Edinburgh Trams

Edinburgh Trams
A tram on Princes Street in May 2014
Overview
Owner	Transport for Edinburgh
Locale	Edinburgh
Transit type	Light rail/Tram
Number of lines	1
Number of stations	23
Annual ridership	10.1 million (2024)[1]
Headquarters	1 Myreton Drive Edinburgh EH12 9GF
Website	edinburghtrams.com
Operation
Began operation	31 May 2014 (2014-05-31)
Operator(s)	Edinburgh Trams Ltd.
Number of vehicles	27 CAF Urbos 3
Train length	42.8 m (140 ft 5 in)
Headway	7–10 minutes
Technical
System length	18.5 km (11.5 mi)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Electrification	Overhead line, 750 V DC
Top speed	70 km/h (43 mph)
Route map Legend 0.0 Newhaven 0.7 Ocean Terminal 1.6 Port of Leith 2.0 Shore 2.5 Foot of the Walk 3.1 Balfour Street 3.8 McDonald Road 4.7 Picardy Place 5.4 St Andrew Sq ( Waverley) 6.0 Princes Street 7.0 West End 7.5 Haymarket 8.8 Murrayfield Stadium 9.8 Balgreen West Coast Main Line 11.4 Saughton 12.7 Bankhead 13.5 Edinburgh Park Edinburgh–Dunblane and North Clyde lines 14.4 Edinburgh Park Central 15.2 Gyle Centre 15.6 Edinburgh Gateway Fife Circle Line 15.8 Gogar tram depot 16.3 Gogarburn 17.9 Ingliston 18.5 Edinburgh Airport (special fares apply) km This diagram: view talk edit

Edinburgh Trams is a tramway in Edinburgh, Scotland, operated by Edinburgh Trams Ltd. It is an 18.5-kilometre (11.5 mi) line between Newhaven and Edinburgh Airport, with 23 stops.^[2][3][4]

A modern tram network for Edinburgh was proposed by Edinburgh Council in 1999, with detailed design work being performed over the next decade. Construction of the first phase, linking Edinburgh Airport with Newhaven, began in June 2008, but encountered substantial delays and cost overruns. During 2009, a 15-year contract held by Transdev to operate and maintain the tram network was cancelled. By mid 2010, cancellation of the whole project was being publicly considered; during the following year it was announced that the length of the tram network would be drastically curtailed. Prior to August 2011, the project was overseen by Transport Initiatives Edinburgh (TIE), a company wholly owned by Edinburgh Council; TIE was disbanded largely due to its failings on the project's delivery. The troubled construction of the Edinburgh Tram was subject to a lengthy formal inquiry, chaired by Lord Hardie, which concluded that failings by Edinburgh Council and its arms-length companies were largely to blame for the delays in construction.

On 31 May 2014, the tramway was officially opened to the public, but only between the airport and York Place. The service is operated by Edinburgh Trams Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Transport for Edinburgh, in which the City of Edinburgh Council has a controlling interest. The service is equipped with 27 CAF Urbos vehicles. It runs at a seven-minute interval for most of the day, seven days per week. Fares and ticketing are integrated with Lothian Buses, with the same fares charged on both systems, except for services to the airport where the tram is more expensive.

Since the original opening of the tramway, various changes have been implemented. During December 2016, the Edinburgh Gateway tram stop, between Gyle Centre and Gogarburn, was opened to provide an interchange between Edinburgh Trams and the Fife Circle Line and Edinburgh to Aberdeen Lines. Following the council's approval for an extension of the line to Newhaven in March 2019, construction work commenced in November of that year, and was completed on schedule in June 2023, despite being delayed for three months by the coronavirus pandemic. As of 2024, an additional extension serving the north–south axis of the city was in the planning stage.