Edinburgh council chiefs have been urged to build additional storage facilities for trams in the north of the city, following weeks of transport disruption.
Trams continue to be blocked from travelling down Princes Street following a building fire, negatively affecting businesses along Leith Walk and north to Newhaven.
At the time of the blaze, which took place overnight on July 9, the entire trams fleet was stabled at the Gogar depot, in the south-west of Edinburgh.
Conservative councillor Jo Mowat told The Herald that she was unsure why plans to build additional stabling facilities in Newhaven had been shelved.
“A council report [in April 2024] talked about descoping landscaping to allow for possible stabling, so the assumption must be that stabling was going to be built,” Councillor Mowat remarked.
“My question is, and I have written a motion for next full council asking this, is who took and when was the decision taken not to provide stabling and what risk assessment and contingency planning was done before this decision was taken.”
The aforementioned council report states: “Newhaven Tram stop … has been descoped to allow possible future tram stabling to be installed by Edinburgh Trams. This area will be seeded.”
Furthermore, according to the council’s 2019 full business case for the Trams to Newhaven project, the local authority had agreed to terms with Forth Ports to secure land on which to build the facilities.
“Additional stabling is provided at Newhaven,” a technical note published in July 2025 confirms.
“It is understood this allows for overnight stabling of three tram sets (including use of the tram stop). It should be noted that this facility does not enable preparation of trams prior to launch.
“This means that whilst trams can be parked at Newhaven, they still need to return to the main depot for full operational preparation before beginning passenger services.”
Councillor Kevin Lang of the Liberal Democrats told The Herald that council officers must draw up “better resilience plans” for the trams network to deal with future incidents.
He said: “We were told trams were the answer to Edinburgh transport's problems. Yet a single fire in a single building and in a single part of the city has resulted in the complete loss of services across Leith Walk, Leith and Newhaven. We can't consider this acceptable, especially at the height of the festival season.
"Once the site is made safe and Princes Street re-opened, the Council must undertake a comprehensive review of the civil contingency and business continuity plans.
“That review needs to include better resilience plans for Edinburgh's trams, including how alternative stabling and maintenance facilities can be made available to reduce the reliance on Gogar.”
Similarly, Councillor Mowat told The Herald: “I would be supportive of stabling or a depot in the east/north of the city.
“The way trams run is that there is a period of non-running on the track to allow for maintenance and a depot/stabling in the east of the city would allow for later finish and earlier start for trams rather than them all having to start and finish in Gogar which would improve service for users.”
Plans to move the trams to the north of the city via lorry or slowly creep them past the fire-damaged building on Princes Street have been ruled out, which means no trams are expected to run beyond the West End until at least August 26.
Read more:
- 'Very disappointed' and 'shameful': Councillor's anger over fire fund for capital
- 'Painstaking' work being carried out to secure fire-hit building on Princes Street
- Shops at site of Princes Street fire raided over unpaid business rates prior to blaze
Transport and Environment Convener Councillor Stephen Jenkinson said that council officials have been “working tirelessly” alongside Edinburgh Trams and Lothian Buses staff over the last month.
He told The Herald: “I appreciate how disruptive this has been, and I would like to thank our transport providers and their staff for their continued efforts, as well as everyone affected for their patience and understanding.
“This was an exceptional situation, but it has highlighted the importance of ensuring that our tram network has the operational resilience and flexibility it needs to continue providing a reliable service when unexpected events occur.”
Councillor Jenkinson confirmed that the council will work with the tram operator to consider operational arrangements and lessons learned “once the immediate response and recovery operation has concluded”.
He added: “This will include considering tram stabling, access to essential maintenance facilities and how we can provide greater flexibility in the way the network operates during periods of disruption."
Share