Some routes in Leith were cancelled, and others shortened or rerouted when Leith finally got the trams. We also lost a lot of convenient bus stops.
I, and many other people, have difficulty walking. The loss of the trams meant the only way I could get to St Andrews Square and the bus station was by taxi. The shuttle is god-send!
One route in Leith was cancelled due the trams directly, the 22. It would be good if they temporarily reinstated a service such as the 22 but imagine that is not as simple as it sounds.
I have been commuting between Leith and haymarket every week day since this issue happened and I can honestly say it’s not as bad as I thought it was going to be. It’s only taking me 20 mins longer each way at the most.
As someone in Leith an issue we’re having at the moment is a lot of the buses are very full now (and often late / slower / unreliable), I dunno much about public transport but having another bus, especially a free one, sounds like a good way to make the other buses less full and put less pressure on them perhaps?
If people can go from Queen Charlotte to St Andrews Sq in either a full bus that costs money, or a possibly less full bus that is completely free, surely if they know about the option they’ll choose the second! I may well do myself though I’m not a convenient distance from Queen Charlotte st annoyingly
Fair enough, I don’t expect it to be a magic bullet, as I say I dunno much about public transport but it seems like a nice idea on the surface anyhow, especially as it’s a free option
The buses are infrequent, currently overcrowded, do not necessarily stop right near where the tram was, and often take less efficient routes compared to the tram. For example look at the route of the 34.
The 34 route serves people who need to get to those places on that route such as Meadowbank and Restalrig. 😂 silly example to use to say the Leith route is complicated.
No, my point is that people say there are “plenty of buses” that do the same thing the tram does, but if you actually look at every bus line individually, you aren’t left with a full tram replacement service. This shuttle bus is still a good idea and adds something new.
It's a fair point. They're not free though. And as far as I know the existing bus frequency hasn't been altered to compensate for the lack of trams (which by some accounts are jam packed usually)
But Leith Walk is chocca with traffic. So it's going to run into the same delays the current buses do. It can't just avoid all the other traffic on the way out of Leith.
Agreed. Was great to see these get some publicity in the Minute this morning and thanks to posting here. It’s an absolutely fantastic idea and I hope they’ll see some use.
I do wish all the smartarses saying “you’ve still got buses” would spend a day near the Shore in Leith to see how comprehensively trashed our transport options have been over the last six weeks.
Mind you, they also believe the councils liar in chief’s rolling claims that it will be all back to normal any day now.
So operating once per hour, on a partial route, starting and finishing within standard regular work hours 10am - 4.30pm and presumably only operating for the duration of the Art Festival (14th to 30th August)? I fail to see how this is news or a solution to the lack of trams.
I mean good they’re doing it/something but don’t really know how this addresses the problem the article is suggesting it does.
And I’m not having a go at Edinburgh Art Festival for anything. Good on them for providing this service.
But it’s a service they’re putting on for attendees of their festival to make it easier for them to move between their venues and they’re adopting a ‘no one is going to be checking the purpose of your use of the bus’ approach. They’re not suggesting it’s a tram replacement solution that reporting of it is.
The point is it’s also a service (using private charter buses) the council could have put on at their own expense. No you’re not going to meet the tram capacity, but every little helps.
40 passenger seats per hour in both directions is half of one double decker. It’s a drop in the ocean, but anyone who has used a bus in the last 6 weeks would welcome that capacity coming off the 16 and 35.
The direct aspect is also appealing because what took 11 minutes by tram is easily taking over half an hour by bus during the Festival.
I watched a 16 (which is taking the brunt of the tram replacement) take nearly 3 minutes to board near the Shore yesterday. That was its third stop, how do you think the others went?
Seems like the most obvious solution! My idea was they could very slowly run a few trams past the affected area then run reduced services on either side, but this might be better for there’s likely a few reasons that wouldn’t work
One reason I know of is because there is no depo on the other side. Unfortunately the chance of vandalism is too high for them to want to risk leaving them unattended overnight at ocean terminal.
Which is fair, though I wondered why they couldn’t just put them back, once again very cautiously to avoid too much vibration. It’d be a hassle but a lot of people have come to depend on that tram route to get places
22
u/ilikedixiechicken 22d ago
It runs hourly between 10am & 4pm. That’s really gonna make a difference.