Unless you haven’t been concentrating recently you will be well aware that its been all change on Edinburgh Trams following the permanent closure of the city centre terminus at York Place to allow more work to take place on the Trams to Newhaven extension. This meant that as from Thursday 10th February all trams from Edinburgh Airport have been terminating at West End All and will continue to do so until April when they will start to run to St Andrew Square until the extension to Newhaven opens in 2023. Continue reading this article to see the arrangements in place at West End.
Trams from Edinburgh Airport run as normal to West End where they continue to use the citybound platform but instead of carrying on further that is where the journey ends and everyone has to get off and continue their journey on foot or use their ticket on Lothian Bus services further into the city. Trams back to the Airport all depart from the usual citybound platform (and so the out of city platform will be unused during this period) and then use the crossover just beyond the platform to regain the correct track and carry on their way to Haymarket and the rest of the route. In the first few days of the change in service Edinburgh Trams staff were stationed at Princes Street and St Andrew Square stops to let prospective passengers know what was going on.
These arrangements are due to be in place until April. From April the crossover at York Place will be available to trams again and so it will be possible for services from the Airport to run as far as St Andrew Square before coming out of service running round to York Place and the crossover and then heading back to the stop at St Andrew Square and restarting journeys to the Airport.
At West End we see 252 which has just arrived from the Airport and passengers now get off. This is looking eastwards with Coates Crescent on the left and Charlotte Chapel towering in the distance. The tram will soon depart from the same platform and using the crossover.
266 kindly demonstrates the move over the crossover here having just left West End. Coates Crescent is again in the background.
254 stands at the platform having arrived from the Airport. This view is looking east towards Princes Street with the Johnnie Walker building seen closing the view in the distance and Atholl Crescent on the right.
Same tram looking in the opposite direction. On this image we can see the stop sign placed across the track. Atholl Crescent is on the left and Coates Crescent the right. The three spires seen are St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral. (All Photographs by Roy Calderwood, 11th February 2022)
So Princes Street will not be served by trams for around two months; I presume that there is no crossover at St Andrew Square that would allow this. The question arises: why not? More than a little short-sighted, I would say.
The only crossover between West End and York Place is just before the York Place stop. I’m not sure whether there are technical or operational reasons why it couldn’t be provided at St Andrew Square in the first place. Even before the York Place stop was decided on the crossover was going to be located there so it has never been the intention for it to be at St Andrew Square.