If only we had more trams... - John McLellan

No surprise that some dog walkers and cyclists have taken to social media in outrage at the plan to run the Granton tram line along the Roseburn pathway, the old railway trackbed identified as the preferred route for over 20 years.

Some dog walkers and cyclists have taken to social media in outrage at the plan to run the Granton tram line along the Roseburn pathway

With the alternative of digging up Queensferry Street, working out how to stop the Georgian Dean Bridge from collapsing into the Water of Leith and wondering if a tram will be able to climb Orchard Brae when it’s covered with damp leaves in autumn, the transport experts have concluded that a flat, disused railway might be a tad less challenging.

There seem to be no lengths to which the council won’t go to spend public money on proving the bleeding obvious, but the report to today’s transport committee shows the Roseburn plan is not without its problems. Cycling will be “discouraged” on what is currently a popular route, which I use regularly, and hundreds of trees will have to be cut down so loss of habitat will be considerable. No wonder some people are dismayed.

The solution is not to spend millions more on a costly alternative tram extension, but to leave things as they are. But with the bit firmly clamped in the council administration’s teeth, that’s unlikely to happen. With all the talk of government cuts, tax rises, over-capacity schools, unbuilt hospitals and pot-holed roads, I wonder how many people go to bed thinking that things would be so much better if only we had more trams.