On 2016-03-04 11:23:06 +0000, Ian Cunningham said:

We also seem to have bought the slowest trams on the planet. Compared
with trams I've experienced in Vienna, Prague, Darmstadt, Croydon and
Nottingham they tippy-toe through the city centre. This, combined with
their length (significanltly longer than say Croydon) means they can
cause a noticeable blocking and delay at junctions (although the
popular perception and reporting of this is wildly exaggerated)

They aren't exceptionally well designed vehicles at all, in my view -
the very short sections mean few sensibly arranged seats. But that's
slightly by the by, as vehicles can be replaced or have the seating
layout changed. But the very short sections with huge amounts of
length wasted on articulations seems to be a current tram fad. Not a
sensible one in my eyes.

As for speed, the junction priorities are poorly designed; it seems
they are always given their own phase, which is mostly completely
unnecessary. And pedestrians don't get a green during that phase
either even though on two of the crossings there is no conflict.

But that doesn't say "trams are bad", that says "Edinburgh has
implemented trams incompetently". It can be fixed, and the other UK
"new-generation" tram systems seem popular and effective, by and large.

Edinburgh's city centre road layout doesn't lend itself well to NOT
running almost everything along Princes Street or George Street.
The key routes into the city centre all converge at opposite ends of
the New Town. There are not many East-West and North-South through
routes.
You could run more buses on George Street but I think you'd end up with
2 streets full of buses with poor interchange

I did actually think it was more pleasant when everything ran on George
St, not that it was perfect. (I have spent two several-month chunks of
time working in Edinburgh, once very recently and one when the debacle
was first starting out). On the other hand, the main problem is not so
much the presence of the buses, it's more the continuous noise and
diesel fumes. Once all the buses can be electric, which will be viable
in maybe 5-10 years, they won't be any more or less pleasant than
trams. Which may actually count against further tram expansion.

Neil
--
Neil Williams
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