Massive road shake-up in preparation for trams

Published on Saturday 20 September 2008 11:50

A MASSIVE shake-up of Edinburgh's roads to make way for the new trams will mean parking spaces lost, streets closed to cars and a reorganisation of nearly every major junction in the city centre.

As expected Shandwick Place will close to general traffic, but it has emerged cars will also be banned from travelling west along Princes Street at night.

Dozens of parking spaces will be lost on the east and west sides of St Andrew Square and nearly a quarter of spaces on Leith Walk will also be taken away.

Council chiefs have had to draw up a raft of parking and road layout changes across the city to accommodate the airport to Newhaven tram line from 2011.

Among the other significant changes planned are:

&#149 Torphichen Street and Torphichen Place will became two-way streets.

&#149 All right and left turns at the Mound junction will be prohibited.

&#149 Frederick Street will be reopened to buses, taxis and cyclists.

&#149 The west side of St Andrew Square will be made two-way for general traffic, while the east side will be predominantly used for trams and access traffic.

&#149 The roundabout at Picardy Place will be replaced with traffic signals and a tram/bus interchange.

The changes will be unveiled to the public at a series of design meetings set to take place over the coming weeks.

However, residents and traders attending the meetings will only be allowed to leave their comments as the official traffic regulation process to make the changes will not get underway until next Spring, and it is only at this stage that people can raise formal objections.

Transport chiefs today said they have tried to do everything they could to balance the needs of all road users. But motoring groups and traders today said the balance was too far in favour of trams.

Neil Greig, head of policy in Scotland for the Institute of Advanced Motorists, said: "None of this should really come as a surprise I suppose in many ways.

"Safety has to come first because we do not want the trams and cars coming into contact but the loss of parking spaces is something that will have to be addressed.

"There has been talk of other multi-storey or underground car parks in Edinburgh over the years so perhaps now is the time for the council to take these ideas forward.

"Introducing the tram line will not be some miracle cure, it only serves a small part of the city and it does not solve other long-standing problems like cross-city travel."

Leith Walk will be reduced to one lane of traffic each way, with the tram line in the middle when the scheme gets underway in 2011.

The layout proposed for Leith Walk will see the busy street lose 36 of its 162 existing parking spaces.

However, officials are proposing to increase the total amount of loading bay space by 85 metres – the equivalent of around 17 Ford Transit vans.

Council officials today insisted the increase in loading space was in direct response to requests by businesses in the area but this was disputed by Gordon Burgess, chairman of the traders association for Leith Walk and Constitution Street.

He said: "Well it is good we finally know what we are up against but what they are saying now is different to what was said two years ago.

"The loss of parking will be the biggest concern for traders along Leith Walk, much more than the marginal increase in loading space.

"At the top of the Walk they at least have the Greenside car park but there is nothing equivalent to that at the bottom and I think this will really hit us."

There will be one street where trams and cars will share the same lanes and that is Haymarket Yards.

Trams coming from the line's off-road section just before Haymarket Station will have priority over road users before they go into the tram station, which is being built on a viaduct across the railway station's car park.

Major tram and bus interchanges will be built at Ocean Terminal, Picardy Place, St Andrew Square and Haymarket.

The changes at Picardy Place will also see the creation of a whole new road layout, leaving space for a new development in the place where the existing roundabout is located just now.

Councillor Phil Wheeler, the city's transport leader, said: "It's imperative that other road users are suitably accommodated when trams are up-and-running on our streets.

"This has been a lengthy process and a lot of detailed work has been undertaken to get the road layout correct."

Details of where the public meetings are taking place can be found at www.tramtime.com.