Final tram arrives in Edinburgh

Posted on Saturday 5 January 2013 by Gareth Prior

On the night before Christmas, when all through the City not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse, the final CAF built tram for Edinburgh Trams arrived at Gogar depot having arrived earlier that day at the Port of Tyne. 269 was the 27th of the Spanish built trams to be delivered to Edinburgh in preparation for the opening of the tramway which remains on schedule to be in summer 2014.

The tram covered the same well trodden route as its sisters across land from the CAF factory at Beasain, Spain to Amsterdam in the Netherlands from where it travelled by ferry to the Port of Tyne. Upon arrival in the UK the tram was moved in several sections by low loader to Edinburgh where it was safely unloaded at Gogar depot. Interestingly with the trams being the longest in the UK they had to be delivered in several sections unlike deliveries to other systems such as Blackpool and Manchester.

With the tram now at Gogar it will be commissioned and prepared for use on the short stretch of track being used for testing between the depot and the Airport alongside the other trams.

It is planned that this section of track will be handed over by the contractors to the City of Edinburgh Council in March after which further testing and driver training will take place. The testing will eventually be extended over more of the line before a full opening of the system in summer 2014.

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3 Responses to Final tram arrives in Edinburgh

  1. peter dixon says:
    Sunday 27 January 2013 at 16:05

    Well done EDINBURGH,get those trams running ! Once Scotland had the best tram service in the world,trams are the most “green” public transit system, the main opposition comes from the unenlightened! No fumes,punctual,reliable service.AND considerably less ASTHMATIC problems for the next generation.(also no mothers and buggies left at bus-stops in the rain because of insufficient room!)

  2. Chris says:
    Friday 29 March 2013 at 18:36

    Agreed ! Pity that the trams are built in Spain and the main electrical contractor is German.

    • Geoff Pickles says:
      Saturday 30 March 2013 at 08:22

      I would say that it is probably just as well that this aspect of the work was ‘outsourced’ in this way. The ‘local’ input hardly constitutes a glorious chapter in Scotland’s history, does it?

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