We're being taken for a park and ride

I'd suggest the reasons why the Newcraighall scheme hasn't been a resounding success are that it costs 50p to park there and then 3.50 return to either Waverley or Haymarket – total 4.00 per day – while you can, instead, park for free near Brunstane station (half a mile up the track] either in the streets around the station or in Big W car park and the return rail fare is 3.20. The choice is a no-brainer.

This compares badly with, for instance, the Hermiston site, where parking is free and there is a bus running at five-minute intervals at peak times costing no more than 2 return – Newcraighall has a train every half hour and no buses to speak of. Also if a train is running late the service often terminates at Brunstane anyhow.

What I'd like to ask, however, is where the justification comes from for the anticipated 2.3 million "cars and new-generated" trips on the proposed trams?

With the trams operating on existing highways I can only see bus passengers transferring to trams where it suits them, with little indication that car drivers will decide to take the trams instead.

These drivers already show that they are prepared to put up with heavily congested roads and scarce city centre parking spaces. If car drivers do turn to public transport alternatives it will be because of additional unnecessary projects to make car driving slower and more frustrating than is the case at present.

Examples include the new cross roads and traffic lights at the A1/Milton Road/Sir Harry Lauder Road and Milton Road/Duddingston Road/Duddingston Park junctions and the bus lanes from the first-mentioned junction to Willowbrae Road (cars and buses coexisted quite happily before the new bus lanes).

If such measures do drive cars off the roads of the city the new passengers won't care if they use a bus or a tram.

Ian Caldwell, Gilberstoun Place, Edinburgh

Beware of vengeful pro-toll operators

I REMEMBER the traffic chaos in Edinburgh city centre that followed the referendum result that rejected the council's proposed congestion charges.

At the time I was one of the many who thought that the so-called traffic improvements that caused the chaos were deliberately engineered by a spiteful council traffic supremo – but then on reflection thought, surely not?

This thought came back to me as I travelled northbound across the Forth Road Bridge at lunchtime on Wednesday after visiting the Capital. As the traffic crawled over the bridge in a single lane my CD listening session was interrupted by a traffic warning – off-peak delays on the northbound lane of the Forth Road Bridge and delays on the southbound Tay Road bridge due to roadworks.

So the only places in Scotland that merited traffic delay warnings were the two stretches of road that had previously housed toll-booths and where traffic had been smoothly flowing despite the predictions of doom by the bridge authorities.

Surely not the revenge of the pro-toll bridge operators?

Tom Minogue, Victoria Terrace, Dunfermline

Sound way to cut the noise down

IF Edinburgh City Council is so keen to get us all using public transport can I make one small suggestion that would greatly improve bus journeys for all? After travelling from the foot of Leith Walk to Dalry Road on a LRT bus, every passenger on the top deck had to endure loud music and abuse for the duration of the journey. This is hardly an unusual situation.

The problem is very simply rectified and with added benefits for the council. A by-law could be introduced by the council fining anyone playing music through speakers on public transport.

If the offenders are young teenagers, and they frequently are, then the fine could be imposed upon their parents. That would certainly make them think twice before buying mobile phones with such powerful external speakers.

Due to the frequency of this very situation on the LRT fleet, I would imagine that the number of fines issued would be huge and maybe even go some way to recouping some of the money spent on the trams.

The council is currently spending huge amounts of our money on public transport in Edinburgh, yet partly due to the trams work and partly down to anti-social passengers, travelling on LRT buses is nothing short of a misery.

Andrew I Harlick, Downfield Place, Edinburgh

Thanks to all who helped ill husband

I WOULD like to say thank you to the people who came to my husband's aid when he took ill in the Festival Theatre on Thursday last week during the wonderful performance of Swan Lake.

The theatre staff were most helpful and we would also like to thank the young nurse who came and sat with us until the ambulance arrived. The ambulance staff were magnificent as were the staff at the Royal Infirmary – we could not have had better care.

And thank you to the taxi driver who, when he realised I had left my programme in his taxi took it back to the Royal where I received it from the reception staff. We are sorry to the people in the immediate vicinity of us – we hope we didn't spoil their enjoyment of the ballet too much – it is not an experience we would wish to repeat!

Helen and John Payne, Poppleburn Park, Ednam, Kelso

Switch off this big screen idea for city

THE city should not spend 200,000 on a giant screen to show the Olympics (News, February 8). How about addressing the urgent need of about 160 disabled, physically and learning, people who desperately need accommodation because their elderly parents/carers are nearing the end of their lives and there is no provision for their offspring except a crisis management strategy.

Anne Murray, The Glebe, Kirkliston