START TOMORROW
Journalists and elected representatives travelled from Broughton to Newhaven this afternoon in advance of the first paying customers using the extension from midday tomorrow.
When the public climb aboard at noon, the Picardy Place tram stop will resound to the sound of bagpipes, traffic, and building work in the adjacent Island of Tranquility. Edinburgh’s Dance Base members will perform a specially choreographed ‘tram ballet’ outside St Mary’s Cathedral. Council leaders will join joyous schoolchildren in a Chinese Communist Party-style launch ceremony.
Expect ‘platinum’ tram tickets from machines for early birds, buskers playing at selected stops, and Leith High Constables standing at Pilrig Street, the historic boundary between Spurtleshire and Leith, presumably to stand and cheer spontaneously.
Council Leader Cammy Day welcomes this ‘high-capacity, sustainable and reliable service to the north of the city’. He is confident about the positive impact it will have on the local economy.
Harald Tobermann, spokesman for Community Councils Together on Trams,* pays tribute to the ‘excellent’ Trams to Newhaven Project Team and its seconded Council staff.
However, he also expresses relief at the end of over 12 years’ near-continuous disruptive construction: the original tram works, subsequent remedial works, and the latest 32-month TTN project.
Tobermann notes that work remains to complete the overall scheme and ensure it delivers wider benefits for neighbouring communities.
‘We take comfort,’ he says, ‘from the repeated assurances we have received from the Project Team, CEC officials and the Transport Convenor that our serious concerns regarding outstanding public-realm works, design issues, as well as on-going maintenance of the newly created public assets will be managed and addressed with the required energy, focus and resources over the 2-year defects period and beyond, thus preparing the ground for future tram lines to be built in Edinburgh.’
* The Community Councils Together on Trams group was set up in 2018 by the 4 community councils along the extension route to engage constructively with City of Edinburgh Council and the Trams to Newhaven Project Team.
Motivated by extremely negative experiences during the first tram project, it has met nearly monthly with the project team since November 2018. It has argued for the project to produce a high-quality tram line, public realm and wider transport benefits [bit.ly/CCTT_manifesto].
It has also worked to ensure any negative impacts of the construction works were recognised, mitigated and minimised wherever possible.
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