Gordon King, as the Edinburgh partner of Baird Lumsden, should know better ("Edinburgh trams could create shopping bonanza", The Herald, January 8).
Those of us who have been monitoring the project envisage that it will produce a negative result, not a "shopping bonanza".
With traffic pinch points that will cut out bus and taxi lanes at the east end of Shandwick Place, at the South St Andrew Street/Princes Street junction and in York Place, the city is heading for even worse traffic chaos with long periods of congestion. This is what you get when you try to run a light railway along major roads which carried the bulk of city centre traffic. To remove two-and-a-half lanes from the major arteries through the city is folly.
Shoppers from outside Edinburgh have been significantly deterred by the tram works; once the trams starts to run the resulting chaos and congestion will ensure they never return.
Mr King talks about the "convenience of regular, well-run mass transit" in spite of the fact trams have only one stop on Princes Street. In reality the buses serve the shopping public much more effectively.
Furthermore, with capacity for 356 passengers with 250 standing, it does not make for a comfortable journey, particularly if you have just arrived off a long-haul flight. Also, the tram cannot be rerouted to cope with disruption or breakdown.
Mr King claims that trams will cause less traffic noise and pollution. Edinburgh City Council's Mott Macdonald report states that 139,500 households (280,000 people) would receive more pollution if the full trams system were to be completed. Pollution on Princes Street, where no-one lives, may be less, but if you move the traffic then you move the pollution and noise.
Your article mentions a cafe culture; with Princes Street now blighted by tram poles and hanging wires, spoiling the wonderful views of the castle and Old Town, this will be hard to achieve. In addition, the outdoor cafe culture which already exists in George Street could be destroyed by buses from Princes Street having to be diverted due to traffic congestion.
PT Barnum said: "Build it and they will come", which may have been the idea of the city council initially.
All we have is a link from the airport to St Andrew Square which has effectively bankrupted the city.
Edinburgh trams will be a millstone around the necks of all city council taxpayers for decades to come – not much of a bonanza.
Allan Alstead,
49 Moray Place,
Edinburgh.
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