fit suitable for a World Heritage Site.^[14]

Willie Gallagher, chairman of TIE, said: "Edinburgh will have the most advanced tram system in the world."^[15]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Edinburgh's Official Tram Time web site
Leith Walk & Constitution Street Traders Association Traders affected by the implementation of the tramway
Auditor Generals Report on Tram Scheme
Edinburgh Tram (Line One) Bill Committee
Edinburgh Tram (Line Two) Bill Committee
Edinburgh Tram (Line One) Act 2006)
Edinburgh Tram (Line Two) Act 2006)

v • d • e

UK light rail systems

Tramways

Current	Tramlink (South London) · Supertram (Sheffield) · Nottingham NET · Midland Metro · Metrolink · Blackpool Tramway

Future	CITI · City Tram · Cross River Tram · Edinburgh tram network · EWAY · Merseytram · Penistone Line Tram-Train Trial · WWAY

Abandoned	Supertram (Leeds) · West London Tram