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THE Royal Bank of Scotland is to close four offices in the Capital and move thousands of staff out to its headquarters at Gogarburn.
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http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/rbs-to-shut-four-edinburgh-offices-1-3737563
Thousands??
Better get the cycle infrastructure sorted...
I believe this will nearly double the number of people at Gogarburn. There are a lot of cyclists at the Fettes Row office.
I hope this will increase pressure to improve the cyclepath north of the A8 and across the Gogar Roundabout, which is pretty hopeless. The worst bit for me is near the Maybury Casino and the Shell Garage: I never know what to do or where to go.
There's always the alternative of the cycle 'facilities' across the south of the Gogar Roundabout. They are just like playing Frogger with the traffic coming off the bypass...
Just as well the Scottish Govt is throwing another £1bn at a road between RBS Gogarburn and the airport then.
Is there no end to the taxpayer subsidy?
On the plus side, traffic congestion in the city centre may decrease... Should be good business for the tram too.
However the bypass will be jammed solid even more regularly.
I experienced the Maybury junction eastbound one day this week. Hadn't used the shared use path previously, and I embarrassed myself by following what looked like a continuation of the tarmac straight into a patch of bushes where the tarmac ends for no apparent reason. Rude words uttered and bike turned around on the spot. Found correct route across the lights; are you allowed to cycle over them? Didn't notice if they were toucan and now suspect not. Got glared at lots by couple pushing pram over same crossing. Finally landed on the greenway to continue.
Going westbound, I have no idea what you are meant to do.
A complete guddle, really.
Gogar Roundabout & bypass/A8 approaches seize up well before any serious congestion on Glasgow Road to/from the toon already.
Did a survey trip with Arellcat earlier this year to see what the 'proper' route did and I had to be restrained from simply riding on the carriageway such was the crap/lack of facility.
Whether the new Gogar Station will actually provide a direct route under the A8 at Maybury remains to be seen as the opportunity to deliver this when the tram route was put in was totally wasted.
There's only one large office closing in town, that at Fettes Row / Dundas Street (legally counted as 2 buildings for land registration purposes). 35 St. Andrew Square (next to the main branch) is being sold, but has no permanent occupants and really only serves as fancy meeting rooms, a few floors of another office building on St. Andrew Square are being turned back to the landlord, a semi-vacant 1960s annexe behind the St. Andrew Square branch is being demolished and a smaller office at the Gyle is being divested as part of the "EU Remedies".
The way we are meant to cross the Gogar Roundabout safely is via Family Network Route 9 around the North side.
Heading East you once you have survived the other problems with the other problems with the A8, you have a slight downhill with an unexpected sharp corner on (which caught Snowy out) and cross Turnhouse Road and on to the Toucan to cross Maybury Road (It is a Toucan Snowy).
Best thing now is to turn left and head along North Gyle Terrace to Dechmont Road. (It is a shared use path along the Northside of Glasgow Road but most people ignore this - it suffers from lots of driveways with priority).
The problem is that most people don't want to bimble along Route 9 but want to get onto the Glasgow Road proper.
Therefore the common route is to exit the path at the entrance of new Gogar Station Building site and take your chances with the 'blender' of 4 lanes mixing up into 2. Not for the fainthearted.
Similarly westbound you get a similar problem. Route 9 is fine if you have the time, but most people are already on Glasgow Road and the question is when to get off.
The Toucan crossing at the Jaguar garage is probably safest but you have to wait a long time for them to work.
Next option is turn right at the Maybury Road traffic lights, but the sequencing is such that a long straight on sequence is followed by a short right turn. This means that if you approach when they are on red, it is easier to cross the 2 lanes of straight on traffic but you are then waiting ages for the right turn. If you approach when it is green for straight on then your wait will be quite short but it is very difficult to get across the lanes.
A common response is to stay in the left lane and take your chances going up the slope to the roundabout proper and heading straight across from the right hand lane. Takes a bit of traffic dodging but infinitely preferable to taking the underpass.
My current route of choice is to go onto the Southern pavement at the Marriott and follow that round to Gogar Roundabout, where you have to play leap frog over the 2 sets of queuing traffic trying to enter the Gyle. I then take the exit route from the Gyle onto the Roundabout and head across to A8 westbound exit (this saves having to play frogger directly with the traffic on the bypass (3 lanes then 4 lanes!)). Once exiting the roundabout I return to the southbound path.
