Edinburgh City Council has opened discussions with the UK Government’s National Wealth Fund over funding for the North-South tramline expansion.
The council is facing a funding issue with the expansion project, as its hope of securing financial support from the Scottish Government has not come to fruition.
The proposed expansions to the tram line would allow trams to run from Granton in the north to The Royal Infirmary in the south east.
Trams would run along the newly refurbished North Bridge, and the project is estimated to cost between £2bn and £2.9bn, depending on the route chosen.
The National Wealth Fund is a policy bank established by the UK Government in 2024 to partner with the private sector and local authorities to finance infrastructure projects.
The fund has up to £27.8bn of public capital for deployment through equity, loans, guarantees, and local authority lending.
Edinburgh City Council has stated that talks with the National Wealth Fund are purely advisory at this stage.
The council opened a public consultation for the expansion of the tram network from 25 August to 17 November.
They are now analysing over 7000 consultation responses with market research findings to present in 2026.
The Northward expansion means that trams would either run via Orchard Brae or across the A-listed Dean Bridge, a 193-year-old UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Other plans have included having trams run alongside the Roseburn path. This has proved controversial, with locals rallying to create a “Save the Roseburn Path” campaign in early 2024.
Over 600,000 people use the path each year, and many locals opposed the proposed tram route because it would run alongside it.
Campaigners believe the proposed route is dangerous and nonsensical, as trams should encourage people to use their cars less rather than occupying green spaces that pedestrians frequently use.
Image by Max Brown for The Student.