Roseburn Path trams could hit 40mph - we need a rethink

I love the Roseburn Path, which I’ll always remember as a lockdown haven. We lived near it then, in a flat without a garden, so for two adults and a five-year-old it was a place to get fresh air and run off energy. With time to fill, we explored it minutely. We climbed up onto the embankments. We found an old badger sett (or a fox den, we were never sure which) with multiple entrances. We collected leaves, pinecones, stones and endless sticks. We idly picked wild raspberries, which grow in abundance along its route. We spotted cats and dogs by the dozen but also foxes, squirrels and birds. I agree with local people when they talk of its mental health benefits. I can’t quantify in numbers the sense of peace we felt walking through this cathedral of trees, but it eased our way through a challenging period. I don’t think we were the only ones.

Running through multiple neighbourhoods, from Newhaven, Pilton and Drylaw to Murrayfield and the West End, the Roseburn Path is well used along its entire length by runners, cyclists, commuters, dog walkers, wheelchair users, parents with young children, retired people on their daily constitutional and countless others. Given how close it is to major roads, it’s incredibly quiet and above all, safe. It would be a small tragedy in the lives of them all if it were to disappear, not to mention a serious setback for local wildlife.

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But Edinburgh Council has plans for the former Caledonian Railway line. It wants to return it to use as a public transport route, this time for a north-south tram extension to complement the east-west line. The two-mile section of path running from Crewe Toll to Murrayfield – roughly half of it – would under council proposals go back under tram rail.

This is only one option – the other is to route the tram along roads, up Orchard Brae, Queensferry Road and over Thomas Telford’s Dean Bridge – but Roseburn Path is the cheaper option and avoids problems like reinforcing the bridge and having to get rid of roadway cycle paths. A consultation on the plan has just closed. It had already been back to the drawing board once, after a public outcry at early proposals that would have made the Path tram-only.

What’s now proposed features a walking and cycling path alongside the tram route which would be 3m wide along most of the way. But campaigners are still deeply dismayed. They make a powerful point, arguing that trams should replace “cars, not people using a local park”. As always with public transport projects, though, the issue of cost looms large. It’s estimated that routing it along roads would cost a minimum of £170m more and potentially as much as £500m more.

There are plans to extend Edinburgh's trams (Image: Gordon Terris)

Now, I love the place, but with a dual-use option on the table that would allow the Roseburn Path to continue as an active travel route, spending up to half a billion more to divert the tram along roads can’t easily be justified, not at a time of such constrained public spending. Campaigners know that doing nothing isn’t an option either. The city is choked with cars already and is rapidly expanding. The only way to avoid it becoming permanently gridlocked is if people have easy, affordable alternatives to bringing their cars into town. The extra tram route would help considerably with that, with the Roseburn option expected to attract more passengers than the road route because journey times would be shorter due to the lack of competition with other vehicles. Overall, the dual-use compromise along the Roseburn Path looks like the fairest way to extend the tram – but with important caveats.

The council says around two thirds of the existing trees along the path would be retained and more would be planted to mitigate for losses: it will need to live up to those promises. Then there is the issue of safety. As it stands, the Roseburn Path is a completely safe location. Animals, including people’s pets, criss-cross it all day long. Young children toddle or cycle along it on trikes and bikes.

How will that work alongside a tram? The council envisages the walkway running alongside the tram track for long sections with a fence and buffer zone of at least 50cm separating path from track, but there’s an obvious risk of animals or even children making their way onto the track.

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Campaigners have also raised fears for cyclists. With trams belting along at 40mph, can the council really guarantee safety? Trams are great, but they are also potentially dangerous. A Freedom of Information request last year found there had been more than 100 collisions between trams and vehicles in a decade. There have also been seven incidents involving pedestrians and trams, and one fatality when a tram travelling at 33mph hit a pedestrian, bus driver Carlos Correa Palacio, 53.

On the Roseburn Path, a lowered speed limit is the only sensible option. Forty miles per hour for trams is too fast: it would put off many people from using the path and would make it harder for tram drivers to avoid collisions. Officials concerned about journey times may balk at setting a lower speed limit, but it could make a major difference to local opinion about the project.

The axing of rail lines in the 1960s is often regarded with hindsight as a mistake, but it left a precious legacy: a first-class country-wide cycling and walking path network that is now a beloved national asset in its own right. If the council’s gets its way, and pedestrians and cyclists end up sharing the Roseburn Path with trams, it will embody both strands of this heritage. But wildlife and people have to be protected. The council reckons they can be; it will be under close scrutiny to make sure they are.

Rebecca McQuillan is a journalist specialising in politics and Scottish affairs. She can be found on Bluesky at @becmcq.bsky.social and on X at @BecMcQ