Tories team up with trots to trounce libdem tram plan

In the latest twist to the ongoing Edinburgh tram saga, the Conservative group at the council have teamed up with Labour to back their proposal to build the tram line no further than Haymarket. So now, despite Green support for the Liberal Democrat position which would have seen officers instructed to continue with a line to St Andrews Square, it looks less and less likely that a tram line will ever run down Leith Walk at all.

In the final vote, the SNP group abstained.

Alan Rudland, chair of the Leith Business Association was among those in the public gallery who tweeted live from the meeting. We've put together a slide show of some tweets from local councillors and others to give you a sense of the strength of feeling the debate has produced. It would seem most Leithers simply want to get Leith Walk repaired as quickly as possible.

Comments

[Dave H]

A far less costly overall solution is seen on videos produced by Street Films of Bus Rapid transit systems built in Curitiba and Bogota. These are not the buses used for the guided busway which has been absorbed into the tram system but carrying 200+ passengers 4 double doors on each side no delays buying tickets from the driver, etc which give timetabled speeds 3 times those of conventional buses - equivalent to a tram or metro, and capacities of 35,000+ passengers per hour on an intensively operated system.

The bus solution can be implemented faster than laying track and putting up wires and can deliver the total project between the Airport and Leith. Implemented properly as a true BRT it will be a UK first and potentially an example which people will want to look at rather than laugh at.

Just watch how nearly 100 people board a bus in under a minute on Bogota's system
http://www.streetfilms.org/mba-bus-rapid-transit/
http://www.streetfilms.org/curitibas-brt/

We could demonstrate the potential pretty quickly using the re-arranged Leith Walk and the Wrights/Firstbus Streetcar vehicles - street-legal in the UK but as yet not really used to their full potential because they share their routes with other buses in Leeds and don't even have a proper BRT corridor in York