Granton to Edinburgh City Centre Tram Route (Proposed)

hi there my name is SC Arthur and right now I’m the transport environment committee convenor here in Edinburgh and today I’m right at the start of the roseburn path and up at the the track level here and you can see trains well possibly in the video I’m not sure there’s a lot glare you can see trains but before the trains there’s actually the tram line which takes the trams obviously from the airport into the city center and the reason there’s that curve in the metal railing ahead is the when the original tra was built there was a plan to have a a point I guess you would call it which would curve around here and then the tram line would go down the roseburn path and in fact back in 2006 uh the Scottish government gave the council permission to to lay a line down that path uh all the way to grandon and I think then what that time the plan was for it to go on Beyond Granton to New Haven and complete that Loop so a different time and and obviously a lot has changed uh since then not least uh in edinburgh’s tra experience we went from being a bit of a national laughing stock actually people been quietly respectful about how far managed to complete the to New Haven line just not withstanding the snagging we still have so why I’m back here uh so reason I’m back here is on Friday which is yesterday the council published plans for its next phas of tra and that is to return to this Loop this route sorry and uh and to take take a tram down here to roseburn now lot has changed of course since 2006 not least now that when we deliver a tra project we expect her to be Urban rail improvements along its length and also uh it to come with you know really good active travel so walking wheeling and cycling along its length he says as we pass over the CCW scheme which is going to open next month so the problem with this route the challenge is I guess rather than a PL problem is that it’s constrained on each side because it’s a former Railway line uh which the this path has been constructed on uh and what that means is the you know the tra is going to take up quite a bit of space and the feeling is that there’s not enough room you know to construct uh the tram line provide excellent walking and Prov Prov provide excellent uh cycling facilities so the proposal is that we we put a tra through here uh and we you know keep the excellent walking route through here uh a safe route for people uh but in terms of cycling we create a new safe route uh and an Alterna along an alternative route to this so basically remove the cycling from here so cycling wouldn’t be removed completely the report says it’ll be discouraged and for me what that means is you know we won’t have people commuting along this route but you know parents can still bring their kids down here to learn how to ride a bike Etc alongside that fantastic tra of course so I guess the easy question is well you know why not just keep walking and cycling here why not leave this as it is and put the tra somewhere else so the alternative somewhere else will the somewhere else would be orer bra uh up past the Western General past the front of it and then into the city center from there the challenge that would come with is that it’d be more expensive it would be more disruptive uh be more carbon involved and the modeling suggests or the modeling just now suggests that usage levels would be lower as well so switching into that route uh we enable cycling to be retained on this route but basically some of the benefits of running a tra to Grant would be eroded and some of the costs would rise uh so so the judgment is that this is the better route and so and I used I used that word judgment deliberately because I think these days we’re encouraged to think you know in terms of reducing everything to Binary uh outcomes you know black white yes no or even leave uh remain but we know that life is actually much more complex than that and and decisions are seldom quite so easy and often most of us understand the benefits of both approaches and certainly that’s where I am we look at these different routes but having you know having looked at both of them you know C officers came down here think in the [Applause] Autumn uh to see uh just how it would work and I think when you look at that and you you listen to the arguments we make just going rvel some dikes here the winds we be picking a little bit so apologies harms the microwave the microphone sorry I’m tired today and so so it is a judgment and the judgment on this was a bit route you know looking at all that evidence the so I respect people that look at the evidence and perhaps come to you know look at the evidence you know in a meaningful way and perhaps come to a different conclusion and but what I would say is if you’ve yet yet to look at the evidence um you know trying to think of it as a city scale what we’re trying to achieve rather than just through how you might see yourself uh using that that Fantastic Future piece of infrastructure or perhaps using this walking or cycling route always great to see people picking up uh after the dog yeah so please look at evidence and so yeah absolute respect for people look at it and and think well actually maybe it is worth you know taking longer spending more time and having a route that’s going to be much more easily so just stop quiet down a little bit there’s a little bit more wind uh yeah so the so yeah so if people look at the look at the options and see well actually I think the benefits of this path uh outweigh the fact that the alternative