Edinburgh Holyrood elections 2026: SNP manifesto promises feasibility study on South Sub railway and says Roseburn Path should not be used for trams
SNP takes national line on Edinburgh’s South Sub and Roseburn Path tram plan
The SNP has pledged to commission a full feasibility study on bringing Edinburgh's South Suburban railway line back into use with tram-trains if it is returned to power at Holyrood.
And the party's election manifesto, launched in Glasgow on Thursday, also declared opposition to the Roseburn Path being used for the city's new North-South tramline.
Reopening the South Sub - which closed for regular passenger services in 1962 - has been talked about for decades. But a study last year by civil engineering students at Heriot-Watt reignited interest in the idea by putting forward a plan to use tram-trains on the line and linking it to the new North-South tramline.
And a new campaign group, Tram Trains for Edinburgh, formed on the back of the study, has said the plan to use tram trains makes the idea of bringing the South Sub back into operation more practical than ever before.
The SNP manifesto says: "Tram-trains have been established in a number of European cities, and most recently in Cardiff. We will commission a full feasibility study for the use of Tram-Trains on the South Suburban line in Edinburgh and support the next stages of the feasibility work of the Clyde Metro proposals, to determine if they are an efficient investment of public money to improves the public transport offering in our two biggest cities and help foster economic growth."
Kate Campbell, SNP candidate for Edinburgh Eastern, Musselburgh & Tranent - which encompasses a large part of the South Sub's route - hailed the party’s pledge.
She said: “People in Niddrie, Craigmillar and Portobello will welcome this exciting commitment by the SNP to look at the reopening of the South Sub for passenger tram-trains. Potentially linking in with an extended tram leg to the South, tram-trains could transform the way people are able to move about in the East of our city. This shows that a vote for the SNP on 7th May gets you a Scottish Government that makes life better for ordinary people.”
The proposed use of the Roseburn Path for Edinburgh's new North-South tramline has been fiercely opposed by campaigners eager to preserve a well-used walking and cycling route and "green oasis".
The SNP group on Edinburgh council announced last week it would back plans for the new line between Granton and the Royal Infirmary, but said it did not support either of the options for the northern part of the line - Roseburn Path or Orchard Brae - and called for work to begin on the southern section while a new northern route was sought.
The city's Labour transport convener Stephen Jenkinson branded the SNP's stance "reckless and premature" and accused them of putting the whole project at risk.
But now the local SNP's opposition to the Roseburn Path has received national backing in the party's manifesto, though the document stops short of backing the tramline, which the Scottish Government has said there is no money for.
The manifesto says: "We support efforts in Edinburgh to retain the Roseburn corridor as a route for pedestrians and cyclists and believe that any tram proposals brought forward and funded by the city council should use an alternative route.”
And it adds: "We will also support efforts to bring the former Powderhall railway line into use as a new walking and cycling route in the Capital."
At the last Scottish Parliament elections in 2021, there was surprise when the SNP manifesto included support for the creation of a Gaelic secondary school in the Capital, specifying it should be "stand-alone" and "in central Edinburgh".
The council's preferred option at the time was for a Gaelic secondary school as part of a joint campus with the new Liberton High School.
The council was unable to identify a central site for the school, no new Gaelic secondary school has been built and the project is not mentioned in the 2026 manifesto.
But the manifesto does say: "The expansion of Gaelic Medium Education (GME) has helped bring Gaelic to new generations. We will support the further expansion of dedicated Gaelic Medium schools and units, including encouraging Edinburgh to take forward a second GME primary school."