Trams.

[Broccers]

No one who lives there drives from the city centre to Leith. You can walk from Prince's St to the shore in about 30 minutes.

Its not just limited to driving to town - anyone who lives there popping to the supermarket would have to sit in it for super ages. Hell on earth.

[ZedLeg]

Yeah, I lived on Ferry Road when they were doing the line down Leith Walk. I remember the disruption it caused.

I'm not sure the route it's taking along to Newhaven but it must be a mess.

[Swervin_Mervin]

I used to use the tram into Manc, from Altrincham. Far quicker and easier, cheaper too (no extortionate parking fees).

Better than trains and buses, quicker than both.

The trams are slower than the trains they replaced

The one I used wasn't, it only stopped a couple times

Must depend on the line. On the Oldham/Rochdale loop it's 45mins from the furthest points (where I grew up) into Manchester, when it used to be 30mins on the train. I think it's ever so slightly over the old train times for the Alty line, but I can't really remember tbh

As with all these transit systems, you really need a minimum network size before they start to really come into their own, and I'd say Manchester's reached that point now.

[Ascender]

Edinburgh trams were insanity - a parody of The Simpsons Monorail episode except it cost the city millions.

[Broccers]

Edinburgh trams were insanity - a parody of The Simpsons Monorail episode except it cost the city millions.

Are! The whole net Carbon bollocks doesn't seem to anger half as much as it should. Oooh lets be green while the rest of the world pinches the trade being less green.

[Nefarious]

Edinburgh trams were insanity - a parody of The Simpsons Monorail episode except it cost the city billions.

Fixed that for you.

The initial contract was £1.2bn, but it was naively/corruptly drawn up. It only required "best effort" from the contractor, so they cut back the scope (from the already reduced route), and then fucked up the installation of the rails for large sections (metal rails warped and were unusable). Because it was "best effort", they sucked their collective teeth, took a drag on their collective soggy rollup and said "sorry, guv, nuffink we can do". The council signed another 1/2bn contract with them to put right the fuckups of the first contract (and that doesn't include the current extension works).

And if there's any doubt over the white-elephant nature of the project - the only way they could fudge the books for commercial viability was to sell the operating licence to Lothian Buses (in which the council is the majority shareholder), who simply removed the competing bus routes and infrastructure to give the false impression of demand.

[GG.]

Probably better spending that on methadone from my recent experience of walking through Leith

[nuttinnew]

^ No need, he's home now.

[GG.]

[Nefarious]

Probably better spending that on methadone from my recent experience of walking through Leith

How long ago was that??
It's all hipsters and property developers these days

[GG.]

Probably better spending that on methadone from my recent experience of walking through Leith

How long ago was that??
It's all hipsters and property developers these days

Two weeks! I agree there are a lot of hipsters and some great places to eat (Chop House was brilliant) - however we walked back from the centre of town to the Malmaison one afternoon and the most direct route took us round the back of the Linksview estate. That was an eye opener. Felt a little uncomfortable walking round with a big DSLR hanging off my shoulder

Oh yeah and I also walked by a ground floor window to witness a guy snorting coke off the table mid-morning

[ZedLeg]

That's a listed building I'll have you know.

[Broccers]

Heres one Gym goer we followed down to Leith

https://photos.app.goo.gl/svkCo5j49ChjZib67

Last seen kneeling but not in any harm. A bit further down one had collapsed and Police with blue gloves were running towards the scene.

@GG. you do know Mal used to be a brothel dont you (we stay there too)

[ZedLeg]

If yous had been there when I first moved down there 20 years ago your monocles would've fallen out

[Nefarious]

Oh yeah and I also walked by a ground floor window to witness a guy snorting coke off the table mid-morning

Exactly, moving up in the world. Ten years ago it would've been some ned injecting krokodil into his eyeball

[Mito Man]

It’s what the City of London runs on so it can’t be that bad

[Carlos]

Oh yeah and I also walked by a ground floor window to witness a guy snorting coke off the table mid-morning

Exactly, moving up in the world. Ten years ago it would've been some ned injecting krokodil into his eyeball

A few of us stayed there for the Rugby circa 1999/2000 and this explains why the hotel owner insisted on collecting us from town every evening

[GG.]

krokodil

Well that was certainly a google images wormhole I didn't need to go down

[Explosive Newt]

Fact: the man who brought trams to London in the early 19th century was called George Train.