A LARGELY disused rail line in Edinburgh could see a new lease of life as transport chiefs have commissioned a "high-level feasibility study" for the project.
Campaign group Tram Trains for Edinburgh (TTfE) has been researching the prospect of running "tram-trains" on the South Suburban line for a year, with the news of a feasibility study coming around its anniversary.
Tram-trains are a common sight in various European cities, including Paris, Rome and Saarbrucken. Their design allows them to use on-road tracks like normal trams while also moving onto railways, allowing more flexibility in routes, particularly useful in Edinburgh where both rail and tram infrastructure already exists.
If plans are deemed to be feasible, a business case will then be produced for the construction of the network, with current proposals including 12 stops between Gorgie and Portobello.
This would allow passengers in the west of the city, in areas like Corstorphine and Craiglockhart, to bypass the heavily congested tram and bus network in the city centre to reach Portobello.
Future extensions would then see the route extended to connect with the existing tram network in Leith, creating a southern and eastern loop around Edinburgh.
The campaign behind the tram-train proposal hope to see a "closing" of a full loop that bypasses central Edinburgh, facilitated by the proposed north-south tram extension that would connect the South Suburban line and the western end of the existing tram line to Granton.
TTFE chair Rob Falcon said: “This month TTfE passes its first anniversary campaigning to return public transport to the South Sub – although of course many other groups have argued for this over the decades.
“The ‘game changer’ is the use of tram-trains that can run onto the existing tram line and into the city centre – avoiding the Waverley bottleneck; and with much of the infrastructure already in place, we believe this is a hugely practical project.”
Transport Scotland confirmed the feasibility study on Monday, posting on X that it is working with Network Rail Scotland "to carry out a high‑level feasibility study for the potential use of tram-trains on the South Suburban line in Edinburgh.
“The study will identify practical challenges and opportunities of reintroducing passenger services.”
Falcon added: "We welcome this great news for TTfE, as will all our members, supporters and thousands of people across Edinburgh - and indeed many of our political representatives - who have called for the project. Thanks to Transport Scotland.”
The Scottish Government previously pledged to support the project with funding for a feasibility study, following a pledge in the SNP's 2026 manifesto.
The train line closed to passengers in 1962, but several stations have survived, and while they would require renovations Falcon believes it is a "shovel ready project".
Existing stations at Craiglockhart, Morningside, Blackford Hill, Newington, Craigmillar, and Brunstane would be brought back into service, while new stops would be built at Gorgie, Cameron Toll, Bingham/Niddrie, Fort Kinnaird and Portobello.
TTfE campaigner Marion Craig previously told The Herald: “As other people ... have been saying, it's a no-brainer. The infrastructure is largely there, so let's put some trams on the line.”
However, concerns were raised in a previous review of the route published in 2022, which stated "heavy rail services” should be reinstated on the South Sub line due to a lack of capacity at Haymarket and Waverley stations.
However, TTfE hopes that the capacity to use the tram-trains on the existing city-centre tram tracks can alleviate this.
Jonathan Pugh, Network Rail's former strategy and planning director for Scotland, told The Herald last November that the case for tram-trains was "much stronger than ever before".
He remarked: "Tram-trains reduce the big objection that the railway used to have to this, which is that all you were doing was going to be putting people on quite a long, infrequent journey round the sub to get into the centre.
“There are questions that would need to be answered. For example, about what you do with freight trains and heavy rail trains that are diverted via the sub. So it's not quite 100% that this is the solution, but certainly a very good way of moving forward."
