Trolleybus option was a chance missed

David Wragg (Letters, 29 August) is right about trolleybuses being a feasible alternative to trams in Edinburgh, but it is not strictly true to say that no-one raised the prospect of using them.

In 2004 they were mentioned, fleetingly, in the discussion of the tram bill in the parliament, though no detailed rationale was given for not using them.

After the 2007 elections, when the tram scheme was in the balance, I tried to persuade politicians to obtain a cost-benefit analysis of trolleybuses to compare with the tram scheme.

I had an opinion piece and a number of letters published in The Scotsman and I wrote to all MSPs and Edinburgh councillors about trolleybuses. Although many politicians did not seem to know what a trolleybus is, a number did engage in debate.

The SNP gave signs of being willing to compromise on trolleybuses, but most politicians from the other parties were set on the tram scheme, regardless of the alternatives.

As pointed out in a 2007 letter from Lothian Buses, the virtually zero on-street emissions achieved by trams could also have been achieved by wholesale replacement of the entire Lothian Buses fleet with trolleybuses.

Short sections of the route could have been wire-free, as trolleybuses can run for short distances on battery power. I would love to know how much trolleybus route we could have now for the money spent on the tram scheme.

David Sterratt

Bellevue Road

Edinburgh

I must assume that our councillors in Edinburgh have either not sought advice on the most cost-efficient options available to them when considering a new passenger network or, if they did, they have wilfully ignored it for reasons of their own.

David Wragg seems to me to be quite right in everything he says about trolleybuses.

In my opinion, had the council opted for a trolleybus system it would have had a working network from the airport to Newhaven long ago.

It would not have had the expense of digging up the roads to upgrade utilities and lay down “foundations” for tram rails.

I believe that they would have had a fast, efficient, clean and attractive network and they would soon have been beating off requests from various areas in the city to be next in line for a trolleybus route. The existing tram lines laid in Princes Street should be left in the shadow of the original Edinburgh’s Disgrace (at least they knew when to quit in the 19th century) as a monument to a council which was clearly off its trolley allowing a good chance for an efficient public transport network to slip its grasp!

Allan Stewart

Warriston Gardens

Edinburgh

The professed leader of the city council, one Ms Dawe, states that she “was staggered by trams outrage” (your report, 29 August).

Where have she and her profligate pawns and political opponents been over the past few years?

The current anger has not suddenly been generated by the incomprehensible decision to erect buffer stops at Haymarket, as she seems to suggest, but by the fact that this chaotic project continues to go from bad to worse and is being allowed to proceed at all, despite the fact that very few citizens ever wanted or thought trams were necessary in the first place.

Every Tom, Dick and Harry of every political persuasion has had their say on this matter except those who really count – the citizens and council tax payers of Edinburgh, who will no doubt have to dig deep into their pockets for a mini system that will actually be of benefit to very few of them and will probably run at a loss.

It is to be hoped that “the chickens will come home to roost” at the council elections next May, when the true meaning of democracy will become evident.

Brian Farish

Baird Grove

Edinburgh

Amid all the claims and counter-claims in the Edinburgh trams debate, David Gerrard (Letters, 30 August) slips in a suggestion that successful tram systems are all confined to cities without hills.

He forgets that Edinburgh’s own original trams used to climb the Mound, Dundas Street, Morningside Road, Liberton Brae and Broughton Street without difficulty.

Sheffield’s present-day trams sail up some formidable gradients, and many European cities, such as Lisbon and Prague, have tram systems which climb steep hills.

In any case Edinburgh’s planned tram route is relatively flat.

The uphill struggle which our new trams face is nothing to do with gradients.

Robert Drysdale

Primrose Bank Road

Edinburgh