Background Edinburgh and Leith were originally served by horse-drawn coaches, and then from 1871 various companies and corporations ran trams that were horse-drawn, then cable driven and finally electric. The municipal
Edinburgh Corporation Tramways ran from 1919 until 16 November 1956. After that date, public transport consisted of buses and a limited network of commuter rail lines. Towards the end of the 20th century, there was
revived interest in trams in the United Kingdom and networks were reintroduced in
Birmingham,
Croydon,
Manchester,
Nottingham and
Sheffield. Proposals for a network in Edinburgh were made in the 1990s, and a plan to build a line along
Princes Street and
Leith Walk to
Newhaven was proposed in 1999 by the City of Edinburgh Council,
Lothian and Edinburgh Enterprise and the New Edinburgh Tramways Company.
Initial proposals and agreement A 2001 proposal envisaged three routes, lines 1, 2 and 3. The first was a circular route around the northern suburbs, and the others were radial routes to Newbridge in the west and
Newcraighall in the south. All lines would have passed through the city centre. In May 2004, a 15-year operating contract was awarded to
Transdev, to operate and maintain the tram network. This contract was cancelled in 2009. Two
bills to reintroduce a tram network were passed by the
Scottish Parliament in March 2006. Lines 1 and 2 received permission in the '
(asp 7) and the ' (asp 6) respectively, but funding the entire network was deemed impossible. Line 3, to be paid for by a proposed
Edinburgh congestion charge, was scrapped when the charge was heavily defeated in a referendum and construction of the remaining two lines was split into four phases: •
Phase 1a from Newhaven to
Edinburgh Airport via
Princes Street, combining parts of lines 1 and 2 •
Phase 1b from
Haymarket to
Granton Square via
Crewe Toll, comprising most of the remainder of line 1 •
Phase 2 linking Granton Square and Newhaven, completing the line 1 loop •
Phase 3 extending the airport line to
Newbridge, completing line 2 The future of the scheme came under threat in 2007, when the
Scottish National Party (SNP) published its
manifesto for the
Scottish Parliamentary election. The party made clear its intention to cancel the scheme, along with the
Edinburgh Airport Rail Link, to save £1.1 billion. The cost of the scheme in 2003 was estimated at £498million, £375million in funding from the Scottish Government and £45million from Edinburgh Council. On 25 October 2007, the council approved the final business case. Approval was given on 22 December 2007 for TIE to sign contracts with
CAF to supply vehicles and BBS (a consortium of
Bilfinger Berger and
Siemens) to design and construct the network. Contract negotiations finished in April 2008, and construction started in June 2008. By this stage the cost of the project was estimated at £521million. Funding problems and political disputes led to the scaling back of the original plans. In April 2009, the council cancelled phase 1b, citing revenue shortfall created by the
Great Recession to save an estimated £75million. The Granton extension was also cancelled for the same purpose. After the draft business case was accepted by the Scottish Government in March 2007, initial construction work commenced in July 2007, with the diversion of
underground utilities in preparation for track-laying in Leith. These works followed a plan by System Design Services (SDS), a joint design team led by
Parsons Brinckerhoff and
Halcrow Group. In May 2008, final contracts to build the tram system were awarded to BSC, a
consortium of
Bilfinger Berger,
Siemens and Spanish tram builder
Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF). The tramway uses a mix of
street running and segregated off-road track, with conventional tram stop platforms. Stops are fitted with shelters, ticket machines, lighting and
CCTV. The network is operated from a depot in
Gogar, close to the
A8 roundabout, immediately west of
Edinburgh Gateway tram stop. The route of the line required the construction of bridges to cross railway lines at
Edinburgh Park and
Stenhouse, and a tunnel under the A8 near the Gogar roundabout. A bridge at Balgreen was widened. Works to build a tram interchange at Haymarket station involved the demolition of a
Category C(S) listed building, the former Caledonian Alehouse on Haymarket Terrace. Some on-street track was laid in a special foundation with cobbled road surfacing designed to be sympathetic with the style of Edinburgh streets but was removed in many places due to objections from cyclists. The trams are powered by overhead cables attached to purpose-built poles or mounted on the sides of buildings. Nine electrical sub-stations were planned for the line to Newhaven, both underground and above-ground but only five were built after the line was truncated at York Place.
Revisions and delays In 2008 and 2009, the project met with delays to work on tramway infrastructure. Phase 1b of the project was cancelled because of a funding shortfall in April 2009. The operating contract with Transdev was cancelled in December 2009 to reduce costs and it was announced that the trams would be operated by Edinburgh Trams Limited, a subsidiary of Transport for Edinburgh. During March 2010, Bilfinger Berger announced that the estimated completion date would be in 2014.
