The end of the line

The Edinburgh tram project descended into further farce yesterday with spiraling construction costs, estimated at around £700 million leading Conservative and Labour councillors to vote to end the line at Haymarket, 11 stops short of its intended destination and 2 miles and 3 stops from the City centre and main transport interchange at Waverley Station. 

Taking the line just the extra 2 miles would have given the scheme estimated profits of around 2 million per year, the revised scheme is now expected to lose 4 million during the same period. 

Its is long term planning like this which makes me proud to be British.

The Revised route, in dark red, and where the route should have really ended, itself well short of the original plan. 

The scheme was already deeply unpopular, especially amongst small business owners upset at a huge level of local disruption. The fact that areas which have now put up with delays, diversions and construction work for the past 2 years will now not even be able to experience the benefits of the project will only rile residents further. 

One tram line through one of the least dense areas of the city will contribute little to encouraging modal shift and seeing empty trams running around may only increase public anger and exacerbating the negative feeling towards future large scale transport improvements in the city which would be a great shame; in a period of increasing petrol costs and a growing awareness of the negative impact cars have in urban environments.