Edinburgh trams

Edinburgh trams
Tram on Shandwick Place in central Edinburgh
Basic information
Country	United Kingdom
city	Edinburgh
opening	May 31, 2014
operator	Edinburgh Trams Ltd.
owner	Transport for Edinburgh
Infrastructure
Route length	14 km
Gauge	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system	750 volts DC , overhead line
Stops	16
Depots	1
business
Lines	1
vehicles	27 CAF Urbos 3 bi- directional articulated trolleys
Train length	42.8 m
statistics
Passengers	7.5 million per year (as of 2018/19)
map
website
edinburghtrams.com

Edinburgh Trams is in Scotland's capital Edinburgh ( United Kingdom circulating) tram . It opened on May 31, 2014, almost 60 years after the old tram was shut down.

Starting position

Double deck car 35 of the Edinburgh electric tram in Blackpool (1984)

Edinburgh owned a horse-drawn tram from 1871 , which was supplemented by a cable tram from 1888 . From 1905 the route network was converted to electrical operation. This tram network, on which, as in most British cities, mainly double-decker cars drove, was discontinued on November 16, 1956, and the infrastructure was subsequently removed. Since then, public transport has been limited to buses and regional trains .

Almost 50 years later, studies on traffic planning showed that a tram in Edinburgh would be a useful addition and relief for local traffic . This resulted in two bills in the Scottish Parliament in March and April 2006 that created the legal and financial conditions for construction. Construction work began in spring 2007 with the clearing of underground lines.

route

Legend Edinburgh Airport Ingliston Park & ​​Ride Gogarburn Gogar (company stop for driver change) Depot Gogar Edinburgh Gateway Gyle Center Edinburgh Park Central Edinburgh – Stirling railway line Edinburgh Park Station Bankhead Saughton Edinburgh – Stirling / Edinburgh – Dundee railway line Balgreen Murrayfield Stadium Haymarket West End - Princes Street Princes Street St. Andrew Square York Place Picardy Place McDonald Road Balfour Street Foot of the Walk The Shore Port of Leith Ocean Terminal Newhaven

planning

The original plan

The planning was based on three lines, two of which were approved by the laws of the Scottish Parliament. These should be implemented in three construction phases: 1a, 1b and 2.

Two trams at St Andrew Square: Due to the cost increases in the construction, the city-side terminus was originally intended to be built here. Ultimately, the line was extended by one station to York Place

• Phase 1a is the basic route. Partially match the 2014 opened distance from Edinburgh airport at Edinburgh Haymarket Rail pass through the Princes Street (with dortiger to transfer to the railway at Edinburgh Waverley Rail Station ) and the St Andrew Square to York Place leads. According to the originally planned route, it would have continued to Newhaven and would then have reached a total length of 18.4 km. This was abandoned during construction for cost reasons. This planning has been implemented since 2019.
• Phase 1b was to create a route that branched off from the basic route at Edinburgh Haymarket station and led to Granton Square . This route with a length of 5.6 km was given up in April 2009 due to the cost development in the construction of section 1a and the resulting political resistance.
• Phase 2 would have been the connection of the two end stations Granton Square and Newhaven.
• Phase 3 was to extend the airport line to Newbridge.

The original plan was for a construction cost of £ 512 million and an opening in July 2011. Both key data could not be met.

implementation

Installation of the tracks on Princes Street

construction

The tram was made in standard gauge . The city of Edinburgh was responsible for the construction through its own municipal operation , the Transport Initiatives Edinburgh . The construction contract was awarded in April 2008 to BBS, a consortium made up of Bilfinger Berger and Siemens . Construction work began in June 2008.

Cost overruns and disputes between the construction company consortium and the clients led to construction stops in February and March 2009, from August 2009 to January 2010 and again in autumn 2010. This led to delays of several years. In June 2011, it was therefore decided to significantly shorten route 1a and to abandon construction sections 1b - 3. The remaining route coming from the airport should now end at St Andrew Square in the city center instead of Newhaven . In the end, however, one stop was built to York Place . A complete abortion of the project had also been considered, especially for the Scottish National Party (SNP), or even to put the section between the airport and Haymarket into operation.

