‘Sense has helped solve the problem’

Not the trams, but another transport battle which has seen tempers rise on the city’s streets time and again – the long-running dispute between mums with certain types of prams and Lothian Buses.

The row has become so heated that anyone could be forgiven for forgetting how it all started.

The basic problem boils down to a case of two into one doesn’t go.

Mums with their babies in prams and wheelchair users both naturally want to travel on the city’s buses, but sometimes there is only space for one or the other on any particular bus.

Lothian Buses adopted its ban on prams that can’t fold in order to fulfil its legal – and moral – obligation to accommodate wheelchair users.

The Evening News was one of the policy’s fiercest critics, believing the inflexible rule to be the proverbial hammer to crack a nut.

It is to the great credit of Ian Craig and his team at Lothian Buses that they have chosen to revisit the problem and, ultimately, come up with an eminently sensible solution.

Now it is all systems go when it comes to baby travel systems. The ban on mums with unfoldable prams has been lifted and everyone can jump on a Lothian Bus. New through tickets mean they can hop on and off buses if they need to give up their space for a wheelchair-bound passenger.

But don’t forget it is the massive investment that the bus firm has made in new vehicles with space for both buggies and wheelchairs in recent years that has made this possible.

Without the confidence that most city buses would have space for a mum with a pram, there was a big risk many would have caught a bus into the city centre then found themselves stranded trying to get home.

Common sense and sustained investment has solved the problem. Now, if only the trams were so simple.

On the ball

Former Hearts midfielder Colin Cameron has suggested that a Hearts-Hibs Scottish Cup final would be bigger than an Old Firm final. He is surely right. After all, the last time Edinburgh’s two big teams met in the cup final was in 1896. Old Firm finals are regular occurrences.

So it is surely fitting that the venue of the historic 1896 match – Logie Green – be marked in some way.

A plaque on the site would be both a fond and bitter indication of how rarely our top teams clash in the decisive round of our national cup.

Of course, this weekend could change all that.

The calls to remember 1896 are a reminder of just how special an occasion an Edinburgh final would be. Good luck to both Capital teams.