Edinburgh’s Transport Systems
Edinburgh is supposed to be one of the big tourist destinations in the world. So it needs to get its public transport up to the standard visitors expect. The buses are just not up to scratch and late and static trams give the wrong message.
I also read in The Scotsman, that the city doesn’t have a big enough dock for the largest cruise ships to berth, so they are losing out to places like Belfast and Liverpool.
Walking around the city is not difficult, but of course there are few maps. Incidentally, my eyesight isn’t good enough to read a paper map in the rain and I suspect that for many visitors to Edinburgh, clear eye level maps are best.
At least though the taxis are reasonably plentiful and affordable. The drivers also give you chapter, verse and every last word about the trams and the buses. But then taxi drivers are the same the world over!
I didn’t use the local trains, but it would appear that they work well! That is if you can find out which bus you catch to get to the station!
Edinburgh’s Buses
Since my stroke, I tend to use buses a lot more. My mobility means that I have no trouble boarding or even getting upstairs on a double-decker for the view. At least now these days, you get a comfortable seat in places like London, Cambridge and Edinburgh. And I suspect most places in the UK! So in most towns and cities across the UK, a bus is a sensible part of the transport network.
But good bus systems only work with easy ticketing, sensible fare policies and good signage. London is the benchmark, by which every otherb system shoiuld be judged in my mind, as being a Londoner, I’ve used them since I was a child. C and I also used to use Routemasters in the early seventies with three children under three, so my views on buses are not blinkered.
So how does Edinburgh stack up?
I was surprised that my over-60s bus-pass is not valid in Scotland. But then Scottish ones are not valid in England. I know there would be political problems, if they were interchangeable, but surely there could be a better system.
- Perhaps, there could be an extra charge for a free bus-pass, which might allow things like Scottish buses anywhere, London trains and tubes, and Manchester Trams. I think a lot of people would pay for a Senior Superpass, just as many buy a Senior Railcard.
- Or should there be a method of purchasing an Edinburgh bus pass for say your time in Edinburgh, when you buy your rail ticket. If that was the case, you’d get one of the old British Rail-style orange tickets, that work so well. After all, some tickets on Cambridge-Ipswich trains have an extension to buses at the destination.
And then there is the ticket you get in Edinburgh for a days travel. You don’t hand money to the driver, as you do in say London, but put it in a slot. Obviously, there is no change and a flimsy paper ticket is delivered from behind the driver. I know Scotland, likes to think of itself as a foreign country, but this system isn’t very tourist friendly. The ticket was good value at £3.00, but because it is just a scrap of paper, it could be easily lost. Surely, a credit card sized card would be better for a day ticket, as this can carry paid-for adverts. You could also sell weekly tickets for more money.
I think it is true to say, that rarely do you find flimsy paper tickets in mainland Europe, so why is the UK so keen on this type? Cost probably, but then London buses cope with Oystercards and rail travelcards with no problem at all.
Where Edinburgh buses are poor though is in the lack of signage on bus stops.
London sets the gold standard in this, but then as a Londoner, I would say that wouldn’t I! But if London’s policy of a local map in tube stations and on bus stops, coupled with a local bus map/index, wasn’t so good, why would it be virtually copied by several cities across the world including its big rival Paris.
Edinburgh gives no information at all on bus stops, except for little numbers saying what buses you can catch from the stop. So if you’re not sure which bus you need or where you are going, you’re lost!
I had thought there was no information of trhis kind until I found this at Waverley station, next to the train information booth.
Edinburgh Bus Stop Map
There are also other problems with Edinburgh’s buses. Apparently, the routes and stops are always moving, so even locals can’t find their bus. They also have computerised displays telling ewhen the bus is supposed to arrive. These are different to everyone other one I’ve seen and are unreadable for someone with limited vision and aretoo high up for short people. Red displays under the bus shelter like London, Cambridge, Colchester etc. are so much better. The one we stood at said a bus was due and then it never came.
Edinburgh’s Tram To Nowhere
I do not like badly conceived and managed projects, as you’d expect from someone, who designed one of the first modern project mangement systems. I had thought that there was nothing that could match the Cambridge Busway for being badly designed, managed and executed project. But it would appear that the Edinburgh Tram, may come close.
Strangely, the two projects have a lot in common; both will be about 40 kilometres long ,both are running years late and massively over budget. Although the Edinburgh Tram will cost six times more than the Cambridge Busway.
They also get up the public’s nose spectacularly. In the Cambridge case, buses proclaim, “Will I be on the Busway soon?” and in Edinburgh, a static tram is parked to block Princes Street.
The Edinburgh Static Tram
I suppose the static tram does have a point, in that it makes getting a bus in the centre of Edinburgh very difficult, so by the time the tram comes into service in 2014, people will be more likely to use the tram. That could be the only reason, as what idiot would deliberately create a traffic jam with something that doesn’t work. Even those twats with 4x4s and supercars get parking tickets, when they block the roads outside Harrods! Why hasn’t someone stuck a parking ticket on the tram?
To make it worse, I saw this sign too!
Edinburgh Road Sign
So trams can turn right, despite the fact the only one is static!
Changing Trains at Peterborough
WHen I went North on Wednesday to Edinburgh, I deliberately arranged to have an hour between getting to Peterborough from Ely and then leaving for the North, so that I could get some lunch.
Queensgate Centre, Peterborough
As you can see from tyhis picture taken from just outside the station, the Queensgate Shopping Centre is not too far away and it has a large Marks & Spencer with a Cafe Revive and a Waitrose. So I walked there and had a nice gluten-free salmon salad in the Cafe Revive. The offerings were better than those in the station.
I do hope that when they improve Peterborough Station, that they improve the access to Queensgate, as there is dual-carriageway in between and the bridge is difficult for anyone with limited movement like myself or someone perhaps elderly or with a child in a buggy.
The Anonymous Widower 