historical developments in transport

                                                          EDINBURGH AIRPORT 

 

Edinburgh airport is an airport located in the Ingliston area of Edinburgh, Scotland, which is around 9 km west of the city Centre. Today, it is very well connected by various buses and the Edinburgh Tram. The airport is owned by Global Infrastructure Partners, and there are around 2500 people working there.

Edinburgh airport used to be an important airbase called Turnhouse Aerodrome, which opened in 1916. It was used by the Royal Flying Corps as a military base during World War One. Only after the Second World War, a runway was built and used by Spitfire planes, and it was 1200 meters long. During the 1950s, the runway was long 1800 meters and it was officially opened for commercial traffic in May 1947. The first commercial flight using Edinburgh Airport was a British European Airways service from London to Shetland, with a stopping point in Edinburgh. 

During these times, the airport made incredible changes, building a new runway in 1977 measuring 2550 meters and a new terminal too, officially opened to the public by the Queen. In the following years, there was an incredible grow and development for Edinburgh Airport, and in 2009 it was suggested to boost Scotland's economy by £867 million per year. 

By 1980, Edinburgh airport saw frequent flights connecting Dublin and Amsterdam and further European services after that. 

In 2019, it was named the busiest airport in Scotland, dealing with over 14.7 million passengers and it was also the sixth-busiest airport in the United Kingdom by total passenger in 2019. 

Nowadays, Edinburgh Airport has everything that a traveler can look for, after a refurbishment at a cost of more than £5 million. It has coffee shops, restaurants, shops and more. The airport is used by more than 25 airlines and can take passengers to more than 100 destinations, including New York and Doha. 

Airportguide (2022) History of Edinburgh Airport 2022. Available at History of Edinburgh Airport (EDI): Airport History and Facts, Edinburgh Area, Scotland, UK (airports-guides.com) (Accessed on 14th Nov 2022)

Airport Guides (2022) Edinburgh Airports 2022. Available at http://www.edinburgh-edi.airports-guides.com/edi_history.html  (Accessed on 14th Nov 2022)

Wikipedia (2022) Edinburgh Airport 2022. Available at Edinburgh Airport - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Accessed on 14th Nov 2022)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RAILWAYS in EDINBURGH 

The history of the British railway network began around the 1560s when they started to build the local wooden wagonways. During the railway boom of the 1840s, they tried to expand the isolated links into a national network. In 1923, all the companies operating were grouped into the "Big Four": the Great Western Railw ay, the London and North Eastern Railway, the London, Midland and Scottish Railway and the Southern Railway. The "Big Four" continued to be in charge of the railway system until 31 December 1947. From the start of 1948, the "Big Four" merged to form the British Railways. 

High-speed inter-city trains were introduced in the 1970s. Due to severe cuts and above-inflation, Railway operations were privatised during 1994-1997 and the ownership of the track and infrastructure passed to Railtrack. 

By 2010, after the privatisation of the Railway, the railway service had more passengers on board than at any time since 1920s and in 2014, passenger numbers had more than doubled in the 20 years since privatisation. Even though the service was a success, there were many incidents shortly after privatisation that damaged the image of the railways: Southall rail crash, the Ladbroke Grove rail crash, and the Hatfield accident. 

Following these accidents, the Railtrack company imposed over 1200 emergency speed restrictions and imposed a costly track replacement programme.  

After this brief introduction of the British railway network, we will discuss the history of the Railway in Edinburgh. 

Being the capital of Scotland, Edinburgh was very important from commerce and the port of Leith became the main port of the country. The first harbour was built after 1710 and Newhaven was used as a ferry port too.  

Edinburgh, Leith and Newhaven Railway was a railway company formed in 1836. It was made to connect the city of Edinburgh with the harbours on the Firth of Forth. The company name changed to the Edinburgh, Leith and Granton Railway, when the line was connecting Edinburgh to Granton. Part of the route was opened in 1846 and the line connecting with Edinburgh involved a long tunnel, opened in 1847. The long tunnel was very hard to build, so once the company was taken over by North British Railway, a new convenient route was built. The new route was longer, but more efficient. It was opened in 1868. By the end of the 19th century, a new branch to Leith Central station was built and it opened in 1903. All the original lines have been dismantled apart from the route from Piershill, which was operating until 2016. 

Before the construction of railways, communication with different part of Scotland were made by water from Leith, connecting the country by small or large boats and stagecoaches. 

Soon it was clear that Edinburgh needed a way to transport goods to the harbour using a quick and efficient way, and so the Edinburgh, Leith and Newhaven Railway was authorised. The main line was to run from Princes Street Gardens to Newhaven: the line required a tunnel, and the construction was to cost around £100,000. The constructions found many problems and serious technical difficulties and soon a new harbour was proposed. Trinity, to the west of Newhaven. In 1842, the line opened from Trinity to Scotland Street, but it was not yet completed. (RAILSCOT,2022)

Canal street station was than built to finally connect the centre of Edinburgh, but it was still a very difficult operation: the station connected north to south, going through coaches to Leith. The station was closed in 1868 and replaced with the General station at Edinburgh, which than became Edinburgh Waverley. (RAILSCOT,2022)

The important Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway tried to take over the Edinburgh Leith and Granton Railway in 1845 without any success, and it was finally taken over by the Edinburgh and Northern Railway and changed the name to the Edinburgh Perth and Dundee Railway in 1849. This new railway was than taken over by the North British Railway in 1862. 

The former of Leith North Station building is one of the only remaining building from the original line, and in 2015 became a Youth Centre. (Wikipedia,2022)

Wikipedia (2022) Edinburgh, Leith and Newhaven Railway 2022. Available at

Edinburgh, Leith and Newhaven Railway - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (accessed on 14th Nov 2022)

RailScot (2022) Edinburgh, Leith and Granton Railway 2022. Available at RAILSCOT | Edinburgh, Leith and Granton Railway  (accessed on 14th Nov 2022)

RailScot (2022) Edinburgh, Leith, Newhaven Railway 2022. Available at RAILSCOT | Edinburgh, Leith and Newhaven Railway (accessed on 14th Nov 2022)

Wikipedia (2022) History of rail transport in Great Britain 2022. Available at History of rail transport in Great Britain - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (accessed on 14th Nov 2022)