A consultation into plans for extending the Edinburgh Trams system from Granton in the north to the BioQuarter and beyond took place between August and November 2025. Opinions were sought on the often controversial plans \u2013 thanks in no small part to one of the planned alignments via the Roseburn Path \u2013 to feed into the overarching Strategic Business Case (SBC) which is currently being developed.<\/p>\n
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This planned line \u2013 which is part of Edinburgh City Mobility Plan – would 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. The plan to run via the Roseburn Path has long been controversial amongst some locals. This would run on an established cycle route (which was once a railway line) and ever since first suggested there have been many complaints about it with a campaign group set-up specifically about this section. An alternative route via Orchard Brae has also been considered during the consultation.<\/p>\n
If the aim of the consultation was to get plenty of people engaged then it would probably be fair to say it achieved that with a total of 11,425 responses received via the Council\u2019s consultation hub and an additional 32 partial responses in hard copy form. Of these 99% were from individual members of the public with just under 70 being from stakeholder organisations. Although with the known local campaign against the route via the Roseburn Path how many of these individual responses were as individual as they may have been is up for debate!<\/p>\n
Each route section the planned extension was dealt with separately and there are some wildly different outcomes on the overall outcome with opposition for some sections being by far the majority (no prizes for guessing what the highest percentage opposition was for!) whilst in others there was much more support.<\/p>\n
North\/South tram into the city region \u2013 53% opposition, 40% support<\/p>\n
Granton-City Centre direct \u2013 40% opposition, 38% support<\/p>\n
Orchard Brae \u2013 44% opposition, 32% support<\/p>\n
Roseburn Path \u2013 68% opposition, 23% support<\/p>\n
Granton-Newhaven (line 1C) \u2013 29% opposition, 39% support<\/p>\n
City Centre-BioQuarter & Royal Edinburgh Infirmary \u2013 27% opposition, 51% support<\/p>\n
Midlothian\/Shawfair \u2013 23% opposition, 43% support<\/p>\n
East Lothian\/Queen Margaret University \u2013 23% opposition, 44% support<\/p>\n
During the consultation there were a number of key themes which were highlighted. These included:<\/p>\n
The Council are now working on preparing a Strategic Business Case for the extension which is due to be presented to the Transport and Environment Committee on 10th<\/sup> September 2026. This will be a key milestone in the project as it at this meeting that councillors will be asked for a decision on next steps.<\/p>\n Decisions could include proceeding with all or any element of the proposal to Outline Business Case stage (subject to funding), proceeding with workstreams to amend the current proposal, ceasing and\/or pausing temporarily work on the project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A consultation into plans for extending the Edinburgh Trams system from Granton in the north to the BioQuarter and beyond took place between August and November 2025. Opinions were sought on the often controversial plans \u2013 thanks in no small … Continue reading