Let's Ride ... The Edinburgh Trams Extension
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- Опубліковано 27 вер 2024
- There are eight new stops on the Edinburgh Tram system, which opened in June 2023, and as I found myself up in Edinburgh for the Festival, I figured it was time to catch up with my local friend Lewis, and ride the new extension talking Trams as we went ...
Thanks to Lewis for the additional Time Lapse Bonus Footage.
Good to see the Edinburgh Tramway extension open. We need more trams in the UK.
We do yes
yes indeed we need more trams but also lots more railway lines
@@spacegoat1385 Trams in Leeds would be a start.
I love that modern trams continue to use the sound of a ‘gong’. 👍😀
Munich had new trams equipped with a similar sound played over speaker but modified the trams after a short time to physical bells as present in old trams. A real bell just works better than a sound file
@@svenlakemeier Not true, it depends on the sound files. An electric bell will always sound loud and consistent. But if the manufascturer puts a wrong sound file on there it can sound quite fake and mechanical. I'm willing to bet Munich didn't put an actual bell in there but just changed the sound file.
@@MrAronymous How much are you willing to bet? There are german language articles out describing the change. I tried to comment with a link, but that gets filtered by UA-cam
Good to see the grass covered blocks in between the tracks. They can go some way to reduce the heat island effect of all that concrete.
Not only that. It helps with allowing rain water to soak away. (Rain is more a issue in Edinburgh)
But the best of all it just looks nicer.
Plants make a street look good.
They didn't require new trams because the original order was for the full network before Edinburgh City Council / Scottish Government cocked up the build and it was rationalised to terminate at Picardy Place (then 100 foot up the road at York Place). So 9 years later the fleet is actually being utilised as originally planned.
Yes I thought that might be the case. Infrastructure projects have a habit of going well over budget but it's partly down to the stop start nature of them. There was a glut of new tramlines built in the early 90s, then it stopped until Edinburgh 20 years later. You lose the experience and knowledge of mistakes made, and the people who build them move on. So you have to start over again. And make the same mistakes.
In France there are many cities much smaller than Edinburgh with much bigger tram networks. They never stop building and expanding. Even the small city of Le Havre now has trams.
@@roginkthis country never learns-a lot of the Crossrail experts have left
Yes, not foresight in buying enough trams for a planned second phase, but incompetence in having to stop the build of the planned line when only part complete. But good to see that it's finally finished.
Before it opened, the terminus would have been at Newhaven (line 1a). They then cut the line down to St Andrews Square but trams would continue to Picardy Place and reverse there. Later on, they did build a temporary stop just shy of Picardy Place and trams would run to there and drop/pick up passengers until funding for the trams to Newhaven is approved. But when the extension was approved, trams no longer stop at Picardy Place until end of construction due to demolition of the platform and the line for a month was temporarily cut to West End as the nearest crossover was just before that stop (if coming from airport) and then to St Andrews square, but trams would still continue until just before Picardy and reverse there until June 2023.
For comparison, Sheffield has 32 trams for a network of 22 miles, but Edinburgh has 27 trams for a network of 8 miles (pre extension)
Before the extension or completion of the line; I heard they would rotate the use of the trams whilst the did not need them all and they even looked at selling some off to Croydon Trams?
Lewis is such a happy and funny guy, always smiling! Amazing
And with very outstanding Scottish accent😅🏴
Lewis is great. His local knowledge is as accurate as it is comprehensive!
Shame his pronunciation of local areas (Picardy Place) is not exactly how it should be! I’ll let Geoff off(as a non local) with Bal-for Street (which around the town is Bal-fer Street)
It’s important to remember that those big pulley wheels belonged to the Edinburgh Trams system, not the Leith Trams (as Lewis mistakenly said)‚ which had always been powered by electricity. When the Burgh of Leith was “amalgamated” into Edinburgh in 1920, the city’s tram system had to be upgraded to electrical before it was finally connected with the Leith system.
That temporary end station that got replaced by a new station a bit further on once the planned-from-the-start extension got built is something we have in Stockholm too. No sign of the temporary stop here either. Our extension was just one stop though!
Lovely to see Edinburgh in such Scottish weather.
