As you may have noticed if you’ve been checking these pages recently, an extension is set to open on Edinburgh Trams this spring. Running for almost 3 miles between York Place and Newhaven the extension has been progressing well over the past few years and with the main construction works completed attention is being turned to training drivers on the line. Daytime driver training got underway on Wednesday 19th April and will now take place regularly ahead of the line opening.
Driver training is, of course, a very important step towards passengers being welcomed onto the line and the sight of trams being used for this purpose is the first time that trams have been seen in operation during the day on the extension. It came with a safety warning to the public to be careful as it is also one of the first times that the trams are actually running at line speed with the original test runs being slow speed to ensure the infrastructure was all in order.
All drivers employed by Edinburgh Trams will need to be trained on the new route but they haven’t just been let loose straightaway on the extension with a state-of-the-art simulator used at the depot to prepare them for this day.
After driver training is completed there will be a full test of the timetable and then an enhanced test of the timetable (this will see a shadow service run). Its only when this has happened that a passenger service will start.
Spring remains the word for opening. Previously 21st June was suggested with Transport Convener, Cllr Scott Arthur, recently being quoted as saying its possible, not probable, that trams could start running earlier than this.
- A drivers eye view video of part of the route has also been released by the Trams to Newhaven project – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzhVmYmWoUQ
Sunshine and trams on Leith Walk does it get much better than this?! This is between McDonald Road and Picardy Place with 258 heading towards the city centre. Gayfield Place tenements are beyond the first section of the tram and the former corner office block in the distance is Edinburgh Central Youth Hostel.
258 sits at Picardy Place platform with St Mary’s Catholic Cathedral behind the centre sections of the tram.
Picardy Place tramstop again with 258. Note that the lower destination board states that “Testing in Progress”.
The trams being used for driver training are running to the York Place crossover to reverse and then head back onto the extension. 258 is seen here at the site of the former York Place stop platform and is now ready to cross the Broughton Street junction and re-enter Picardy Place to start it all over again. (Photographs x4 by Roy Calderwood, 20th April 2023)
With a photo taken from a Lothian 11 bus this is 258 approaching Newhaven terminus up the slope from Ocean Terminal.
Here we see 267 on Ocean Drive heading towards the city as it approaches Port of Leith stop and passing FINGAL, the former Northern Lighthouse Board tender, now a floating hotel owned by Royal Yacht Britannia.
270 also heading for town on Ocean Drive. (Photographs x3 by Robin Barnes, 21st April 2023)
Anyone know how the tests on the extension for Midland Metro are going and that of Blackpool tramway.
Im still think a double whammy opening either Midland Metro and Edinburgh on the same day.
There have been no further tests on either tramway as far as is known. Blackpool is a definite no. Blackpool is really looking like September at best for an opening so its likely to be a distant third in the “race”. It is looking like Edinburgh are in pole position to win now!
Good at least one of the three got the show on the road on time, more or less.
The photo of 258 taken from Lothian No 11 bus, is that the Ryal Yacht in the background?
Yes, that is “Britannia” in tge background of the picture taken from the No. 11 bus. The former royal yacht is berthed alongside Ocean Terminal Shopping Centre, while the tall building behind the vessel is the new vertical Port of Leith distillery. On the left of the picture next to two cranes is the vessel that tilted over in a dry dock recently
Re the Blackpool Tramway extension, all half-a-mile of it or thereabouts, does anyone know if this will qualify as the extension which will hold the record for the length of time it has been in gestation, given its short length? I cannot believe it will not gain the record for this slowness, and would like to know what others think, not just in UK but the world over! (Remember, in the time the UK took to build five new tramways, the French have built 25…and still counting! We are so uninspiring!)
Are all of those 25 French tramways genuine trams, how many are just those weirdo Scalextric style guided buses?
Anyway, all credit to those who have delivered trams to Newhaven on time and in budget…. ScotGov should put them in charge of CalMac ferry procurement!