Edinburgh Trams say that average weekly tram passenger numbers, not including launch week, are currently sitting at just over 90,000 which is in line with forecasts made prior to the launch of the service. During the first week of service just over a month ago 130,000 residents and visitors came out to take the tram. 40,000 used the service during an extremely busy launch weekend and many thousands used the tram to get to and from the One Direction concert at Murrayfield.
Tom Norris, Director and GM of Edinburgh Trams, said:- “We are still in the very early days of a brand new service but with an extremely busy launch week, a major concert at Murrayfield and a huge public interest in the new service, we’ve experienced a lot already. These early figures are a positive sign and very much in line with forecasts for this stage but we’ll have a clearer view of how things are going much further down the line.
“Our next focus is on Edinburgh’s busy festival season when, along with Lothian Buses, we’ll be moving thousands of local and and visiting festival goers around the city. This is a big opportunity for us in terms of selling tickets but also to further expose a successfully operational Edinburgh Trams service to visitors from across the world.”
Councillor Lesley Hinds, Transport Convener and Chair of Transport for Edinburgh, said: -“These are encouraging figures and I’m pleased to note that they are in line with expectations. It’s been great to see how quickly people have embraced tram travel. Trams have already become an established part of daily life in Edinburgh and I’ve heard lots of positive feedback about how they’ve made people’s commute easier and how smooth the journey is, and so on.
“Obviously these are still early days and we’ll continue to keep a close eye on how things are going, picking up and dealing with any issues as we go along. We’d encourage everyone to keep on giving us their feedback and suggestions so that we can deliver the best possible service.”
The business model for the tram operation published in August 2013 set a target for passenger numbers at 4,555,000 for the first year of operations. A further update on patronage and on progress with the service will be provided in September following the first 100 days of operation.
In Dublin where they have a network of tram lines extending to around 36.5km the trams carry around 83,500 passengers a day.
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