LA recently got our first demolished station, the Little Tokyo station, on the former L line (former service, but all trackage still exists). The Little Tokyo station was relocated across the street and underground. That's our only current one, but there are many remnants of the Los Angeles Railway and the Pacific Electric Railway, once the largest urban rail system in the world. You could spend months exploring those, from station buildings, to abandoned street medians.
Not uncommon - think of short lived termini like King William Street, or Loughton, or Charing Cross (Jubilee), or Nine Elms, or Maiden Lane, or the original York station.
Such a joy seeing Edinburgh the city I was born in. Recognised Harburn Hobby’s as I collected alot of model buses 🚍 in the 1990s & early 2000s. Love Edinburgh so much folks. 👍👍
Used to be on the other side of the street and closer to the bottom of Leith Walk.
York Place, when the trams terminated there, was a platform with a single tram line running alongside it. Trams came through the crossover just before the stop in the direction in which the crossover did nothing and stopped just before the buffers marking the end of the line. The driver shut down this cab, got out, and walked along the platform to the cab at the other end of the tram. After a short delay the tram pulled out along the same bit of track it came into York Place on and went through the crossover to switch it onto the other track for the trip back to the airport.
This arrangement meant that York Place would have required some major alterations to allow the twin tracks just before it to join to the twin tracks going down Leith Walk. Since Picardy Place, the stop at the top of Leith Walk, was less than 100 metres away, it was decided to remove the stop and run the second track through where the platform had been.
This is an informative and funny video, Geoff, hope you had a nice time in Edinburgh
I was there last weekend, great time on the trams. I didn't realise the extension was so new.
I've been in Harburn Hobbies model shop many times, and indeed, 47444 on my layout came from there in 2018! Very good shop Geoff, and their Harburn Halt signs are also an own brand range of scenic products for layouts! I also bought my Hornby Elite DCC controller from there. Another fact, heading a little bit up Leith Walk from Harburn Hobbies, you pass the Gateway apartments. That was previously the Scottish Television Gateway TV theatre. Bet you didn't know that!
I just spent a week in Glasgow as my niece was competing in the BMX Racing, and me and my nephew visited every station on the ‘Clockwork Orange’ he absolutely loved it 😊
Was not expecting to see a car crash in a Geoff video!
Nonetheless I have to say I enjoyed this very much, it's always good to see new transit infrastructure, and I look forward to riding it for myself!
As long as it's not a train/tram crash.
Nice trams! Geoff & his local friend nicely compliment each other. Love the wheel sculpture remembering the old tram system. I visited Edinburgh in the late 70s. A very quaint city.
Lewis seems a nice guy
I guess we’ll never know whether he has been accepted by the people of Leith…
*person driving along Leith Walk*
"Is that Geoff Marshall over there?"
*looks*
BANG!
If you want a perfect disused tram stop. the former Birmingham Snow Hill Tram stop is still there with the escalator but the tracks are disconnected from the Tram network. Great video and hope yourself and Lewis weren't too shook up after witnessing that crash but good to hear that no one was hurt
You can get a really good overhead view of it from Livery Street car park (you don't need to park there - you can just use the stairs to go up!).
@@andyt2510 Think it the same location but I walk from the entrance from Snow Hill Station and go over the footbridge heading towards the ticket barriers but turn right before the ticket office and look down from there
Well done Geoff for the trip up to Edinburgh - do hope my wonderful brother was driving you - didn't see the driver in the clips. Loves his job and it's great to see the route finally open to Newhaven - hope you went round Britannia.
It's nice to see Lewis again. I think it's "Leithers" as the collective name for people from Leith, certainly Dick Gaughan calls himself a Leither, and he should know. Were you giving an old friend some moral support at the Fringe, Geoff?😉
Do love the new tram line in Edinburgh, been on the line a couple of times.
The only time I've been to Edinburgh they were digging up the roads for the first tranche of trams. Nice to see a few in action after all this time.
The trams look nice.
Yes they are. They have a pleasantly sonorous bell when they could have gone for something rather obnoxious. Also plenty of luggage space, unlike Crosslizpurp trains.
They are rubbish to ride on though.
