The Edinburgh Airport Rail Link (EARL) would have involved building a tunnel under the main airport runway to bring trains to a station located underneath the terminal building. It was approved by the Scottish Parliament and scheduled to open in 2011.  New sections of rail would be built to existing lines to allow regular trains from Glasgow, Fife and the north to call at the station. About £30m was spent on the scheme before MSPs agreed to scrap the scheme in 2007 - at the same time as they agreed to continue with the tram project.The Edinburgh Airport Rail Link (EARL) would have involved building a tunnel under the main airport runway to bring trains to a station located underneath the terminal building. It was approved by the Scottish Parliament and scheduled to open in 2011.  New sections of rail would be built to existing lines to allow regular trains from Glasgow, Fife and the north to call at the station. About £30m was spent on the scheme before MSPs agreed to scrap the scheme in 2007 - at the same time as they agreed to continue with the tram project.
The Edinburgh Airport Rail Link (EARL) would have involved building a tunnel under the main airport runway to bring trains to a station located underneath the terminal building. It was approved by the Scottish Parliament and scheduled to open in 2011. New sections of rail would be built to existing lines to allow regular trains from Glasgow, Fife and the north to call at the station. About £30m was spent on the scheme before MSPs agreed to scrap the scheme in 2007 - at the same time as they agreed to continue with the tram project.

13 Edinburgh transport projects which never made it, including Princes Street motorway and bulldozing airport

Trains, planes and automobiles – as well as buses, trams, subways and hovercraft – all featured in ambitious plans for Edinburgh which never quite became a reality

Transport projects – whether it's trams, pedestrianisation or low emission zones – are almost always controversial.

But take a look at these ones which were abandoned before they were implemented. You might think some, like the hovercraft perhaps, were good ideas. Others now seem bizarre, not least the mind-blowing 1949 Abercombie plan, which would have demolished swathes of the city centre to build an inner ring road.

They offer a fascinating insight into the priorities of the past – sometimes the quite recent past – and how much thinking has changed.

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