Figures show Edinburgh trams running three quarters empty
Edinburgh's £776 million tram network is running at an average of 25% capacity, new figures show.
Edinburgh's £776 million tram network is running at an average of 25% capacity, new figures show.
Passenger numbers on the network almost doubled between 2014 and 2015 to 5.3 million, but the services have the potential to carry 21 million people per year.
Each tram has a capacity of 250 and the vehicles make a total of 85,000 journeys per year - meaning on average three-quarters of the space on the network is unfilled.
A public inquiry has been set up to investigate the huge problems which dogged the building project, which went hugely over budget and was completed in May 2014 - five years later than planned - with a reduced network, having caused major disruption for residents and visitors through years of works.
Scottish Conservative MSP for Lothian Miles Briggs said: The one saving grace people in Edinburgh thought they could take from the trams was that they would be worth the wait eventually.
However, with three-quarters of spaces unfilled every year, it seems even that consolation hasn't come to pass.
This was a hideously disruptive and expensive project but, having been operational for a while, millions of spaces on these trams are going spare.
Passengers are complaining that they continue to be slower than the bus, and some residents are so furious with the inconvenience they caused they refuse to get on them.
It's clear there is still significant work to do to make this project a success, and I hope bosses use these numbers as a catalyst for doing exactly that.''
The figures were revealed by Edinburgh Trams finance manager Tom Neil in response to a freedom of information request, which said during peak times some trams operate at 100% capacity'' and enhanced provision has been made to cope with the demand.
A spokesman for Scottish Transport Minister Humza Yousaf said: Instead of practising his arithmetic, Miles Briggs should be doing his history homework.
It was his fellow Tory MSPs who ganged up with Labour and the Liberal Democrats in 2007 to push through the tram project - in the face of opposition from the SNP Government.
That left the SNP with the task of safeguarding taxpayers' interests, while the Tories had the bare-faced cheek of pretending the fiasco had nothing to do with them.''