Very nice, let the tram networks grow! They are now building a complete new tram system in Liège in Belgium. That is about 50 km (30 m) from my home here in the south east of the Netherlands. It should open in 2024. And I will ride it then. Maybe you would like to come and see it. Liège is closer to London than Edinburgh! I will accompany you, and help with the French translation, as Liège is in the French speaking part of Belgium.
Liège is very close to Brussels which speaks french and English part of Flanders region like some part of Netherlands??
@@Leojw10 Well Liège is not in Flanders, but in Wallonie, where the speak French. And many people, mainly young ones, also speak some English. In Flanders they speak Dutch similar to the Dutch here in the Netherlands, but a bit different. Compare it with English in the Uk and English in the USA.
Thanks for catching the B roll footage outside Leith Post Office, I'm a postbox nerd and was going to visit the post office on Sunday but changed my mind when the heavens opened! Was just down from you at Balfour Street at the time!
If you head down the other end towards the airport there's a nice stop at Gogarburn. In the adjacent churchyard is the grave of Thomas Grainger, railway engineer & surveyor, who was involved in the construction of many of Scotland's railways, including Haymarket Station, and some in England, including the Wharfdale viaduct
What a great surprise. I just arrived in Edinburgh for Fringe Festival and used the tram today.
Ps the new line should definitely be a combined tram/cycle path. It’s what Not Just Bikes would recommend.
Wow! Edinburgh has everything! Even low speed car accidents!
Great as always...think I will have a wee dram at Robbies and have a good old stare at those pulley wheels. Nice addition Lewis
I was born in Edinburgh and my family moved down to Surrey in around 1952, so I can just about remember the old double decker Edinburgh Corporation Trams. (My grandparents still lived there so we used to visit regularly after we moved.) They were painted in the same livery that is used on the buses today. The last tram ran in 1959. Shame you didn’t mention the old system - great video though!
My grandfather took me to see the last tram arrive at the Shrubhill Depot in 1956. There were massive crowds lining the streets.
Lewis is adorable 🥰
I love travelling on the trams whenever I'm in Edinburgh 😍
The wee 'ding' sound always amuses me
I’m glad you finally made it to Edinburgh. I’m so glad the teams are finally finished.
Shame I missed you on Sunday as I was out of town
I live 100m or so from Picardy Place. York Place stop was shut for a couple of years - a reet pain. Today I could get on the tram down Leith Walk to do a bit shopping. There's all sorts of interesting stuff there. You can get the bus. All 17 of them, confusion is thy name. Leith Walk will change now; the tram is comfortable, quiet, the platform is at the same height as the tram - wheelchairs - kids in buggies - that works, and you know where you are.
Do you know how it got it's name? I'm guessing Auld Alliance or some WW1 connection.
@@caw25sha Picardy Place was originally built by a group of weavers from the Picardie region of France in the 18th century.
Leith was originally a separate town from Edinburgh, with Leith Walk running between them. Urban sprawl from both directions meant that they were effectively one place long before Leith was officially incorporated into Edinburgh in 1920. You can still visit the Boundary Bar on Leith Walk, a pub which used to straddle the Edinburgh/Leith border and therefore had fun features such as different drinking up times in different parts of the bar.
@@Michael75579 That's really funny. Reminds me of "the Leith police dismisseth us".
Hi Geoff your videos are amazing ❤
Welcome to Edinburgh 🎉 🏴
Thanks!
Nice to see you touch down in ye old Edin! 🎉
Sadly the Edinburgh trams have the same issue as public transport in many places including here in Australia.Trashy adverts stuck on windows.
The Scottish Concessionary Pass allows free travel to Lothian residents only on the trams. Others from elsewhere have to pay. I think that the Glasgow Underground is similar.
..
Remember, Scotland, four seasons in one day. The snow would be later 😂
We're up in Edinburgh and just visiting the Colinton Tunnel. Have you ever been? It's a really remarkable community project and very beautiful!
This is so cool! I'm from the middle of Canada and have been following you since the pandemic. We have a family member temporarily living in the UK so just spent 18 days there. Along the way, I was checking off whenever I did something you did. It seems I did the same exact tram trip (I had to see Sunshine on Leith) the Sunday before you!
Really nice video. I’ve never been to Scotland., so it was very interesting.
