Edinburgh City Transport : Limited Stop service 73 using the new Western Approach Road after opening on 15 December 1974 : Annual Report : Edinburgh City Transport : 1975
A photograph from the Annual Report of the City Transport Department that was for the year ending 15 May 1975. This was of course the last annual report issued by the Department ending the story of the municipal operation that had acquired the city's tramway system in 1919. The 16th May 1975 saw the undertaking transfer to the new Lothian Regional Council. The bus appears to be one of the JSC E Leyland Atlantean PDR1/1's with Alexander single door bodywork delivered in 1967. Interestingly it appears to now carry the Lothian coat of arms on the front panel showing that the image was taken after the 'takeover' from ECT.
The picture shows one of the city's "Limited Stop" peak hour 'express' bus services and this is one of two routes, the 70 and 73, that served western suburbs and were re-routed to take advantage of the new Western Approach Road thus avoiding some of the city's traffic blackspots on the approach to the city centre; you could equal argue that the new road simply dumped the traffic on to Lothian Road and made the West End junction here even worse!
The Western Approach Road opened on 15 December 1974 and was in many ways to be simply one component of a wider and highly contentious programme of urban road construction in Edinburgh, the story of which would fill a book. The WAR was delivered because it largely used railway trackbeds and infrastructure that had lain unused since the closure of Edinburgh's Princes Street station, the old Caledonian Railway's gateway to the capital in the 1960s. British Rail constructed new connections and junctions in the Slateford area that slewed the old Caley lines north to Haymarket thus allowing access to Waverley station and closure of the lines east to Princes St. So the Western Approach Road arrived, with some odd bits and pieces of access and deviation around some existing features.
The roadscape looks very different now with new build both at the 'city' end and along the Approach Road that makes it look quite a mature feature of the cityscape.
Edinburgh City Transport : Limited Stop service 73 using the new Western Approach Road after opening on 15 December 1974 : Annual Report : Edinburgh City Transport : 1975
A photograph from the Annual Report of the City Transport Department that was for the year ending 15 May 1975. This was of course the last annual report issued by the Department ending the story of the municipal operation that had acquired the city's tramway system in 1919. The 16th May 1975 saw the undertaking transfer to the new Lothian Regional Council. The bus appears to be one of the JSC E Leyland Atlantean PDR1/1's with Alexander single door bodywork delivered in 1967. Interestingly it appears to now carry the Lothian coat of arms on the front panel showing that the image was taken after the 'takeover' from ECT.
The picture shows one of the city's "Limited Stop" peak hour 'express' bus services and this is one of two routes, the 70 and 73, that served western suburbs and were re-routed to take advantage of the new Western Approach Road thus avoiding some of the city's traffic blackspots on the approach to the city centre; you could equal argue that the new road simply dumped the traffic on to Lothian Road and made the West End junction here even worse!
The Western Approach Road opened on 15 December 1974 and was in many ways to be simply one component of a wider and highly contentious programme of urban road construction in Edinburgh, the story of which would fill a book. The WAR was delivered because it largely used railway trackbeds and infrastructure that had lain unused since the closure of Edinburgh's Princes Street station, the old Caledonian Railway's gateway to the capital in the 1960s. British Rail constructed new connections and junctions in the Slateford area that slewed the old Caley lines north to Haymarket thus allowing access to Waverley station and closure of the lines east to Princes St. So the Western Approach Road arrived, with some odd bits and pieces of access and deviation around some existing features.
The roadscape looks very different now with new build both at the 'city' end and along the Approach Road that makes it look quite a mature feature of the cityscape.