What an extraordinary day for everyone at Edinburgh Trams and for our new passengers. It was an absolute pleasure to welcome everyone on board. The sun shone and the people of Edinburgh came out in huge numbers to get on the tram.
We moved an exceptionally large number of passengers and we put everything we had into providing them with a good service. We are always looking to improve and we want to hear what you thought about the experience. It was never going to be completely plain sailing and we took measures early on in the day to keep things moving as smoothly as possible. We recognise that some passengers had longer waits than will normally be the case but this was mainly because of the huge popularity of the new service and because we're bedding things in.
My team pulled out all the stops under pressure and did a fantastic job - there's not much more I could ask for and I'd like to thank them for their massive effort today.
I'm pleased with how the team handled things behind the scenes, on the trams and on the streets. There was a point today when demand for tickets reached extremely high levels and this meant we could not sell tickets fast enough. A teething issue with two ticket machines compounded things.
So we sent in reinforcements in the form of three extra trams and 25 staff with handheld ticket machines to get people through quicker and onto trams and away. This worked well and it was a great opportunity for the team to interact with our passengers and experience high demand first hand.
The feedback to our frontline staff from passengers has been overwhelmingly positive and we're looking forward to tomorrow's service. Everyone at Edinburgh Trams is delighted with the reaction today and with the support our new passengers have shown us.
We'll be able give a better indication of how things have gone tomorrow but early indications are that patronage has been very very high.
Tom Norris
Director & GM
Edinburgh Trams