Great informative video Geoff. Thanks for sharing. Interesting how at 10:04 and 10:13 the view of the tram crossover was a bone dry ☀️ setting as oppsed to where you were standing at the old York Place, which was being rained on. 🌧 👍🏾
Nowhere near the same place - that looks like Edinburgh Gateway. Could be wrong, don't know the system that well being better half of Central Scotland 🙂
That's Scottish weather for you - four seasons in an afternoon.
You went under the ghost of an old railway bridge just past the foot of the walk - the arches and buttresses are still there. I thought you'd comment on it!
Geoff Marshall was in my city!!! Love your work.
Harburn hobbies is a brilliant model shop in Edinburgh if it was open geoff you would of loved it
A fun video. 👍👍
Excellent video
I have been to Edinburgh many times, but never yet ridden a tram.
Me too. My mum lives in Marchmont which isn't served, and my nephew who used to live in Leith has moved elsewhere just in time to make the extension irrelevant too.
I haven't had the need to use it. Whenever I have visited Edinburgh I always go over the side where the castle and old stuff is - never been anywhere that the trams go to@@MeFreeBee
Auto generated subtitles are hilarious: "I'm at the top end of the tram network, the new extension to edible trams".
Tasty!
Glad they've finally opened now
Nice nod to the proclaimers with the York place ( no more).
Nice edit before the swear at the car crash
I don't see why Geoff would need to edit out "oh dear, how unfortunate, I appear to have collided with another motor vehicle. How silly of me".
I was able to travel along the new bit to Newhaven and back on 21st July have done to original route on opening day (31st May 2014). The service frequency is pretty good and even when trams were bunched no-one had to wait particularly long. The information at stops and on board was fine though you have to search their website to find the limits of the City Zone (covers all stops between Ingliston Park & Ride and Newhaven) referred to in ticketing options. The trams were clean and revenue protection was very effective. Overall though, with so many buses in the city and down to Leith and, eventually, eco means to power buses, it does make you wonder if the trams are a white elephant.
I am not sure this vid will generate as much meaningful discussion as some of yours, Geoff, but thanks for sharing this record of your visit.
The City Zone includes every stop apart from the Airport - so it covers Ingliston P&R to Newhaven. The Tram Stops map used to show the City Zone but it seems to have been removed since they added in the new stops towards Newhaven.
What a great video :)
Slightly disappointed that you skipped my stop (The Shore) with Rabbie Burns statue 😢
The busiest stop in Leith apparently.
Always informative and. Also funny . Love the Scottish weather
According to the subtitles they are edible trams. Are they made of shortbread?
Great videos as always Geoff
Best value for travelling around Edinburgh is the £5.00 1 day travel ticket, covers all the bus routes in the city area plus the tram route as far as Igliston Park & Ride, extra to go to the final stop at the airport.
I cant help but mention a couple of signs for pedestrians between St Andrew Square and Picardy Place that still point you in the direction of York Place.
I hope there are no crashes between cars and trams up there. When I was in Bordeaux a few years ago, a car derailed a tram in front of me, and I had to walk a long way back to the city centre. They make use of induction trackways there cutting the need for overheads. It makes sense using existing track-beds for new trams and would prevent a bit of disruption to city streets, too hopefully.
That old rail line under macdonald road bridge was once part of the line to trinity and bonnington it did had freight trains on the line but then it was abandoned
Yes, a pity the tap-tap scheme doesn't work with the trams.
My wife and I were in Edinburgh earlier this yeart, sadly before the new section of tramway opened. However, there is a day ticket available from the tram ticket machines, which gave us unlimited travel on buses and trams (although not to the airport .. I think that's a slighty more expensive day ticket)
the ticket does not work on any of the airport express-bus services though...
you used to, & I think still can, get to the airport on a day ticket by using a neighborhood bus from Corniston Road to Gyle-Center, but those buses are very occasional...
Is it free to travel on the bus/tram if your under 19 or disabled in Scotland? I think i've heard it somewhere that anyone in school/university in Scotland is entitled to free travel
@@annabelhollandyes it is free to concessionary card holders in Scotland which are those under 22, over 60 or with a disability
@@fudgeyman99 I thought that, unless you look over 18 or have a hidden disability, that no form of card or ID is required. Wish England could do the same for under 19s since they (10 years ago) extended the compulsory education from 16 (when you leave high school) to 18. Except for a few days, bus and tube travel has never gone above the 2019 levels which is another reason why and public transport prices should never rise.
