When the original plans were thought of for the new tramway in Edinburgh part of the funding was due to come from developers who would benefit from trams running past their buildings and it now appears that these contributions will continue to be collected from firms on the currently abandoned line through to Newhaven. It had widely been thought that developers on the proposed line between the city centre and Newhaven would now not be required to give money but the City of Edinburgh Council now look set to continue on collecting to put it into a central pot for if and when the current one line is extended.<\/p>\n
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Council leaders now believe that there is a strong chance in the short to medium term of the line to Newhaven via Leith from the city centre being built as they are expecting once the line from the Airport is up and running public opinion will start to change and the people of Edinburgh will take to their state of the art tramway \u2013 just as happened in Dublin.<\/p>\n
Cllr Ian Perry, planning leader on the council, said: \u201cWhen traffic starts to reach a critical mass, my view is the tram line will have to go down Leith Walk. What happened in Dublin is exactly the same as what will happen in Edinburgh. A lot of people were sceptical until they saw the evidence. It\u2019s also legitimate for the council then to come in and say \u00a0\u2018If you want the tram serving you, and property prices are going up, then we\u2019re going take a contribution to help\u2019. We\u2019re mindful of that and that\u2019s why we\u2019re keeping the contributions going.\u201d<\/p>\n
The line between the city centre and Edinburgh Airport is due to open to passengers in summer 2014 with work underway across the route at the moment with a hoped for finish by the start of next year so that commissioning and testing can be undertaken. No timescale has been given for the opening of any extensions \u2013 if indeed they ever get further than the plans that now exist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When the original plans were thought of for the new tramway in Edinburgh part of the funding was due to come from developers who would benefit from trams running past their buildings and it now appears that these contributions will … Continue reading