route would be more expensive take longer to deliver be more more disruptive to you know local residents and also the the finished tram maybe use less and much more open to disruption from uh traffic and of course uh yeah and we have to of course we have to keep take all these things into account when we we’re trying to reach our decision thank you you can see an old uh platform here so for for some of these Bridge structures you perhaps not this one here the the the tra will struggle uh to get under them so some of them will need modification thank you and it’s mov worth this one here this is Queens Fury Road H this one’s particularly tricky because as you can guess it’s not quite wide enough to get two tram lines through but we’re going under Queens fairy road so the judgement the Judgment just now is that the it’s just simply it’s not feasible to replace that bridge because of the time it would take and the disruption it would cause so the TR line will probably go down to to one line there so I think we’re coming up to craigle 3il partner I think so if Google Maps was right I checked this morning I’ve probably cycled around 2 km on this route now and I used to always cycle down here on the Saturday morning when I used to do the park at cring before the when Orum started up so at this point I’d be veing off to the left here uh sometimes a little bit hasti to try to get to car in time so the original 2006 pan we have took uh uh the trams all the way down the remainder of the path I think it’s about another kilometer or so uh to basically crew then it would go into Granton but the problem with that approach is it didn’t give us a good connection to uh the Western General Hospital so the proposal is that the the tram will probably come off roseburn path around here somewhere obviously giv us that good connection to I just walk my bike down the road here given us that good connection to Craig retail Park and it will come into here which is Gro Hill Road and then once we get to top of Grill Road it’s going to turn right onto tford Road yeah so not easy getting back to that point so I respect people have reached a different position what I’m wey though is of course people using the roseb path as an excuse for doing nothing or you know deliberately trying to force the tram down more expensive routes uh just to make it unviable so I’m wary of that but you know anybody that’s looking at this in an open and constructive and transparent way Absolut respect and I’m to happy to discuss the issues with them so in terms of that cycling provision for that 2 km stretch uh the the the the alternative for that would have to be in place uh before work started so not after the project before it and now there has been some people saying well can we not just squeeze uh pedestrians and cyclists together on that path and I think you know during the when people looking at the Le walk part of the last scheme I think maybe the last committee said yes to that squeeze question uh but I think I think we need to learn the lessons from that and see actually you have to respect pedestrians and in our confined route like that need to avoid the that interaction between pedestrians and uh cyclists for everyone’s safety so here we come down this so the CH would come down here without the uh if we didn’t take the gr Hill route just now would still be on the roseburn path so it mean that people would have to move from the roseburn path they would have to get off it at some point and get across through that housing State on my left and then across this this road here which you can see is relatively busy of course we can put Crossings and things in but I think it’s really desirable to have an excellent connection to the Western General Hospital and you can see up there just to the the the left of that apartment block that is probably where the original stop was planned for the roseburn path so people would have to come down theide the side of that block I think that’s where it is cross the road up there come down cross the road here and then get across this road here so you can understand the benefits of the aim is a good connection with the Western General uh coming off at Gro Hill and coming down here is just so much better after this have to see cycling down this road here isn’t the highlight of my day but uh never mind so crout all up ahead so thankfully thankfully I’ll be turning left here I don’t have to interact with roundabout anything more than that so the charm coming down here is going to be so good you know and you think of all the people who work at Leonardo I mean I stop right here is going to be excellent for them so so the roseburn path actually the the Red Bridge up ahead as it’s called is the continuation of that but the tra would have of course went across that bridge it would come down just to the west side of it there [Music] can may get off my bike and I can show you where it would have came down so you can see there that that path there so the original plan was for the the the tra to come off the roseburn path at that point and you come down here and head into Granton uh let see if I can negotiate this Junction there’s actually a cycle Lane but I’m going to try and stay on the road just so you can visualize uh how the Trum might look in 2031 actually So the plan is to get the grant into City Center section open in 2031 obviously there’s a lot of work to get done between uh now and then we still got to get through the consultation and you know and if an alternative route was picked that that opening might be delayed slightly uh and