Edinburgh North-South tramline: 'Granton no more' for now, but could it still happen in future?
‘Granton was seen as a vital part of the tram network to ensure adequate public transport links for the thousands of new homes being built there’
It looks like a case of "Granton no more" as far as Edinburgh's new tramline is concerned - at least for the the time being.
The proposed North-South line is now set to become a City Centre-South line instead because there is not enough support on the council to approve the proposals for running trams all the way from Granton to the Royal Infirmary and beyond, mainly because of the strong opposition to taking over the popular Roseburn Path walking and cycling route.
Politics is the art of the possible, so the council's minority Labour administration is expected to settle for pressing ahead with the southern section of the line for now - though that is still dependent on securing the money to make it happen.
Some may detect an echo of Edinburgh's original tram project, which was intended to be a line from Newhaven to the airport before the Leith half was abandoned amid soaring costs.
The reason is different this time - and at least roads have not been dug up and residents and businesses put through disruption and misery for nothing.
Leith, however, always seemed the area where the tram would be best used - its population density was calculated at 73.3 people per hectare compared with the city average of 18.1. And the Leith part of the line was duly built as an extension from the city centre to Newhaven and opened in 2023, nine years after the line to the airport.
Similarly, Granton was seen as a vital part of the tram network to ensure adequate public transport links for the thousands of new homes being built there. The scale of the housing is no longer as massive as once expected, but it is still substantial.
Granton did feature in the city's original tram plans, served by a spur from Haymarket described as phase 1b, but that was cancelled at an early stage.
However, if the new tramline now goes ahead without the northern section, could an extension from the city centre to Granton still be built at a later stage, just like the one to Leith?