You’ll have to wait a bit longer to hear more about the plans to extend the Edinburgh Trams system further as the public consultation over the north-south line between Granton and the Bioquarter has been delayed again. It had previously been due to kick-off this spring but will now not start until mid-August 2025.
This planned line would build on the success of the current system which runs between the Airport and Newhaven. Although the gestation of the Edinburgh Trams system had hardly been smooth with major cost overruns and the initial line (which originally only ran from the Airport to York Place in the city centre) being delayed significantly leading to a major public inquiry, lessons had been learnt to allow the Trams to Newhaven extension to open in 2023. And following this the City of Edinburgh Council are now keen to continue expanding the network.
This would see a line run from Granton in the north of the city through to the Bioquarter in the south (and possibly beyond). The planned route would go via Roseburn, on to the North and South Bridge, Clark Street and Minto Street to Cameron Toll, before following the A7 to the Bioquarter. But its not without its controversy as part of the route in Roseburn would run on an established cycle route (albeit one which was once a railway line) and there have been many complaints and a campaign group set-up about this section.
But that is where the consultation will come in and that is now planned to take place from mid-August 2025 for a period of 12 weeks. This had already been delayed until spring 2025 (plans have been progressing on this extension for a while and it had previously been hoped the consultation would have happened in 2024) but the further delay has occurred because the Council want to make sure everyone has a chance to comment and it will mean it doesn’t take place during the school summer holidays and political recess period.
The results of the consultation will help the Council to produce a Business Case which will be presented to the Scottish Government with the hope that it will persuade them to provide funding. That, of course, is not a given in the current (or indeed the recent past) financial climate we are in.