@@annabelholland definitely free for the elderly and infirm, not sure about other groups
Mad that York Pl is abandonned already. Used to board there all the time when going to college. Though, that area was a nightmare for congestion, particularly for the buses.
Good to know that the sun still shines on Leith. Which is another Proclaimers reference. :) Sunshin for a while, at least. But the great thing about Scotland is that if you don't like the weather, wait twenty minutes.
I been on a Scotland and England trip in Late June of 2023. The new tram line just open a few weeks ago before the start of my trip. Like the Interior good scheduling. Like to come back.
Geoff how do find somebody Scottish on your Scotland trips but somebody English in Wales?
Is it something you said...😅
There's another reason why Edinburgh was fortuitous in ordering so many trams - they are CAF Urbos 3 tram like what the West Midlands have, so they would have plenty of spares of when the inevitable cracking of the frames start to occur....
You should do West Midlands Metro at some point Geoff. It is only one line from Birmingham to Wolverhampton but it’s exciting
That was on 3rd August. I remember the rain that day. Also, I am also qith TheSpaceUK and they opened on 4th. 😊
I don’t remember too many Geoff videos filmed in the rain. Gives it a very atmospheric feel
Back in about 1974, I attended a presentation given by a friend's dad, who was an engineering lecturer at Edinburgh University. He had proposed the re-use of some of Edinburgh's disused railway lines for a light rapid transport system, i.e. a tram network, with several different lines covering a fair sweep of the city. This included the oddly-named Innocent Tunnel, which starts near the Commonwealth Swimming Pool and comes out on the edge of Prestonfield golf course. The Innocent Tunnel is now a cycle path, as are several of the other disused line in my friend's dad's proposals. As you will have gathered by now, his proposals were totally ignored by the city council.
Geoff, you should squad up with Steve Marsh for a collab video!
"The Leith Police Dismisseth Us", but can Geoff say it?
Brilliant video!
You should come and ride the tram system here in Tenerife. There are two point to point lines that share 1 station where they cross, but you can only get a tram from one end to the other on each line. None of the trams on line 1 leave and go along line 2.
Oddly enough, I was in Edinburgh this week and last for the Fringe. However, I didn't think to check on the progress of the trams, as I always assume any such improvements will drag on forever. It's good to hear it's finished. Meanwhile, I'll seek out the abandoned line introduced at 7:07.
The extension has been pretty much on time and budget unlike the original project. Lessons learned...
@@neilgwynne5158 I hereby approve this improvement to the improvements.
Omg I’m going to Scotland on Tuesday
A very bright future for John he do well
Edinburgh is such a beautiful city would love to visit one day live near London tho🏴
It's only 4½ hours on the train. Don't visit during the festival though; it's absolutely heaving and hotels anywhere near the city centre push their prices up to ridiculous levels.
@@Michael75579 Even last weekend it was packed, didn't expect it to be during mid September, Leith was completely dead though, walking between Ocean Terminal and Port of Leith there were points where the nearest other people were hundreds of metres away.
I was wondering at about 5:05 when the weather would change in typical Scots rythem and lo and behold the downpour at 6:10. Tramwise I'm delighted at the gongs they use, couldn't be more trammy !
That roundabout where there is still ongoing works has had roadworks on it for at least the last 5 years if not longer…
Completed in October '23... at long last!
The M-10 tram line in Berlin just got a huge extension too
They have used the railway line from Bury to Manchester, I took my self on a trip from St Peter’s Square to Bury a nice ride through the country side, I will be doing some more when I visit Manchester again.
The problem I have with the trams in Edinburgh is that they are so slow. Come to Prague the trams there drive normal speed, 50 road means 50 speed.
I thought you might have mentioned that Edinburgh tried to lease the excess trams they had at the time to Croydon, but they weren't interested.
