Mouthpiece - No need for trams as buses are just the ticket

Published on Tuesday 22 July 2008 11:07

Disruption across Capital is completely unnecessary, says Shirley-Anne Somerville

LAST week, Lothian Buses won, for the fifth time, the Best Public Transport Operator of the Year award. It's a much deserved accolade for a local company which maintains such high standards of operation, resulting in a 40 per cent rise in passenger numbers over the last nine years.

The question is, with Lothian Buses so good, what is the point of trams? How can the SNP's political opponents justify the long-term chaos and disruption to the lives and livelihoods of so many Edinburgh residents, in order to replace one perfectly good, well-used bus service with a single tram line?

Dublin is often held up as an example of a city which has benefited from trams. The number of people using public transport rose dramatically when trams were introduced there, and supporters are quick to promise that the same thing will happen in Edinburgh. Yet there is one major difference between the two cities: Dublin's pre-tram bus service was generally considered to be poor. By contrast, we have the best bus service in Britain with four out of five Edinburgh residents already regularly using the bus.

Half a billion pounds of Scottish Government resources is being spent on the trams. This money could have been invested in developing more bus routes serving more people, or securing services on Lothian Buses' now-threatened loss-making routes. It could have been invested in eco-friendly buses, reducing emissions. It could have increased the number of buses in the evenings and at weekends.

Instead, Edinburgh is seeing the number of buses on Leith Walk and Princes Street cut.

The roadwork disruption has seen Lothian Buses face a drop in passenger numbers when it is already facing rocketing fuel prices. It has also made huge areas of the city into no-go zones for shoppers. Businesses which have been operating for 20 years are struggling to survive, all for the sake of unnecessary trams.

I am afraid that by the time the tram finally hits the track the cost will have been far greater than its over-inflated price tag.

Shirley-Anne Somerville is an SNP MSP for the Lothians