No one seems to have though of proposing a system which costs around a tenth of the price of a Metro but can carry up to 40,000 passengers per hour in each direction at a timetabled speed of 22mph. It can use the tram route but where there are gaps that doesn't matter - these can be completed later as long as there is a suitable road connection
To get the concept take a look at these 2 clips
http://www.streetfilms.org/curitibas-brt/ - a bus route carrying 300 passengers per bus at 30 second headways = a subway or tram system
and
http://www.streetfilms.org/mba-bus-rapid-transit/ - just watch how a hundred passengers get sucked up on to these multi door buses 40,000 pax/hour in one direction at a running speed of 22mph
First does have some small 'Streetcars' which do not work well being used like conventional buses in York - so we could get a basic demonstration of the principle by running over the tram route where minimal adjustment/reversion is required (ie Leith Walk-Princes Street).
I wonder what folk would make of a Curitiba/Geneva or other 25m 200+ passenger monster being used demonstrated. Could this be a way to salvage the Edinburgh 'tram' in its entirity - running oversize high capacity buses restricted to a dedicated network of roadways laid out to take them.
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