They do say bad things come in threes don’t they? That was certainly the case for Edinburgh Trams on Tuesday 28th November 2023 with services being seriously disrupted and for two of the incidents there was absolutely nothing the trams could do about it.
The first issue saw a tram breakdown which was soon cleared and would have allowed a full service to resume. However, there was then a serious incident on Leith Walk involving a crane collapsing onto a newly built block of flats at Stead’s Place. This happened shortly before 0930 and led the Police to close Leith Walk to trams and other traffic whilst the incident was dealt with.
Then just when you thought things were getting back to some sense of normality with a service able to resume as far as Balfour Street there was a RTC at the South Charlotte Street/Princes Street junction involving a car and a bus which meant services were suspended along Princes Street and beyond again.
These issues did see Haymarket Yards used again as a tramstop with passengers wishing to travel to the Airport having to board trams there to carry on their journeys.
The line between Ocean Terminal and Newhaven also remains closed whilst the overhead line issue continues to be investigated.
The temporary platform which had been constructed at Haymarket Yards for the trackworks last month is still in situ and it proved useful during this disruption. This was around 1120 and although at this time trams had just started to run beyond Haymarket towards Ocean Terminal again passengers had been directed to Haymarket Yards to catch a tram to the Airport with a group on the platform and another set waiting behind the photographer.
256 stands at Haymarket Yards waiting to depart westbound to the Airport.
We then see 256 departing from Haymarket Yards as it uses the crossover from the loop to gain the correct track.
Obviously when 274 started its journey from the Airport it was only able to go as far as Haymarket but by the time it reached the stop the line was opened back along Princes Street. It would run to Balfour Street although as we can see here it does still state Haymarket on the destination display.
Just after 1200 and there was a RTC along Princes Street which caused more disruption. It also meant some trams were stranded in a closed section, this included 265 and 270 which are stuck between Lothian Road and South Charlotte Street junctions. The other end of 265 was in the yellow box junction blocking traffic turning right out of Lothian Road.
269 runs eastbound along Princes Street at 1215 just after the RTC. The bus we can just see the rear of was involved in the collision along with a small black/grey car. (All Photographs by Roy Calderwood, 28th November 2023)