"A Streetcar Named Desire"

The sub-title of this lecture to the Royal Scottish Society of Arts was, "What the Edinburgh Tram fiasco teaches us about our attitudes to transport and the cities we live in."   It was given by Professor Iain Docherty, the Professor of Public Policy and Management of the University of Glasgow Business School in the Augustine United Church in Edinburgh on Monday 10th October 2011.

We were treated to a mini-history of transport through the ages with reference to the pre-1840s when the majority of people walked with the well-off using carriages, on to the post 1840 to 1930 period when the railways emerged and then horse drawn vehicles gave way to electrified vehicles, with finally the post 1930 period when the car took over and all forms of petrol and diesel powered vehicles prospered.

Next came a potted history of the development of Edinburgh where Professor Docherty made the somewhat surprising claim that the make-up of the commercial areas today reflected the old tram layout which the city dispensed with some years ago.    By now his liking for the tram was becoming clear.

In discussing the impact that a tram system could have on a city, he took care to stress the very positive impact that he felt trams had on those living in cities.   He talked a lot of 'regeneration' and how the tram could, in the right circumstances help to achieve this - although showing a picture that resembled Cumbernauld did slightly dampen the enthusiasm for the body of pro-tram activists.   Sadly it reflected the ill-fated scheme that was tried out  - and failed - for Princes Street some years ago.

The Professor said he felt that Edinburgh had selected the wrong routes to start off the tram project, stressing the need to connect the Universities, centres of housing (presumably he meant the Leith development) and transport nodes.  (The audience noted that Edinburgh has carefully avoided connecting up any of these 'key areas' so far!)

He went on to ask, "what do you want transport to do?"  

There were mutterings about, "just to work!" but the Professor continued his theme with enthusiasm to reveal the Civil Service concept of "Space" and the obsession of governments with what he called the 'core policy process' of developing transport schemes; these he implied always seemed to be  too grandiose and reflected the desires of the planners rather than the population.   We were shown photographs of Waverley Station and told that the great majority of people arrived by rail and that Waverley was a shocking and most uninviting arrival point - which we all knew and agreed.

Professor Docherty also attacked the public for their lack of ambition - presumably in Edinburgh, because we were told that in Malmo some forty percent of trips were on foot; we saw Kensington High Street where all unwanted signage has been removed and then we were shown Buchanan Street in Glasgow,  which has been pedestrianised - all good examples we were told.  Obviously we have failed in Edinburgh!

In the final section of the lecture Docherty conceded that the tram would not reduce traffic, nor would it get more people out of their cars or transform the Edinburgh transport system (one wondered why do we need it then?) but he seemed to feel that as we had spent (wasted?) so much money on the project we should go ahead and as we built more and more lines people would feel the value and demand even more and more lines.  This failed to convince many people in the audience.

There was a huge demand for questions - one of which, asked by John Carson, formerly of Network Rail, enquired why the Professor, who had been on the Board of Transport Scotland had failed to oversee the Edinburgh trams project properly.

In reply, the claim that he "was only a non-executive director" failed to impress.   He also recommended the comfort and convenience of the trams which was shown to be misguided as there are only seats for some 78 out of 250 on the tram, therefore every chance of having to stand all the way from the airport!  

It was not a convincing display and those who were not tram supporters left far from satisfied that the Professor really understood the problems of forcing a light rail project through the centre of a city with a World Heritage Site and the resulting congestion, pollution and general disruption that are being caused and which will get worse in the future.