Edinburgh's historic main thoroughfare Princes Street is to see its first full tram tests tonight and into the early hours of Thursday.
The City Council said after a successful run to Haymarket on Monday the trams team and contractors will roll the 45 metre vehicle on to the street at a snail's pace late at night to avoid traffic.
The test run is a vital part of the process to ready the tram system for service in May. Hundreds of tests and checks are required before a passenger service can be put into operation.
Transport convener Lesley Hinds said: "We recognise it's been a long road getting here and there's been a lot of frustration but there has been progress more recently and, at long last, it's good to know there's a tram approaching Princes Street.
"This is a vital phase of our push to get trams up and running and it's important that the contractors have the time and the space to carry out these tests and checks.
The test run is scheduled to begin around 11pm and should be complete by 4am. Drivers are being reminded not to park on tram tracks or on double yellow lines. A tow truck is on standby to remove any cars that block the tram's path.
As testing progresses over the coming weeks the frequency and speed of trams will increase, although prior to the New Year there are likely to be very few runs.
People are being reminded to take safety precautions with the 45mph trams including that children should be supervised and dogs should be kept on leads around tram crossing locations.
The project remains in line with the revised budget (£776m) approved by the council in September 2011, with work either ahead of schedule or in line with the revised timescale reported in December 2011.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article