Whilst most of our extension attention in Edinburgh may have recently been concentrated on the Trams to Newhaven project with the excitement of the final overhead wire being installed, the same can’t be said for officials at the Council as they are already planning the next line with confirmation that they are planning a public consultation later this year. This line will be the much mooted line from Granton to the Royal Infirmary.
Its certainly not new news that there are plans afoot for a line to run from north to south across the city centre. Trams should have reached Granton as part of the original scheme which ended up just being York Place to Edinburgh Airport but the current plans for a line from Granton to the Royal Infirmary have been around for a few years now and form part of not only Edinburgh’s own local transport plan but also that of the Scottish Government (although it does remain unfunded with no decisions on that likely for some time). Its said that it would cost £1.2 billion.
Its now been said that a Strategic Business Case for the line is making progress which includes options of the alignment on the southern section of the line. Once this is prepared there is planned to be a consultation process (said to be three months long) to get the views of locals to the plans.
If all goes according to plan the Council say the line would open by 2035 “at the latest”.