After what seems to have been a long seven weeks, trams are set to return to the full Edinburgh Trams route from Saturday 29th August – subject to successful testing. Trams have been prevented from travelling along Princes Street since 9th July after a fire in a building on the major thoroughfare led to its closure for safety reasons.
The fire – which happened in the early hours of the morning – meant that all trams were back at Gogar Depot and so such it has not been possible to run any sort of service to Newhaven. Various ways to get some trams onto the closed section were looked at (including the possible road movement of a selection) but these were discounted as being impractical and so for the past seven weeks services have only been able to run Edinburgh Airport to West End with ticket acceptance on Lothian Bus services (which were also subject to diversions as a result of the road closure).
Over the past seven weeks significant work has taken place to make the building safe. This has included the front façade of the building being fully stablised with supporting beams, the eastern gable being secured and made safe (which saw it reduced in height by two metres), several tonnes of bricks and stonework removed from the upper levels of the façade (and put into store for future reuse) and several tonnes of debris and dangerous materials removed from the building.
The impact of the closure on businesses on the northern section of the route to Newhaven has been significant and to try and help businesses City of Edinburgh Council have announced a number of support packages. A More by the Shore campaign aims to drive more footfall to the area with special offers and a voucher scheme to be introduced.
Speaking about the reopening, Sarah Boyd, Chief Executive for Lothian Buses and Edinburgh Trams, said: “We welcome the news that Princes Street is due to reopen on Saturday 29 August. Our teams are now focused on reinstating bus and tram services along one of the city’s most important transport corridors and we encourage customers to check the latest service updates and allow extra time for travel.
“I would like to thank our customers for their patience, understanding and support throughout this period of continued disruption. We are also grateful to our colleagues, whose professionalism, flexibility and commitment continued to keep Edinburgh moving during a particularly challenging time.
“Finally, we would like to acknowledge the close collaboration of our partners, including the emergency services, the City of Edinburgh Council and other agencies involved in responding to this incident. Their collective efforts have helped ensure services can begin to return safely and efficiently for the benefit of Edinburgh’s residents, visitors and businesses.”
- The other building fire which has caused issues for tram services in the UK still shows no signs of coming to a similar conclusion. The once Marks and Spencer store on Lord Street in Fleetwood caught light (suspected arson) on 3rd June 2026 and ever since no trams have been able to travel any further than Fisherman’s Walk. Whereas there has been lots of collaboration in Edinburgh to get things sorted, in Fleetwood it has just been a source of frustration. The ownership of the building has changed twice since the fire and Wyre Council are now starting legal action, but this is likely to not be sorted immediately with a provisional court date set for 2nd September (although there are various legal aspects which have to be done before this can happen). Until the building is made safe no trams will be able to run to Fleetwood Ferry.