as I said earlier more expensive more carbon so you’re not done already it’s really worth having a look at what the council’s doing in Grown you know 3 and 1 12,000 homes over the next 10 years or so the heat FR those homes uh is going to be drawn from uh quite a large sewer that runs through the area they’re going to have a heat pump that extracts the heat from the the sewer and that’s going to heat those homes Net Zero Community you know excellent public transport LS both in terms of buses and obviously trams uh so really really really different and one one car parking space for every four homes cuz the idea is that people will be buying into that Net Zero community and the kind of people who are attracted to are maybe less key on car ownership generally anyway I’ve never cycle down here before usually go in the cyclopath feels a bit weird and you can see the gas holder up ahead uh encapsulated uh in the white uh plastic course that encapsulation is designed to peel off at high wind H so the structure isn’t overloaded and it looks like it’s done that job it’s looking a bit tattered today hopefully won’t get get in trouble for seeing [Music] that sh okay so Grant more Granton college is just off on the left there you can see the Morrison as well and then the Granton station building which has just been refurbished by the council looks excellent and you can see some of that new housing going up behind it uh that’s just the start of the huge project here and the Granton gas holder it’ll be at the cent of all you know obviously a landmark but also part of a park and Al a performance space perhaps seeing you know festival and other act coming down here it’s going to be you know really transformative quite exciting actually so Gren station build just there looks exellent actually it’s only when you get up close to the gas holder you really understand just how big it is I mean that must be 12 or 14 stories of scaffolding there absolutely incredible so I’ll just cycle down to uh the another gr what the I’m get my grant stations mixed up so again normally I’d be a cycle in here but I’m just sticking to the road just so you get a feel for it starting to look really good down here actually is [Music] this is what happens when you’re 55 you have a chronic heart condition you struggle to overtake joggers and getting old is not [Music] easy okay so I’ll turn around here and I I’ll stop and chat for a bit [Music] Granton Square I’m getting Granton square and Grant station mixed up sorry I think the uh my camera saved it file there so I’ll start again uh so so what do you think do do you think they we should bring the tra all the way down here at Granton square or or should we stop at Granton station that new that refurbished building we seen just as we came in which what I call Granton I don’t want to offend anybody I’ve not got quite got my lines no M right or should we all go take it all the way through to New Haven which isn’t actually that far away uh from here but the problem is completing by that part of the line is is disproportionately expensive and going back to what we was talking earlier do you think that the you know the extra costs the extra carbon the the extra time needed and and the lower passenger Revenue we get from putting the line in Ard bra do you think that outweighs the benefits of keeping the cycling provision there or should we just focus on you know getting excellent cycling provision uh elsewhere and getting the tra and walking there the best we can and another thing I would say is is I think that if we were you know looking at that roseb path again you know I I think we would struggle with it if we were starting a fresh to say that that is the kind of cyclone provision that’s right for you know Edinburgh in 2024 and and and the reason I say that it might be sound quite controversial to you but the reason I say that is that you know it was great today is a good feeling all those people walking and a few people cycling H along the path you know really positive a little bit Sunshine makes a difference of course uh but would you use it at night time you know and when it was dark uh would you use it you know and I say that as a as a grown man uh but if you know if if what about you know if you’re a woman or if you’re a young person would you feel safe us at night time uh so does Edinburgh want a psychopath that used during the day or to work a psychopath that works 24/7 every single day of the year uh I I think I think as a city over the last couple of years and over the last few years the debate has moved on around that around particularly after the s s Ard uh her her kind of you know brutal murder let’s face it I think things have moved on and I think there’s a bit higher expectations around Public Safety particularly in public places okay hopefully that’s not too controversial or uh negative uh ending to the video but just just want to stress it is a consultation uh and people can bring their views forward uh we’ll listen to them and take it Forward uh but should also stress of course it’s a consultation it’s not a referendum and we’ll take into account those consultation responses along with stuff like you know how much this is going to cost how do we deliver it uh how do we minimize disruption to local residents because I think we’ve the impact that some of these SCH schemes can have on local residents so it’s really important we get that part right as well okay uh this video has been far too long uh but if you’ve got any comments please leave them below uh and I’ll try and answer them okay bye for now