Contractual disputes In February 2009, work on the
Princes Street section stopped due to contractual disagreements between TIE and BSC after the latter submitted a request for an additional £80million of funding. Edinburgh Council believed the contractors' claims were unjustified as they had agreed to fixed-price contracts. After negotiations, BSC agreed to commence construction in March 2009 within the original budget, although disagreements remained. Work restarted and line construction went ahead. In August 2009, TIE began legal proceedings against the BSC consortium over delays to the project, and track-laying on Leith Walk, Shandwick Place and Haymarket was suspended. At issue were alleged changes to BSC's work specification, including track works on Princes Street and £5million additional costs for foundation work near
Murrayfield Stadium. The BSC consortium alleged that TIE had not diverted the underground utilities in time for track-laying to begin, breaching contractual agreements and costing the consortium additional staffing expenditure. In January 2010, the independent arbiter found in favour of TIE on some points, but on most of the disputed issues ruled in favour of BSC and awarded the consortium 90% of its additional costs, estimated to be up to £80million. Delays in track laying and depot construction affected vehicle testing. By September 2009, construction was reported to be nine months behind schedule, and CAF was due to deliver the first trams from its factory in Spain. With key
project dependency out of synchronisation, TIE held discussions with
Transport for London about delivering the trams to
Croydon to conduct operational tests on the
Tramlink network. Tram vehicle testing commenced in March 2010 on the
Siemens test track in
Wildenrath, Germany. The tests included recreating the steep gradients of Leith Walk, and using weights to simulate the heavy passenger load expected during a
Murrayfield match day.
Funding crisis Following further disputes and delays, it was reported in March 2010 that Edinburgh Council was considering cancelling the contract with Bilfinger Berger. By June 2010, the project's cost had risen to £600million. Council project managers were reported to be in crisis talks, considering options including: borrowing £55million to fund the increased costs; phasing the introduction of the tram line, so that trams would initially run between the airport and Haymarket; and terminating the contract with Bilfinger Berger. The council asked TIE to draw up costs for truncating the line at four places:
Haymarket station, York Place, the foot of
Leith Walk or
Ocean Terminal. Work resumed in May 2011 at priority locations, Haymarket Yards and Gogar, while the project's future was decided by the council. In August 2011 it was announced TIE would be disbanded and consultants
Turner & Townsend would manage the project. On 30 June 2011, Edinburgh Council voted to continue the line between Edinburgh Airport and St Andrew Square. Costs rose to an estimated £770million, leaving the council with a shortfall of more than £200million. The option to scrap the project was considered, but rejected. On 25 August 2011, the council voted to cut the line to run between the airport and
Haymarket, reducing the expected cost to £715million. A week later, after the Scottish Government threatened to withhold £72million of funding, the council reversed its decision, restoring the terminus at
St Andrew Square. The first electric wires were energised in October 2011 within the depot at Gogar. Testing trams began in December 2011 near the depot at Gogar, on a length of track. On 15 December 2011, the contractors handed the depot to the City of Edinburgh Council. The first completed section of line, between the depot and Edinburgh Airport, was used to test a tram at full speed on 19 December 2012. With extra interest payments factored in, the cost of the line was expected to exceed £1billion despite the decreased scope of the network. Cycling groups voiced safety concerns after people were injured as their bicycle wheels became caught in the track. They reported the road surface around the tracks was crumbling, raising further safety problems. In response, TiE promised to carry out repairs and Edinburgh Trams agreed to fund special training for cyclists. During 2017, a woman was crushed to death by a passing bus when her bicycle wheel was caught in the tracks. Further safety concerns were raised by residents along the routes about the suspension of overhead electric cables from residential buildings, and some property owners refused permission for cables to be attached. A road closure between Haymarket and Shandwick Place in March 2012 led to complaints from businesses and residents. It remained closed until October 2013. Originally to open as
Shandwick Place tram stop, it was renamed
West End - Princes Street prior to opening at the request of local traders, who felt the new name had greater associations to the city centre and would encourage more tourists to get off there. The stop was renamed again in August 2019 as
West End.
