Re-inventing the tram
Page 28
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TWO QUITE separate items in (CM, July 7) prompt me to write.
First of all we had Mr P Baker's interesting letter regarding the re-invention of the split step entrance to double-deck buses and on page 20 there was the feature regarding the plan for busways in Edinburgh.
This is perhaps another instance of history repeating itself, As I recall it, the principal reasons given for the demise of tram-cars in British cities, including Edinburgh, were that they occupied valuable road space in the centre of the highway to the detriment of other traffic, and that the need for prospective passengers to board in the middle of the highway constituted a hazard.
Now, apparently, we have plans for the self-same centre section of the Corstorphine corridor to be reserved for buses with centre loading points on the highway.
The technological advance in 25 years is apparently the realisation that one could provide traffic signals at these points to stop other traffic while the pedestrian makes his way from the pavement to the centre boarding point! Perhaps we could do away with rubber tyred buses altogether and have them running on things called rails in this reserved central section of the highway — or might that be another example of reinvention?
N C MACDONALD Director (Technical) Evode Stafford England