Lord Provost wants battery powered trams on Princes Street

The city’s planning committee was discussing proposals to draw up a new vision for Princes Street and the Waverley Valley when Cllr Ross asked about nose-to-tail lines of buses and the intrusive overhead wires.

He said: “My understanding is that technology exists that would allow us to run the existing trams along Princes Street without necessarily the surface infrastructure we currently have. I would be quite disappointed if we weren’t looking at including that.”

A planning official replied: “You're right, there is technology that would allow trams to run through the World Heritage Site. It would mean adapting the plans for battery power so it could run through a part of the city on a wireless basis so there would obviously be serious cost implications. If it's felt that's something we should look at we can certainly do that.”

Planning convener Neil Gardiner observed there were battery-powered trams in the Spanish city of Seville. “It only runs for about 500 metres but that might be enough to cover the Princes Street section, so it's maybe something that can be looked at and costs put against it,” he suggested.

“It might be prohibitive at this stage, but we are looking at a long-term plan linked, of course, to the 2020 and 2030 City Vision of decluttering the city.”

The committee agreed to proceed with drawing up the strategy despite a call from the Conservatives to review existing policies covering Princes Street first.

Tory City Centre councillor Joanna Mowat said any vision had to be grounded in reality. She said: “We’ve seen very spectacular plans for how we’re going to develop Princes Street and they have not come to fruition. There is a lot of suspicion this is going to be shaped to allow developments that are on the horizon.”

Cllr Gardiner promised there would be community consultation on the strategy.

And he said: “We can’t look back at the policies of yesteryear as gospel because things have moved on. We need to meet the challenges of the future and make the city fit for its purpose in the next 100 and more years.”

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