Sections under construction

In November 2015, the city council decided, with only eleven votes against, a further expansion to the Ocean Terminal Shopping Center , for which funds amounting to £ 160 million are to be made available. In March 2019, Edinburgh City Council voted to complete the original variant 1a as far as Newhaven, at an estimated cost of £ 207 million. Commissioning is planned for the first quarter of 2023. The preparatory work for the project started on May 20, 2019. A construction schedule was published in October 2019, and construction work began on November 18, 2019 in the Leith district on Constitution Street between Food of the Walk and Coatfield Lane and between Queen Charlotte Street and Constitution Place . There was a break in construction between Christmas and New Year 2019/20; work is to be continued on January 6, 2020, including Lindsay Road .
Due to the corona crisis , work was interrupted for an indefinite period at the end of March. Work resumed on June 1st, 2020.

financing

Funding for the project proved extremely difficult as the original cost estimate of £ 512 million was massively exceeded. This was partly due to the recession , but it was also blamed on the executing companies. Despite the drastic reduction in the scope of the project, the cost of the remainder of the route alone rose to around £ 600 million. To solve the problem, thought was given to pledging future profits to the local bus company Lothian Buses , which currently operates the Edinburgh bus network, the tram itself, and raising tariffs.

Consequences and outlook

The cost overrun not only created great distrust of and within city politics, but also made itself felt in the Edinburgh budget, which has the second highest debt burden of any Scottish municipality. On the other hand, the city also has the highest rate of population growth among the larger municipalities, which means that a strong inner-city transport system will be almost indispensable in the near future.

There are plans to build another tramline over the North Bridge to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh . Another loop will connect Haymarket with Morrison Street , Lauriston Place , Potterrow and Edinburgh University . In a new mobility concept for Edinburgh, a continuation of the tram from Newhaven to Granton, as planned in phase 2, is recommended, possibly also an extension to the east to Musselburgh via Portobello. Several traffic corridors are named in this concept, but the mode of transport leaves them open.

vehicles

One of the 27 articulated vehicles of the type CAF Urbos passes the Murrayfield Stadium

Driver's view on the overland route between the airport and the city

Interior of a train

The orders for the 27 vehicles were awarded to the CAF after a tender in which Alstom , Bombardier and Siemens had also participated . The contract is valued at £ 40 million. It is bi-directional - low floor - articulated wagon type URBOS with a length of 42.8 m. The electrical equipment for the vehicles was supplied by Vossloh Kiepe from Düsseldorf. Special conditions were: Very silent riding and a design that the status of the Edinburgh city center as a World Heritage of UNESCO meets. The vehicles offer 80 seats and 250 standing places and have been equipped with video surveillance . A model of the proposed vehicle was shown on Princes Street in early 2009.

As a result of the delay of the construction at the track testing at Edinburgh initially were not possible, the vehicles were from March 2010 at Siemens - test center for rail vehicles in Wildenrath tested.

depot

Edinburgh Trams depot in Gogar

The Gogar tram depot was built north of the Gyle stop on the section of the route to the airport. There is a siding in both directions of travel. In the area of ​​the access towards the airport there is also an operating stop for staff changes.

The area consists of an open parking facility with eight tracks in the north and a three-track maintenance hall with an adjacent washing facility in the south, which are connected via a bypass that surrounds the entire site. The bidirectional vehicles can thus also be turned around on the premises, which is not possible and necessary in line operation at the ends of the route.

In the center of the facility there is space for parking spaces, storage areas and the company building.

business

The tram was operated by the City of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Trams Ltd. , transfer.

Tariff

There is a transport association , so the tariff system and tickets for the tram are compatible with those of the Lothian Buses. Ticket machines are set up at all tram stations . A special feature is the last section of the route between Ingliston and the airport , for which a higher tariff is charged.

success

The tram proved to be a success in operation: in its first full year of operation, passenger numbers were 7.5% and revenues were £ 7.95 million above the original estimate. That is why it is now being considered whether the remaining route should be completed in accordance with the original plan, which was abandoned in 2011, especially since the corresponding vehicle fleet and the required rails have already been procured.

Accidents

A study published in 2016 shows that more than 250 people have been injured in falls on the tram tracks since operations began. Most are cyclists who get caught in the grooved rails at the Haymarket stop . The study estimates the accidents cost the National Health Service £ 1.25 million. In June 2019 the Court of Session sentenced Edinburgh Council to pay damages to two cyclists who had died on the tram tracks.

