Edinburgh festival-goers will benefit from late night tram services throughout the city as Edinburgh Trams introduces a temporary extended service to help thousands of revellers get home safely.
The new late night festival timetable will run from 5 - 29 August 2016 with the last trams leaving Princes Street as late as 00.39 hours.
As well as attendees as festival events, spectators at the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo will also be able to benefit from these extended services.
Edinburgh Trams are to run from every five minutes during the morning and evening rush hours to help cater for higher demand.
The move follows a successful trial carried out during the weeks of 11 and 18 July to check that there were no impacts on traffic flows from the increased frequency.
From 26 July the service will run from every five minutes between 7.30am to 9.30am and 4.30pm to 6.30pm rather than current frequency of eight to ten minutes.
Following a successful trial, we are delighted to announce that from 1st August 2016 our conditions of carriage will be permanently amended to allow customers to travel with class 2 mobility scooters on our services in line with a permit scheme.
Dean Anderson, Customer Experience Manager for Edinburgh Trams, said:
“We are committed to offering services that are fully accessible to all of our customers. Allowing mobility scooters to use our trams is part of that commitment."
Robin Wickes, Chairman of Edinburgh Access Panel, said:
What better way to get to and from the Edinburgh Festival Carnival than by tram.
Do you identify with having a mobility issue, physical disability or use an assistive device such as mobility scooter, cane, frame etc.?
We are working with Heriot Watt University to look at how well we meet the needs of users who have any type of mobility issue or a physical disability. This may be in terms of the costs, availability of the service, physical elements of the trams or platforms which support mobility issues or act as barriers.
What does taking part involve?
Newly released figures show that Edinburgh Trams carried 5.38 million passengers in its second 12 months of operation, an increase of 9.3% on the previous year, when 4.92 passengers were carried, and around 340,000 ahead of the target for the period.
Launched on Saturday 31 May 2014 at 5am, Edinburgh Trams has built on its first year success with increased revenue surpassing the budgeted expectation target by around 6%.
Edinburgh Trams celebrated its second birthday this week with the news that it has received a Certificate of Excellence from TripAdvisor.
The award accounts for the quality, quantity and recency of reviews submitted by travellers on TripAdvisor over a 12-month period. To qualify, a business must maintain an overall TripAdvisor bubble rating of at least four out of five, have a minimum number of reviews and must have been listed on TripAdvisor for at least 12 months.
The UK’s major independent survey of tram services has found that Edinburgh Trams' continues to receive a ‘very high’ satisfaction rating from it's passengers. The company received a 97% positive rating, compared with 95% last year, remaining 5% above the UK tram operator average.
In the research carried out by Passenger Focus, the top three factors for overall satisfaction were boarding time, journey time and punctuality. Other contributors to ‘very satisfied’ ratings included passenger space, value for money and staff attitude.
There are lots of roles at the company including Drivers, Ticketing Services Assistants and Controllers.
The company is currently looking for Ticketing Services Assistants to join its team.
As the face of Edinburgh Trams, Ticketing Services Assistant work both on trams and at tram stops ensuring customers receive excellent customer service as well as inspecting tickets and helping to manage high volumes of passenger at large scale and high profile events.
Guide Dogs Scotland’s new recruits were today, 3 May, on a familiarisation visit to Edinburgh Airport by Edinburgh Trams today, as a part of training exercise for the puppies.
The puppies and their handlers boarded the Edinburgh Tram at the Gyle Centre, then walked from the Edinburgh Airport Tram station through the Plaza area and into the airport before going through security before boarding a Jet2.com airplane.
