A consultation held last year between 25 August and 17 November by the council about the options for the north-south tram extension has returned “fairly inconclusive” results.
As part of the survey, drop-in information events were conducted to raise awareness of both the proposal and the consultation.
In addition market research commissioned from Progressive Partnership was carried out, in a mix of on street and at home interviews representing people from all 17 council wards. Some 79% of the 1,209 people interviewed were confirmed as living in Edinburgh, and the remainder were commuters.
A total of 11,425 people responded to the consultation through the online council hub with an additional 32 partial responses presented in hard copy. While the results will be fed into ongoing work to develop a strategic business case, there was no overwhelming view one way or the other.
The tram extension project was described by Transport Convener, Stephen Jenkinson, on Tuesday as “one of the key components” of managing Edinburgh’s growing population, which he said is soaring at twice the rate of Glasgow.
Mr Jenkinson said the project is of “strategic national importance” not only to the capital, but to the Lothian region as a whole, and said that “doing nothing is not an option”.
The transport convener explained that there is a congestion issue in Edinburgh that is “only going to get worse if we don’t do something about it”, before adding that he is “absolutely convinced that the tram is the solution”.
Mr Jenkinson went on to say that the results of the consultation and survey don’t provide any “earth-shattering” data, describing it as “fairly inconclusive”.
The proposals did not show a majority view among the almost 12,000 people who responded to the consultation.
A portion of the 11,425 respondents – 40% – backed the north-south line going out into the city region, whilst a separate poll of 1,209 people representative of Edinburgh’s population produced just 47% support.
In addition, 53% of consultation respondents opposed the line going out into the city region, but only 19% of those polled by the market research company said were against it, and 34% said they neither support or oppose it.
Respondents remain split over the two route options of the tram using the Roseburn Path with battery operated trams meaning that bridges over the path can largely remain untouched, and Orchard Brae where the tram would run over the historic Dean Bridge.
Using the Roseburn Path, a former railway line which has over the years become a popular walking and cycle route in the city, was opposed by 68% while 32% supported using that route, compared to 43% support and 23% opposition among those polled in the separate market research.
The Orchard Brae route was opposed by 44% of those asked and 32% supported using that route in the consultation, while 44% supported that route and 20% opposed it in the separate market research.
The council will decided upon next steps on 10 September when the full strategic business case is completed. at which point Mr Jenkinson says councillors will be better “armed with all the information and all the data” to determine how to proceed.
The options to be addressed then will include proceeding with all or any elements of the Outline Business Case stage subject to funding for that work, proceeding with work to amend current proposals or ceasing or temporarily pausing the work on the project.
The consultation showed that more males responded than females, younger people were under-represented and older people over-represented compared to the Edinburgh population. People taking part were 69% car owners which is slightly higher than other surveys have shown where car ownership swings between 58% and 62%.
People who responded were mainly from EH4, EH6 and EH12, and the three council wards which accounted for a third of the responses were Inverleith, Corstorphine/Murrayfield and Forth. Almost all people who responded (93%) had an EH postcode.
Liberal Democrat councillor, Kevin Lang set up a petition requiring that the Telford/Roseburn Path is protected and rejecting the loss of the “important travel/green corridor to the tram extension” which was signed by 5,511 people. All of those people were told when signing the petition that their names would be added to the Liberal Democrats database.
While queries were raised during the consultation about how to fund the tram extension, this is not yet part of the proposal, as the finalised scheme has to be drafted before a final price can be estimated. The council would then apply to funders including The Scottish Government.
And although there are more than 3,500 new homes being built at Granton, some people said that the council should drop this extension which cuts across the whole city and instead explore the South Suburban rail project. Some of that would be outside the remit of the council but it is within the power of The Scottish Government who have recently allocated funding for a feasibility study for a tram-train network including stops between Gorgie and Portobello.