Web links

Commons : Edinburgh Trams  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Official website
• Leith Business Association: Business Owners affected by the implementation of the tramway ( Memento from September 25, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
• Auditor Generals Report on Tram Scheme (PDF; 311 kB)
• Edinburgh Tram (Line One) Bill Committee ( Memento of September 17, 2004 in the Internet Archive )
• Edinburgh Tram (Line Two) Bill Committee ( Memento of September 17, 2004 in the Internet Archive )
• Edinburgh Tram (Line One) Act 2006
• Edinburgh Tram (Line Two) Act 2006
• Edinburgh Tram Unofficial Video

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Edinburgh's new tram route in two minutes , BBC News, May 30, 2014, accessed June 1, 2014
2. ↑ Edinburgh Trams: Tram Heritage
3. ↑ BBC News: £ 60m released for Edinburgh trams ( Memento of March 19, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
4. ↑ ^{a b} bbc.co.uk - Edinburgh trams: Councilors vote to continue project (English) July 1, 2011
5. ↑ Edinburgh Trams "Trams to Newhaven"
6. ↑ ^{a b} BBC News: Funding concerns for tram project , April 24, 2009.
7. ↑ Edinburgh City Council Press Release ( Memento June 2, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
8. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from November 6, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
9. ^ Scotsman.com News
10. ^ BBC News Daily Record
11. ^ Tram project 'could be delayed' , BBC News, March 10, 2010
12. ^ Princes Street works to start at last as deal ends tram row , in Scotsman; Funding concerns for tram project , BBC News
13. ↑ STV: Trams firm faces ax as it reveals Edinburgh work may take until 2014 (March 10, 2010) ( Memento of July 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
14. ↑ Edinburgh council votes to complete tram line to Leith. The Guardian, September 19, 2015, accessed October 11, 2016 . 
15. ^ David Bol and Hilary Mitchell: Edinburgh tram vote: councillors agree to extend the trams to Newhaven . Edinburghlive, March 14, 2019.
16. ^ Councilors approve extension to Edinburgh's tram line . BBC News, March 14, 2019.
17. ↑ Neil Pooran: Work to prepare Edinburgh's roads for new tramline begins this month . Edinburghlive, May 9, 2019.
18. ^ Taking Trams to Newhaven . Edinburgh trams.
19. ↑ Robert Fairnie: New map shows where and when Edinburgh's trams will be extended with work set to begin . Edinburghlive, October 11, 2019.
20. ↑ Work on Edinburgh tram extension to be paused over Christmas and New Year. Retrieved January 3, 2020 . 
21. ↑ edinburghlive.co.uk, Robert Fairnie: "Edinburgh tram extension works set to resume in Leith with new measures on A901 Lindsay Road" of January 3, 2020
22. ^ Hilary Mitchell: Edinburgh tram works to be called off due to coronavirus fears. In: www.edinburghlive.co.uk. March 25, 2020, accessed on March 31, 2020 . 
23. ↑ Indigo Stafford: Edinburgh Trams extension to start up again on June 1 with coronavirus safety measures in place. In: www.edinburghlive.co.uk. May 29, 2020, accessed June 1, 2020 . 
24. ^ ^{A b} Evening News (Edinburgh), August 15, 2009, p. 5
25. ^ David Bol and Hilary Mitchell: Edinburgh's trams to be extended towards the Royal Infirmary in ambitious new city plan . Edinburghlive, May 10, 2019.
26. ^ Paul Lawrence: City Mobility Plan - Draft for Consultation. (pdf) In: https://democracy.edinburgh.gov.uk/ . Transport and Environment Committee, January 16, 2020, accessed January 12, 2020 . 
27. ↑ CAF has been awarded the contract to supply 27 trams for the Scottish capital Edinburgh for the amount of 75 million euros , caf.net, September 21, 2007, accessed on July 2, 2018
28. ↑ ^{a b} Edinburgh Tram, caf.net, accessed July 2, 2018
29. ↑ http://www.vossloh-kiepe.com/
30. ↑ [1]
31. ↑ without page title ( memento of October 7, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
32. ↑ Today's Railways, No. 86.
33. ↑ Trams shocker: Residents face window washing ban over electrocution fears in: scotsman.com March 4, 2010
34. ↑ Edinburgh Evening News - Transport chief prices single tram ticket at £ 1.25  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
35. ↑ pson: Tram Edinburgh to success . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International, Issue 8–9 / 2015, p. 405.
36. ↑ Edinburgh tram track injuries have cost NHS more than £ 1m. Retrieved March 19, 2017 (English). 
37. ↑ Severin Carrell: Edinburgh cyclists win damages over injuries caused by tram tracks - Dozens of people could be in line for payments after judge's landmark ruling , The Guardian , June 28, 2019, accessed July 24, 2019

Coordinates: 55 ° 57 ′ 24 ″  N , 3 ° 11 ′ 19 ″  W.