Letter: Trams project will only be able to run on subsidies

The tram route is fixed and in terms of passenger flow only serves a limited amount of people. That potential passenger volume is presently served by existing bus services, which have the ability to penetrate areas the tram cannot.

Clearly this passenger volume will now have a choice. The question is, how many of these passengers will be prepared to walk to a tram halt and then after completing their tram journey walk to their final destination?

Tram halts are more distant from each other than bus stops, they are limited and are, unlike bus stops, inflexible and more expensive to create. They are situated in areas which, depending on the time of day/year, will be viewed as unsafe involving a substantial walk to the final destination.

Bus stops are situated on the main thoroughfare and are by choice regarded as safe, involving less of a walk to a final destination. Scottish weather must also be a consideration.

There initially appeared to be an assumption that the tram would be commercially viable and a great deal of this assumption was based on Edinburgh Airport.

At present the airport is served with bus services which are second to none, together with taxis and, of course, the motor car.

A tired airport passenger does not want to be taken on a circuitous trip before arriving at their final destination. The vast majority of hotels and bed and breakfasts are dispersed in areas which are not served by the tram route. The choice is therefore obvious.

The planning and operation of the tram route can never and will never be sustained financially, based on the existing public transport system, other than by unlimited levels of subsidy.

Peter Sargent, former Employee Director, Lothian Buses plc