Its time for another edition of “Stop by Stop” as we continue our journey on the Trams to Newhaven Edinburgh Trams extension. We’re over halfway now as we reach Foot of the Walk.
Up until now our journey from Newhaven has had plenty of twists and turns but now we’re on a relatively straight section and after departing from The Shore we continue our way along Constitution Street. We go across a couple of crossroads and then come to a tram and pedestrian only section shortly before the Foot of the Walk stop. Of note just before the stop on the right is South Leith Parish Church which was the scene of a lot of archaeological work during the early stages of the project which required the exhumation of bodies which had been buried there thousands of years earlier.
We then arrive at the Foot of the Walk stop and for a change its got platforms either side of the tracks – the only intermediate stop on the extension to have this style of stop. With the platforms also forming the footpath there’s limited clearance here and it is the only stop on the entire line to have no shelters provided although the doorways of the adjacent Foot of the Walk Wetherspoons do provide some shelter. Despite the lack of shelters it has everything else you expect from a tramstop in Edinburgh.
270 – in its advert for Camera Obscura – is just seen departing from Foot of the Walk on its way to Newhaven. With no shelters the timetable and fare information is attached to the wall of the adjacent building.
With its lack of shelter there is one stop on the network you don’t want to get caught at when it rains. In this photo just after the heavens have opened 254 arrives at the stop bound for Newhaven. We’re on the Airport bound platform and can see the validator, ticket machine and passenger information display. (Both Photographs by Gareth Prior)
Is it really beyond the wit of man to figure out a way of providing some shelter here – even if it means departing from the line’s standard design. Narrow pavements never seem to have been an obstacle to providing some form of shelter at bus stops, not even the hugely obstructive type sponsored by outdoor advertising companies (the “Adshel” as it was called when these first appeared).
It’s to avoid the gathering of local street people using it for drinking.
So it’s fine for them to congregate at all the other stops which do have shelters, just not this one???