An interim economic appraisal goes before councillors next week.
It will conclude – to nobody’s great surprise – that extending the tram route to the Foot of the Walk, or Ocean Terminal, or Newhaven would increase the number of people using the system.
It would also deliver ‘a positive economic impact’.
The Council’s press release is tellingly mute about extending the line only as far as McDonald Road.
The draft Outline Business Case is still a work in progress. Additional ‘formal market consultation, testing and auditing of the financial model, and investigation of alternative funding options’ will continue until autumn.
At that point, a decision will be made. But for months now, the unofficial mood music, the mysterious foot dragging to complete Leith Walk reinstatement, the steamy financial tango between Council and developers at Picardy Place have all pointed towards what that decision will be.
Thorough research, strategic options
‘I am confident it will deliver thoroughly researched, strategic options for a tram extension,’ she says, adding that the Council must learn from ‘past mistakes’ and not make ‘rash decisions’ in future.
To this end, the report’s Construction Delivery Plan will eventually detail delivery and coordination of the project with other schemes in the capital.
Spurtle has no clear idea what Councillor Hinds means by researching ‘new and innovative [funding] options with a view to delivering best value’.
In the meantime, the tram system as currently configured makes no sense. The number of passengers may be increasing, but trams still connect too few people with too few places they want to start and finish.
Linking the trams to Scotland’s most densely populated area is what we self-appointed transport experts with no professional training or expert guidance term ‘a no-brainer’.
Got a view? Tell us at spurtle@hotmail.co.uk and @theSpurtle and Facebook
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Ady Gaham Its as if the buses that already serve leith's existing city connections and vice versa do not exist . . .the tram extension should connect to granton and newhaven before leith walk finish the loop from gogarburn first complete the circle do not just add 2 stops .
