Major route closed by tram works

Diversions have been put in place for tram works Enlarge Image

Drivers and bus passengers are being warned to brace themselves for months of chaos as tram works close a key route in Edinburgh's west end.

Shandwick Place will be shut for five months from Saturday as part of work on the �498m tram line.

Thirteen bus stops will be closed in the area and replaced with 12 temporary ones on diversion routes.

Transport Initiatives Edinburgh said the disruption would be worth it to have a "first-class transport system".

Employment growth

Willie Gallagher, executive chairman of Tie, said: "Over the coming 10 years a city the size of Dundee is going to appear at the Waterfront down at Granton.

"Edinburgh Park has continued to grow at a rate, in terms of employment growth, unparalled anywhere in Scotland.

"That can only continue to grow if people can get to where they want to work, if people can get to where they want to live, that is what the tram has been put in place to facilitate."

Raymond Withey, a shopkeeper in Leith Walk, said work which has already started in Leith Walk has caused "chaos".

He said: "At the moment, we've got dirty great big trenches, right in front of us.

"Massive barricades, traffic cones and general debris lying about the place, it is an utter mess and chaos.

"I've not had anyone in the shop in favour of it and certainly seems to be a big white elephant.

"It will end up being a Scottish Parliament building on wheels."

It will end up being a Scottish Parliament building on wheels Raymond Withey A shopkeeper against the trams

However, Tom Manning, Ireland's Railway Procurement Agency, said they faced the same complaints when Dublin's tram system, the Luas, was being built.

He said: "The city was like a bomb had hit it and people were sceptical about it in the first place.

"People said it wouldn't work, that nobody would go on it, all stuff people in Edinburgh are saying.

"We carried almost 30 million passengers last year, which was way more than we expected."

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