Edinburgh Trams

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There are no excuses for such a dramatic failure in project management. Tram networks run perfectly well in German cities and the new line running from Freiburg-im-Breisgau to the suburb of Vauban was built without fuss.

The minutiae of what went wrong in Edinburgh and who is at fault will be discussed for a long time, but there are bigger lessons to learn. The main lesson to be learned from the Edinburgh tram project is that £776m spent on one route from the airport to the city centre is not good value for money if it doesn't get more people walking and using other forms of transport.

There are good examples out there of how trams can slot into a city's transport system as part of a wider push to get people out of their cars. A visit to Vienna, Freiburg, Bremen or Zurich will show how this can be done well. But this hasn't happened in Edinburgh.

The Edinburgh tram fiasco shows a failure to grasp the basic principles of network planning and integration. Buses, pedestrian routes and cycle paths all need a clear and consistently delivered network objective. The transport network must link homes, places of work, education and healthcare seven days a week at all times. Trains must be met by buses and vice versa.

Buses must link up with other buses and should not always take passengers through the city centre when they just need to go from one part of the city to another. All these things are built up each year so car use feels like a bad option.

A tram project in Edinburgh designed as part of a bigger approach with the aim of getting people out of their cars makes a great deal of sense, but this hasn't happened.

Edinburgh has one of Britain's best located and well-known railway stations at Waverley. It would have been possible to run the tram directly into it copying the German success at Kassel where trams run into the railway station.

This adds value to both trams and trains and delivers real integration. Similarly, the Edinburgh trams will not allow bikes to be carried on board. It is normal in mainland Europe for bikes to be carried on trams eg in Basel, Frankfurt and Kassel.

The lesson to be learnt from Edinburgh is that large, expensive tram schemes that are not integrated into all aspects of planning and transport will not change the way people travel around cities or reduce congestion. Ten years from now Edinburgh will still have the same transport problems and it will not have the relief that totally integrated approaches in Zurich, Vienna and Freiburg have resulted in