TRAM journeys in Edinburgh have been extended due to a new service rollout with some trips taking nearly 10 minutes longer than when the service was originally proposed 20 years ago.
More peak services were added by Edinburgh Trams on Sunday as it updated its timetable in a bid to “improve reliability”.
However, a transport campaigner said some journeys will now take almost 10 minutes longer than initially planned because trams are not given priority at junctions.
Some of the journey times which have increased in the capital city include trips between Haymarket and Picardy Place from 12 to 13 minutes, the Leith Walk line increasing from seven to nine minutes, and the journey between Ocean Terminal and Newhaven from three to four minutes.
Former planning consultant Robert Drysdale told The Scotsman the lack of priority for trams at traffic lights was a particular problem leading to longer journey times.
He said: “With traffic signals still causing delays along the route, it’s not surprising that Edinburgh Trams has had to add four minutes to the run time from Haymarket to Newhaven, now up to 33 minutes, which is nearly 10 minutes slower than the estimated timings given when the tram proposals were first revealed more than 20 years ago.”
He told the newspaper that the estimated journey times proposed when the planned tram line was going through the Scottish Parliament in 2005 was 23.5 minutes.
He said: “It means the tram is no faster than the bus down Leith Walk, averaging only 7.5mph - hardly the rapid transit that Edinburgh needs so badly.”
Drysdale highlighted the need for trams to run on separate lanes on street sections of the planned north-south tram line between Granton and the Edinburgh BioQuarter.
“It’s now obvious that, if trams have to run on-street, they need their own dedicated tram-only lane along most of the route, and absolute priority at junctions, neither of which the Newhaven trams have,” he said.
“It also raises yet more doubts about the idea of taking the Granton tram extension on-street from Crewe Toll to the city centre, as there’s no room for tram-only lanes, and the narrow 200-year-old Dean Bridge will be a huge capacity constraint on efficient tram operation and traffic flows.
“If the Granton tram isn’t allowed to use the already-approved fast, off-road route through Craigleith [along the Roseburn path], at much lower cost, we should just make do with the existing frequent bus service.”
Construction on the Edinburgh tramway began in 2008 and officially opened in 2014 with the original 8.5-mile stretch of tramline between Edinburgh Airport and Newhaven costing around £770 million.
An Edinburgh Trams spokesperson said the travel times on some routes will take slightly longer but commuters will have a short wait time at stops due to the addition of extra services.
They said: “Although it will take a few minutes longer to travel from one end of the system to the other, the timetable adjustment has enabled us to introduce extra services at peak times while further improving reliability, comfort and convenience for customers.
“At other times, services will still run from every seven minutes, so customers will not have to wait longer at stops.
“These changes to the timetable are the first since the launch of services to Newhaven and have been introduced in response to feedback from customers, employees and other stakeholders as well as current traffic conditions along the new route.”
