Anyone accessing Edinburgh will be aware of difficulties in accessing the place—especially the city centre—and of moving around any part of it. It is not just a matter of traffic congestion and a maze of restricted streets. The buses are not much better, often stalled at stops and taking quarter of an hour to even cross the city centre.
Thise with long memories will blame David Begg, who emptied his paint pots all over arterial roads in the 1990s, before sloping off to a professorship. Subsequent ECC Transport Conveners have not improved matters. Lesley Hinds’ blocking off Waverley Bridge and removing taxis to a quarter mile from Waverley may not be the worst inanity, but it comes close.
The current convener, Scott Arthur, presented the latest wheeze to his committee on February 1st. Future Streets – a circulation plan for Edinburgh sets out the latest wheeze how a 30% reduction in traffic by 2030 is to be achieved. The plan is hedged round by a blizzard of supporting plans, including a City Mobility Plan (CMP) and Street Allocation Framework (SAF)
“Edinburgh is lagging behind other big cities and has a moral duty to meet its climate obligations.”
—Cllr. Scott Arthur, Transport & Environment Convener, ECC
Those familiar with local government will know that forests of trees are felled to feed council officials’ fetish for grand-sounding papers that feed their grandstanding councillors. Whether any good comes of it is another matter.
Pardon the cynicism but starting with a magnificent tram network being torn up (see Public Disservice) in the 1950s, through Begg’s paint pots and Hinds’ street closures to Arthur’s grandiloquence, Edinburgh has been ill-served in transport. Look at almost any other major city: Glasgow or Manchester; Munich or Barcelona. They have a transport network, usually integrated. (What we lost: Edinburgh Tram Map)
Edinburgh has no such thing because Edinburgh Corporation Transport begat Lothian Buses, who have a virtual monopoly on public transport since they won the 1990s bus war against First. With their 91% ownership, ECC pockets around £50 million a year in bus profits. Reducing traffic is just a front. What they really want is to push more people onto buses and thus fatten council coffers.
Like many historic cities, Edinburgh was not built for cars. Thankfully, the 1960s vandalism that would have put 4-lane motorways through the Meadows and down the Pleasance were shelved. Even the baleful presence of the “Blue Meanies” traffic wardens are not incentive enough to persuade people that a half-hour squeeze on a No.23 to get from Holy Corer to Canonmills is worth it.
The ”modern” Edinburgh tram is something of a white elephant. It may average 12 mph, but this is deceptive. The eight miles between Haymarket and the airport are fast, taking only a half hour (although the airport bus is faster). But the stretch to Newhaven averages barely 8 mph. You could bike it faster.
But the real tragedy is ttotal lack of integration. Frequent trains do Waverley to Edinburgh Gateway in 10 mins, but the ticket’s not valid on the tram for the last two stops to the airport.
To be fair to ECC, it’s not entirely their fault. Nine Transport Ministers since 2007 still haven’t devised a card like Oyster that has been a boon to public transport in London for two decades. Even low-hanging fruit is ignored; the South Suburban line and its half-dozen stations are all still there, but only used for freight. A spur off the Borders line through Gilmerton crosses the bypass and almost reaches Penicuik. There are track beds all over North Edinburgh that could find use by ram or train. But the idea of timetabling buses to meet trains a the few stations that do exist has not struck anyone as a useful way to lure people out of their cars.
The future “straits” will be dire. The only vision Cllr Arthur and ECC colleagues seem to have is of a massive new suburb beyond the airport.
Though near two rail lines, it is to be served only by buses.
#1094—696 words
davidsberry 