Plans for third Edinburgh tram line on south suburban railway unveiled by council

The diagram shows 12 potential new stops including Morningside Road, Newington and Hillside, and an interchange with the planned north-south tram line at Cameron Toll. Stops on that line are also shown.

The map is described by the council as a “conceptual representation of what a future integrated multimodal network may look like for Edinburgh”.

It comes as the clearest indication yet of the city authority’s interest in incorporating the railway line into an expanded tram network.

More robust “tram-trains”, like those which have run in Sheffield and Cardiff for several years, would be needed because of the rail line’s higher speeds.

The line’s stations closed 64 years ago but it has since been used by freight trains and as a diversionary route.

The map shows the line, which branches off west of Haymarket, with stops at Gorgie East (for Hearts’ Tynecastle stadium), Craiglockhart (for Edinburgh Napier University’s campus), Morningside Road, Blackford Hill (for the University of Edinburgh’s King’s Buildings science campus), Newington, Cameron Toll, Duddingston & Craigmillar, Fort Kinnaird, Brunstane (Borders Railway interchange) and Portobello.

The map shows two options for the tram route to branch off the line onto streets in the east of Edinburgh.

One would involve a junction between Portobello and Meadowbank, with stops at Abbeyhill (for Hibs’ Easter Road stadium) and Hillside - probably on London Road - with the route joining the existing Edinburgh Airport-Newhaven tram line at Elm Row near the top of Leith Walk.

The other option could see trams switch from the south suburban line in Portobello to a little-used railway line serving the Port of Leith.

It could then branch off onto streets in the Seafield area and join up with the existing tram line at the north end of Constitution Street between The Shore and Port of Leith tram stops.

Simon Coulthard, head of light rail knowledge and development at Network Rail, wrote on the business networking site LinkedIn: “With the operational success of Edinburgh Tram, it makes absolute sense for tram-train to be considered as a means of reinstating passenger services on the south sub.”

City of Edinburgh Council transport convener Stephen Jenkinson said he was excited at taking a closer look at the railway line as a possible tram route.

He told the Rail in Scotland conference in Edinburgh, organised by Modern Railways magazine: “The north-south tram proposal is the priority at this stage that we’re working towards.

“The proposals for the south suburban railway have been discussed over many years.

“When the latest proposals were brought forward last year and we started looking into it in a little bit more detail, I saw it as a complementary measure to the north-south proposal.

“It’s not an either/or. It’s an additional element of the overall network.

“It’s the technological development of tram-train that makes it much more realistic - that we can have rolling stock rolling off between traditional railway lines and on-street.

“The technology has caught up with the ideas and it’s quite exciting to explore these things in more detail.”

Mr Jenkinson said the tram network should be expanded to meet the city’s growing demand for transport because they offered better reliability and capacity than buses, which were “exposed to congestion”, although buses were “flexible and remain essential”.

He said: “This is not an expansion for its own sake, it’s about network completion, connecting growth areas, strengthening interchanges and relieving pressure on some of the most congested streets.”

He said the trams, which have operated since 2014, were carrying more passengers than forecast and buses were close to capacity at peak times.

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Mr Jenkinson said Edinburgh Airport was handling record passenger numbers and Waverley Station would also soon become Scotland’s busiest.

The transport convener welcomed Shona Robison including a mass transit system for Edinburgh in the Scottish Budget two weeks ago.

He said: "I'm really pleased to see the Finance Secretary included it in the infrastructure delivery pipeline.

“This is a very welcome development and counters some of the negativity coming from the cabinet secretary for transport [Fiona Hyslop] who has suggested it might not be a priority for the Scottish Government.”

Ms Hyslop told MSPs in December that a proposed mass transit system for south east Scotland, known as Sestransit, was being developed by the South East Scotland Transport Partnership co-ordinating body (Sestran). She described the north-south tram line as a “standalone” project.

She said: “This project is an important recommendation from the [Scottish Government’s] second Strategic Transport Projects Review, potentially comprising a mix of tram and bus-based transit modes, including bus rapid transit.

“The Scottish Government has no plans to fund a standalone extension of Edinburgh’s tram network, which is a separate project being promoted by the City of Edinburgh Council.”

Sestran partnership director Brian Butler said it was working on the strategic business case for Sestransit which would be followed by a “case for investment”, but specific projects had yet to be included.

Rob Falcon, chair of campaigners Tram Trains for Edinburgh, said: the map “shows ambition in providing a more extensive tram network across the city, the only effective way to reduce congestion over the long term.

“Cameron Toll would become a key transport hub which could be enabled by the redevelopment of the retail centre there.

“Given the existence of rail infrastructure for almost all of the route, we believe the scheme could be delivered more cheaply than similar light rail projects in the UK, and with much less disruption than new routes.

“In a recent meeting with Network Rail they indicated that there were no obstacles to using the rail route in this way.”

Catherine Hall, strategy and investment director at Network Rail Scotland, said of the line: “We're always open to conversations about how it might play a role in the city's future transport mix, providing strategic and technical guidance to help inform discussions."

Scottish Conservatives transport spokesperson Sue Webber said: “A north–south tram on any route would come with an eye-watering cost - currently £2.9 billion and rising.

“I’ve long supported the revival of the south suburban railway. With public transport provision still deeply unequal across Scotland, the SNP Government should fix that first, rather than spend billions on another Edinburgh tram project.”

Transport Scotland said Sestransit “would complement and integrate with the region’s bus, tram and rail networks, to provide improved connectivity between Edinburgh and the surrounding region”.

The Scottish Government agency said it was “supporting Sestran with the development of the governance arrangements with all the local authorities for the region, alongside early conceptual business case scoping”.