Completion: 2013–2014 From late 2012, work continued mostly on schedule. More than of flawed concrete trackbed had to be replaced between Shandwick Place and Haymarket. In June 2013, overhead electric wires were installed on the city centre portion of the route. This was considered the last major step in the construction process. Originally, it was planned that concessionary travel, that is the ability of those with a
Scottish National Entitlement Card to travel on public transport free of charge, was not going to be offered on the tramway. This was despite the fact that Edinburgh Trams is to be run by Lothian Buses, who are mandated to offer free travel to those with concession cards on all their bus routes. This revelation quickly caused city leaders to support an
Edinburgh Evening News campaign to ensure that concessionary travel would be offered on the new tramway. City transport convener
Lesley Hinds stated "People in Edinburgh have paid through their council tax and their taxes for the trams to get up and running and it would be wrong for a large proportion of the population not to be allowed to use their concessionary bus pass". It was revealed on 15 August 2013 that the cards would be valid, and that travel would be paid for by Edinburgh Council. However, only people with cards issued in Edinburgh would be able to use them. This compromise upset many people in
the Lothians, who often commute or travel into Edinburgh. Works were two months ahead of schedule by September 2013, when Edinburgh Council announced the tramway would open by May 2014. All tram and road works were completed by 19 October with testing of the trams between the depot and Edinburgh Park commencing on 8 October 2013. This was followed by the energising of tram wires from Bankhead tram stop to York Place on 19 November, marking the first time that the route was completely energised. Testing along the full length of the route began on 5 December. The tramway opened to passengers on 31 May 2014.
Public inquiry In June 2014, shortly after the opening of the line, the then
First Minister Alex Salmond announced a non-statutory public inquiry into the project's delays and cost overruns. The inquiry, which was headed by the former Lord Advocate,
Andrew Hardie, Baron Hardie, was later upgraded to a statutory inquiry to ensure that key personnel would provide evidence. The inquiry was itself subject to considerable delays. It finally published its report in August 2023. The report concluded that failings by Edinburgh Council, TIE, and the Scottish Government were to blame for the delays, with much of the criticism being directed against TIE. Lord Hardie made 24 recommendations in the report, and also provided a figure of £835.7m for the final cost of the project.
Extension from city centre to Newhaven in 2021 Edinburgh Council stated on 17 March 2014 that works would be conducted along Leith Walk to prepare it for a possible future extension of tram service. In December 2014, Edinburgh Council ordered a detailed business case for extending the line to Leith. The council said in July 2015 that three options for an extension to Leith had been costed. These were a £144.7million extension to Newhaven, a £126.6million extension to
Ocean Terminal, or a £78.7million extension to the Foot of
Leith Walk. During 2017, the business case to extend the system to Newhaven was approved. In March 2019, Edinburgh Council approved extending the system from York Place to
Newhaven, with the line due to be operational by early 2023. Preliminary works to Constitution Street and Leith Walk started in November 2019. Work was suspended in March 2020 due to the
coronavirus pandemic but was restarted in June 2020. In February 2022, the eastern terminating York Place stop was permanently closed for demolition and to enable connection to the Newhaven extension which relocated the York Place stop to Picardy Place. Services initially terminated at the West End stop between February and April 2022, and then the St Andrew Square stop before June 2023; however, trams still ran to York Place to turn back. On 13 March 2023, following completion of tracklaying and the installation of overhead power lines, test trams began running during the night between Picardy Place and Newhaven, becoming the first tram to run in Leith since the closure of the original tramway system. The first test trams ran at walking pace, but their speed was later increased to . Daytime testing commenced on 19 April 2023, with 40 newly recruited drivers under training. After an announcement on 25 May 2023, revenue service on the full route began on 7 June 2023. In June 2024, the Trams to Newhaven project won an award from the
Local Government Chronicle in its Future Places category, with the citation praising "[t]he deep collaboration between the council and private sector partners".
Further north to south extension During the early 2020s, plans were being prepared for a new line which would connect
Granton in the north of the city with the
Bioquarter in the south east, and possibly further onto either
Dalkeith or
Queen Margaret University or
Shawfair. At a meeting on 1 February 2024, City of Edinburgh Council voted to put the proposed north–south extension to public consultation; by this point, it had an estimated construction cost of £2bn. In August 2025, a 12-week public consultation was launched for this extension serving the north–south axis of the city. This could link
Granton in the north to Crewe Toll, then either via the Roseburn Path to
Murrayfield or via Orchard Brae and
Dean Bridge to the west end of
Princes Street. To the south, the proposals would see trams run over
North Bridge and
South Bridge, through
Newington to
Cameron Toll along Lady Road, then along Old Dalkeith Road to the
Royal Infirmary and
BioQuarter. A lift connecting the North Bridge tram stop to
Waverley railway station below is also proposed. The cost is estimated at between £2bn and £2.9bn depending on the option considered. Future extensions beyond into the city region could link to
Queen Margaret University and
East Lothian or to
Shawfair and
Midlothian. ==Annual patronage==