Edinburgh Trams disruption on Newhaven extension opening eve

A bad rehearsal means a good performance? That’s what Edinburgh Trams will be hoping for tomorrow (Wednesday 7^th June at midday) when the Trams to Newhaven extension opens to the public as the eve of this momentous occasion has seen extensive disruption after overhead problems at Gyle Centre.

The Edinburgh Trams Twitter feed first announced the problem at around 0900 on Tuesday 6^th June and at the time of writing the disruption is still ongoing, although it is expected to be sorted by the start of service on Wednesday 7^th June. Its another overhead problem for Edinburgh Trams although whereas the one last month at the start of timetable testing to Newhaven was down to a damaged pantograph on a tram this one is squarely down to a road vehicle which caused the damage.

Edinburgh Trams engineers were soon on site but the extent of the damage meant that it took much of the day to complete the repairs. During the disruption a tram service continued to run between Edinburgh Park Station and St Andrew Square with no trams from Edinburgh Park Station to St Andrew Square.

All this comes the day before the launch of services to Newhaven. It will be 1200 on Wednesday 7^th June that the first passengers are able to make their way onto the extension with a full service planned to operate from this time. That is a tram every seven minutes opening up new journey opportunities on the tram.

As is inevitable in the last few days ahead of the opening there has been some negative reporting in the local media including a poorly parked white van delaying a tram being captured and put onto social media with the usual questions and complaints coming from this. But regardless of any negativity tomorrow will be the day that the network grows by another three miles.