Just the ticket

What is this hysteria about Edinburgh becoming a bus-hating city in the wake of the suggestions for upgrading the city centre by the Gehl Architects’ report (Perspective, 21 February)?

Princes Street is currently a glorified bus station, an unattractive and unsafe environment for pedestrians. It is also cluttered and unexciting for both residents and tourists and desperately needs some new life breathed into it.

In time, some of the buses will be moved from Princes Street to make way for the trams. So what if they have to move to Queen Street? It is also in the city centre. Certainly, with more buses on Queen Street, there would be less room for cars, but surely that would be good for the city.

It is almost certain that traffic management and parking provision away from the city centre would require some reconsideration, but let’s try to get excited about making our city centre a more vibrant environment instead of putting every obstacle in the way of change.

Mr Monteith’s comment that removing the railings from West Princes Street Gardens might cause pedestrians to fall down a steep gradient really takes the biscuit. Does he imagine for a minute that a redevelopment of the area to make it more people-friendly would not take that into account?

The city council is to be congratulated for engaging a firm of architects who have developed success stories in major world cities and who can see the bigger picture.

If we can sell ourselves as a world-class city up there with Copenhagen and New York we will be able to attract world-class retailers. O ye of little faith!

Elspeth Porter

Henderson Row

Edinburgh