Edinburgh's new tramway

[rjhowie]

It was reported on television that ddrivers training is now fully under way and aiming for the spring of next year for operation. Not before time

 

[JCitron]

That's awesome!

John

 

[rjhowie]

John,

It would have been more awesome if the thing had not been so plagued by mishandling earlier. Originally there were proposed to be 3 lines but the third was to be voted on by the citizensand they voted against. Then in time it was reduced to this one admittedly long line. It comes in from Edinburgh Airport but because the cost had spiralled to more than the cost of the original 3 the City Council halved the route. It was to go from the west right through the city centre to the easter area at Leith dockside but will now still be along Princess Street and stop in that central area. The fight between the City Council and the German builders was a disgrace and things kep getting delayed and cost went through the roof. At one point building came to a stop with a mess around until the legal battle was sorted. Before they finally agreed that the track had to go into the city centre the City was going to stop at Haymarket station a mile away which would have been ludicrous.

Cities in England with new tramways seem to have been better at costing than "Auld Reekie". They are even having extensions built. and Many here shook their heads in disbelief including Edinburgh folk I still will look forward to having a shot by taking the train from a city that knew how to run trams (Glasgow!). The consolation is that over in Ireland they built 2 tramlines into the city but didn't connect them !! So now that had to be corrected. A while back I on a trip to Edinburgh did visit a mounted tram for people to go on and look around and chat to officials so when spring comes I wish the service well.

 

[JCitron]

John,

It would have been more awesome if the thing had not been so plagued by mishandling earlier. Originally there were proposed to be 3 lines but the third was to be voted on by the citizensand they voted against. Then in time it was reduced to this one admittedly long line. It comes in from Edinburgh Airport but because the cost had spiralled to more than the cost of the original 3 the City Council halved the route. It was to go from the west right through the city centre to the easter area at Leith dockside but will now still be along Princess Street and stop in that central area. The fight between the City Council and the German builders was a disgrace and things kep getting delayed and cost went through the roof. At one point building came to a stop with a mess around until the legal battle was sorted. Before they finally agreed that the track had to go into the city centre the City was going to stop at Haymarket station a mile away which would have been ludicrous.

Cities in England with new tramways seem to have been better at costing than "Auld Reekie". They are even having extensions built. and Many here shook their heads in disbelief including Edinburgh folk I still will look forward to having a shot by taking the train from a city that knew how to run trams (Glasgow!). The consolation is that over in Ireland they built 2 tramlines into the city but didn't connect them !! So now that had to be corrected. A while back I on a trip to Edinburgh did visit a mounted tram for people to go on and look around and chat to officials so when spring comes I wish the service well.

This is sounds like they come from Boston and work for the "T". They make a total mess of nearly every project that goes in. They messed up the restoration of the Forrest Hills line down Centre Street in Jamaica Plains. This was an existing line that was taken out of service during a cost-cutting move back in the mid 1980s. They went as far as to upgrade the trolley wire to the new catenary, replaced track, and even upgraded switches and signals. The line languished for years afterwards, got paved over in a few spots and then there was a proposal to restore the line. The residents voted for it. The business community was in favor, but then nope, it didn't happen. The T didn't want to do anything and kept back pedaling against the project. Eventually, the new NIMBYs moved in during the intervening years of the environmental studies, traffic studies, the stalling, court orders, playing politics, taking pay-offs, or whatever else they did to stall the project. Everything went to court and the judge ruled with the T and the NIMBYs to cancel the project. Yup. Millions of dollars spent, our tax money wasted, because they really didn't want to do the project, and stalled long enough to get the public against it. The wimpy excuse is that NIMBYs complained that the trolleys would create noise and traffic jams. Huh??? You'd think the opposite, but apparently their very influential barristers had plenty of connections in the state house and courts and won the battle. So now the tracks are gone. The old trolley barn is now a bus turnaround and commuter parking lot. Millions of our tax dollars wasted for nothing.

John