The only risky bit with this is having a vehicle following you onto the Gogar Roundabout as they want to race through the next green light but experience has told me I can never make it (and most of the time they can't either) so I take it fairly easy setting off.
A complete guddle is a good description. On the bright side CEC have alotted £150k (& Sustrans matching it) for Gyle/Newbridge "Crossing improvements, resurfacing & signage", but I don't expect they will tackle Gogar.
@Snowy
I hit those same bushes first time I tried to get into town from Gogarburn.
I did see the signs at Maybury directing cyclists north when the town is east, but assumed they'd been turned to confuse invaders. I just hooked it up St John's Road, which wasn't as bad as I thought it would be apart from the PC World steel whirlpool/roundabout.
@IWRATS / Snowy - I was quite confused about your ability to miss that corner. My recollection was that there was a police box and a mobile vending stand blocking the straight on path.
As per Streetview (from 2012)
However, on closer inspection it now looks like this...
Maybury path divide by HankChief, on Flickr
Somewhere between 2012 & last summer (per streetview) the vending stand and police box have disappeared & I hadn't noticed.
@tulyar Whether the new Gogar Station will actually provide a direct route under the A8 at Maybury remains to be seen
But there may still be a chance to influence it...
Spokes put a lot of effort into this when the planning application for the station was submitted, including trying to get as many members and others as possible to submit their own objections...
http://www.spokes.org.uk/2009/11/a8-underpass-pushbikes-only/
Despite quite a few doing so, and support from Council transport department officials, there was a bureaucratic failure and the Network Rail plans for the underpass to be walking only were approved by the Council planning Cttee (bikes to be pushed).
Nonetheless we have taken various subsequent opportunities for a rethink, and reminded members to email MSPs about it (given that the Scottish Govt is providing most of the cash), but again still with no success.
Most recently we raised with the new Transport Minister the dreadful lack of consideration for cycling accessibility by Scottish Govt [Transport Scotland] rail officials and Network Rail, giving this as one of several examples.
I have just had a reply, which is pretty ambiguous but is the first faint glimmer of hope in the 5+ years since the planning application. It first repeats that Network rail is to construct a "pedestrian access underpass under the A8, as consented by City of Edinburgh Council." However it continues... "On-going discussions are centred around the future operation and management of the underpass, including options for mixed pedestrian-cycle access."
If there is a glimmer of hope it is only because cycling is now higher up the agenda in general, so it is that much harder for the government (and other bodies) to disown responsiblity. Albeit later in the letter Transport Scotland repeats its usual escape-clause mantra that it's all the responsibility of Network Rail and the Council.
Anyway, since discussions are taking place about this, it should be useful for those concerned to write to their MSPs asking them to lobby the Transport Minister, Derek Mackay; and to councillors asking them to lobby the Transport Convener, Lesley Hinds - to ensure that the underpass is fit for both walking and cycling.
NB: the underpass will provide pedestrian access (and should provide cycle access) not just to the station but also to the huge 'business gateway' to be developed beyond.
Interesting...
Can you please post some links to any recent plans/timescales/Spokes comments.
I thought there was some doubt about this happening at all.
http://www.networkrail.co.uk/aspx/11969.aspx
What's happening? - Gogar rail interchange
A new rail/tram interchange will improve access to Edinburgh airport for people from the North East of Scotland and Fife.
Better facilities for cyclists
The new station will include:
Secure, covered cycle parking for 100 cycles
Five cycle lockers immediately next to the station
CCTV coverage of the cycle park
Station lifts large enough to accommodate bikes
The subway under the A8 from the Gyle Shopping Centre will also provide access for both cycles and pedestrians.
"Station lifts large enough to accommodate bikes"
Well you'd hope so!
Question more is 'will lifts be big enough for those who don't want to walk up stairs - plus some bikes'.
"parking for 100 cycles"
Seems a lot. Will it be mostly used by local residents or RBS (etc.) workers from station to work and back??
What's the difference between secure bike parking and cycle lockers?
"secure bike parking"
I think that means 'racks with CCTV'.
This was Waverley on Monday (bank holiday). No idea how many were 'work bikes' having a day off!
My work is moving all its jobs to the centet of edinburgh someone thought we may be moving in to gogarburn wish we were center of edinburgh only place bike gets stuck in traffic jam
In principle, of course we need to strike a balance between different types of development. I do question the fuss over these particular offices though? Surely nothing to do with established New Town residents dreading the prospect of nouveaux riches, or even (perish the thought) working class residents moving to the area rather than simply commuting there for work?
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