The word “trams” has a special meaning to the people of Edinburgh. For more than a decade now the tram project has been the topic of many heated discussions and debates. In the last few days however, it seems to have reached another climax; the chief executive of Transport Initiatives Edinburgh (TIE), Richard Jeffrey resigned last week and a motion was approved to investigate the costs of scrapping the project, rather than keeping it going.
While there are voices that say the trams should be scrapped immediately, there are also supporters of what has become a controversial issue. The Edinburgh Reporter has collected some of the opinions and voices concerning the tram project here for you.
The Sunday Herald called the trouble surrounding the trams “Tramadramadingdong” (has to be the best name ever?) as they presented their readers with a timeline of the tram project, and unveiled the amount of money spent at each stage of the development. The article also features a leaked report from March last year that states that a quarter of the tram workers of tie have personally experienced bullying. And 58% of those surveyed disagree that there is everything they need to do quality work every day.
Leith Links, Leith’s online newspaper, calls it the Tram Trauma, pointing out how much Leith has suffered from the tram works. They quote instances of businesses closing down and highlight inconvenience for pedestrians.
The trams are also heavily discussed on social media sites such as Twitter.