Entertaining video! I am surprised that you did not mention the fact that the same daytime timetable operates 7-days-a-week. (See the timetable which appears 20 secs into the video.) That is very unusual in Britain, Unfortunately a number of questions are left unanswered. How many trams are there? What are the tram fare(s)? Does the £2 bus fare cap apply on the trams? Are the tram fares integrated into Lothian Buses fare system? (Regarding these last two questions, I live in Nottingham. £2 single fare cap does NOT apply on the NET trams. The NET fares are not integrated with the fares charged on Nottingham City Transport buses.) Does the free travel for Scottish under-22s apply on the trams?
How many trams are there?
27. Such a large number was ordered as tram route has been continuously downscaled due to budgetery issues, red tape etc. They tried to get rid of some but couldn't.
What are the tram fare(s)?
Adult Single City Zone: £2
Adult Single Airport and City Zone: £7.50 (the airport zone only includes the airport stop (I think, information on it is very vague))
Other pricing options are more complex.
Does the £2 bus fare cap apply on the trams?
No. The only ticket transferrable between the two modes is the Network DAYticket (£12). I believe you may be able to load tram tickets on to any Scottish Smartcard (basically just an ITSO card) though.
Are the tram fares integrated into Lothian Buses fare system?
As above.
Does the free travel for Scottish under-22s apply on the trams?
Only for cards issued by Edinburgh Council. This applies to all National Entitlement Scheme cards except those issued to blind or visually impaired people.
@@ethanxanderlee Thank you for such a quick and comprehensive response to my questions. The timetable shown at 20 seconds strongly suggests that 16 trams are required to operate the extended route. So 27 trams is still rather too many. Re the free travel for U22s I am not surprised at your answer. Regarding 'free bus passes' issued under the National [Scotland] Entitlement Scheme I am also not surprised. Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ENCTS bus pass holders (and that includes me) can use our passes on the NET trams. But ENCTS passes issued by other local authorities are not valid on NET trams.
The only tram system that accepts national concessionery tickets appears to be sheffield incl tram trains
@@tonyskinner1643 I think you are right. It is so silly that I (from Nottingham) can use my pass on Sheffield trams, but South Yorkshire people cannot use their passes on the Nottingham trams.
I was lucky enough to be the Engineer on the original 'guided busway' section built in Saughton. The bridges and running sections was built to take trams loading. Raynesway were the contractor & Carl Bro the design consultant. TIE were absolute arseholes tho...
The only one I've seen is in Cambridge. I'd never heard of it and was completely baffled by what I was seeing.
@@caw25sha Saughton was modelled on Leeds I think.. Still grt engineering tho and the 2 structures were an 'anchored wall' construction which was new & fast.
Edinburgh is awesome 👌
Awesome Video Geoff
I been on the Edinburgh trams recently and it a good mode of transport. I haven't been on the extension. Do you think I should ride the extension?
What A Lovely Video
Would love it if Glasgow could have trams back again. Last British City to run trams in 1962.
Does bus-plus still cover the trams i think it does?
Wish this had been there when I was working for Scottish and Newcastle (up near the airport) and staying in Leith fifteen or so years ago
I live in Edinburgh and though this isnt particularly convinient I hope it causes more development. Trams to the King's Buildings would make my life a lot faster (though I won't need them by the time theyre built!)
The original plan for the trams, which I saw at an exhibition many years before construction was authorised, let alone begun, was for a main loop which followed the same route as the current system from Haymarket to Newhaven, then went along the coast for a while before turning south and heading back to Haymarket. Spurs went off from the east and west ends of the loop, heading to Cameron Toll and the airport.
The next stage of construction, assuming they build some more, will be from Newhaven through Granton, West Pilton, Craigleith, Roseburn and Haymarket to complete the loop. After that they might extend the route beyond the airport to Ratho and Newbridge. The spur to Cameron Toll seems to have vanished entirely.
Woha, a car crash even! I must say that Water of Leigh is a lovely area!
Goodness - we've had Jen, GLovesTrains and now Geoff! Nice to see they kept these pulley wheels. The cable trams were driven by stationary steam engines at various locations one of which was where Tollcross fire station is now. While you were swanning around Embra getting rained on I was on holiday in London. Twas sunny :)
Steve Marsh did a video tok, but he did every stop from the airport...Geoff stylee
Bit like dublin ireland we have luas we have leap cards which you tap on at one stop and tap off at the other