Plan to reopen Edinburgh's South Sub

Edinburgh Evening News

Civil engineering students at Heriot-Watt University have drawn up plans to reopen Edinburgh's South Suburban railway as part of an expansion of the city's tram network.

Transcript

00:00Edinburgh's South Suburban Railway could reopen to passengers as part of an expansion

00:06of the city's tram system, using tram trains, which can run on both rail tracks and tram

00:12lines. Five civil engineering students studying for their master's degree at Heriot-Watt

00:18University have come up with a detailed plan which they say would be cheaper per kilometre

00:24than the original tram project and the extension to Newhaven. Corey Boyle, one of the students,

00:29believes there's a strong case.

00:32You think this is something that could really happen?

00:34Yeah, absolutely. So, four previous feasibility studies have all seen the potential of reopening

00:39the South Sub, but they've been unable to come over the critical capacity issues at

00:43Haymarket and Waverley, whereas with our new study, we've shown that that is surmountable

00:48by connecting to the Enver tram network at Murrayfield, bypassing both Haymarket and

00:53Waverley.

00:54And you found that there was a lot of support for this, and lots of people, you think it

00:59would be used well?

01:00Yes, so we've conducted two public surveys, both of which have been overwhelmingly supportive,

01:06and we've also attended community council meetings along the South Sub, with the public

01:13also being overwhelmingly supportive, because they know that the infrastructure's in place

01:18and they've heard of the past proposals, so they want to see it reopened.

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