THE Scottish capital is on course to meet its green targets after wooing six million new public transport travellers.
One key transport hub in Edinburgh alone has seen double the number of passengers in the run-up to Christmas.
The popularity of Ingliston park and ride at Edinburgh Airport to the west of the city follows the introduction of the controversial £776 million trams in May.
The trams are on course to reach the target of six million by next summer after three million used the service in its first six months.
Meanwhile, Lothian Buses recorded an all-time high of bus users in the last year with three million journeys more than the previous year, reaching a total of 115 million.
The busiest week of 2014 for buses was the second last in August when there were 2.6m trips taken in seven days, the busiest recorded week in 25 years.
Edinburgh Trams' best was the first week of operation when 130,000 got on board. Since then the service has been averaging more than 90,000 a week.
At Ingliston, around 10,000 parked up for free before taking the tram or bus into the city on the first two weeks of December.
The jump is considered an important indicator for future integrated travel use, seen as central to meeting European emissions levels by cutting car fumes, in which the city is already lagging.
Lothian Buses said £15m was invested in 65 new low emission buses that will "significantly impact on improving the City's air quality and lower carbon emissions".
These are targeted at high pollution zones.
Edinburgh City Council transport convener Lesley Hinds accepted meeting EU targets by 2020 is a challenge but that the new figures are encouraging.
Ms Hinds said: "Edinburgh is already bucking the national trend in having more people using public transport, cycling or walking to get to work and these welcome figures from Transport for Edinburgh are further evidence of this.
"We are committed to delivering a truly integrated public transport system for the capital, helping residents and visitors get from A to B in comfort and in a way that suits them best. I look forward to continuing this work with all our partners in the coming years ahead."
Edinburgh Green councillor Gavin Corbett said more needs to be done to tackle congestion and emissions in the confined streets of the capital.
He said: "We need to accelerate the progress that has been made. We are still some way from our European comparators."
In Glasgow measures including a controversial bus gate have helped reduce numbers of cars but it is not expected to meet green targets until 2025.
Ingliston received a Transport for Edinburgh branding overhaul and a major marketing campaign push this year with the tram service launch.
The figures come after a difficult year for the council's arms length joint bus and tram firm, with Lothian Buses dogged by a boardroom row played out in the media, three collisions involving trams and buses and concerns raised over tram passenger figures and the counting of concessionary fares, although the council said numbers are "in line with budget".
Transport for Edinburgh Chief Executive Ian Craig said: "We saw an immediate jump in the number of cars parked at Ingliston after tram launch which you would expect but what's really pleasing is a surge in the figures during festival season and a near doubling in the run up to Christmas.
"Ingliston had new signage and a marketing and social media campaign to push them to city visitors as much as possible so it's good to see results coming through.
"The city's park and ride facilities are a real asset for anyone who wants to avoid the traffic and a parking challenge once in the city centre."
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