They’ve chosen wrong route for trams, claims professor

Published on Monday 10 October 2011 16:01

EDINBURGH chose the wrong tram line to build first, one of Scotland’s most influential transport academics will argue today.

Professor Iain Docherty will say the capital should have followed most other cities in initially linking its biggest traffic generators – the main railway station, university and hospital.

The former board director of the Scottish Government’s Transport Scotland agency will also condemn as a “travesty” the failure to dovetail the tram scheme with improving the city centre for pedestrians.

Edinburgh City Council initially planned two lines, the first a loop linking Princes Street, Leith, Granton and Roseburn, and the second between Haymarket and Edinburgh airport.

However, these have progressively been cut back because of funding problems, with the current route being built a single eight-mile stretch between the airport and St Andrew Square.

A third line, which would have been in line with Prof Docherty’s thinking in linking Waverley station, Edinburgh University and Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, was shelved after the congestion charge scheme, which would have funded its construction, was abandoned in 2005.

Prof Docherty said focusing first on the busiest sites for a tram line had been widely followed elsewhere in Europe, including by Edinburgh twin city, Nice in France.

He said: “Just about every city has joined up the three largest traffic generators. Edinburgh’s current line does not do any of that.”

The professor of public policy and governance at Glasgow University, who will give a Royal Scottish Society of Arts lecture in Edinburgh, also turned his fire on the council for failing to see the bigger picture.

He said: “The tram line was not seen as part of a re-engineering of the city centre – it is a case of parachute it in and see what happens.

“The council did not think of the scheme in big enough terms, but simply as a transport project.

“There was no understanding of how it would underlie the urban fabric of the city. As has been made clear in the past, if you do not understand what a tram scheme is for, it will fail.”

Prof Docherty said that in French cities about a third of the budget for tram projects was earmarked for improvements to the “urban realm”. He added: “This is a travesty and will make the environment of Princes Street worse.”

“Much more consideration should have been given to routing along [parallel] George Street instead”

He said the scheme should also have been accompanied by improvements, such as removing parking from George Street and making more of St Andrew Square a pedestrian zone.

He said: “George Street should be a car-free, high-footfall showpiece street”.

Prof Docherty said the jury was out as to whether the trams would be a success once they started operating, and whether more lines were built, as had happened elsewhere.

He said: “In places like Dublin and Sheffield, there was a horrific construction period, but public opinion changed pretty quickly once trams were running.

“Is Edinburgh going to be the first city that hates its trams from the time they start to run, as well as while they are being built?”

A city council spokeswoman said the choice of lines had been a condition of funding from the then Labour-Liberal Democrat Scottish Executive.

She said the trams were required to connect three growth areas – around Edinburgh airport, the city centre and the waterfront in Leith and Granton.

The spokeswoman said the tram’s business case was based on factors such as economic growth and social inclusion.

She added that the council had commissioned a major study on improving the city centre, which could include extending pedestrian zones.

However, the council acknowledged two years ago that the focus of future tram expansion should be switched to the expanding south-east of the city, where about 28,000 people would be working as the BioQuarter developed.

A Labour spokesman said the council had originally decided on which lines to pursue.

lProf Docherty’s lecture, A Streetcar Named Desire?, is at Augustine United Church, 41 George IV Bridge, Edinburgh, at 7pm tonight.

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