Model for trams

Published on 11/09/2012 00:00

I WAS puzzled on reading a report at the weekend that Andrew Burns, leader of the City of Edinburgh Council, boasted of house price rises as a major benefit of the trams project. A bespoke tram system must have a clear role beyond robbing taxpayers to raise house prices in an affluent part of the city.

Behind schedule and over budget, it will be a single line service between the airport and city centre. It will compete in an area well served by buses, yet carry passengers for the same price. Many air passengers will be business people and tourists. Picturing potential investors, with luggage, travelling between the airport and the city centre using a crammed, local stopping service is ridiculous.

Clearly, the trams will cater to two sets of customers. Edinburgh must accept what it has for its money: a very expensive air link, no more and no less.

Heathrow Airport has an air link to Paddington running a cheap local stopping service, 
Heathrow Connect, and a non-stop premium service, Heathrow Express, free from overcrowding. A premium service from our airport, stopping at Haymarket and Waverley, would give visitors a credible alternative to taxis and raise revenue. The Heathrow model may be one to follow to salvage something (other than pride) from this pork-barrel project.

Jon Stanley

Clearburn Crescent

Edinburgh