Official launch of Edinburgh's City Centre West East Link (CCWEL) on March 20, 2024 - including interviews with Active Travel Minister Patrick Harvie and council transport convener Scott Arthur.
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00:00 One of Edinburgh's biggest ever cycle projects is now officially open.
00:04 City centre West East Link, CC Well, goes all the way from Rosebourne to Leith Walk.
00:09 Active Travel Minister Patrick Harvey arrived by bike for the opening ceremony, and the project was a big welcome.
00:16 This is a really big day for Edinburgh as we're seeing the completion of 10 years of work.
00:24 You know, it has taken a long time to get a project like this from idea to design to delivery
00:32 and then cycling through the ribbon for the first time as the project's open.
00:37 I want to celebrate all of the work that's gone in from the professionals, the folk at the council and so on,
00:44 but also from the community campaigners who've made this happen.
00:48 We need to learn a lot from projects like this about how to do it faster.
00:52 That's one of the things that the Scottish Government's working on really actively at the moment.
00:56 But also how to join up record levels of investment coming into active travel from the Scottish Government
01:02 with that really ambitious network planning that lots of local authorities, including Edinburgh, are getting better at these days.
01:09 And you're hoping that this will obviously encourage more people to cycle.
01:13 How many people do you think are going to be taking that up?
01:17 Well, we do see a big increase in people wanting to travel actively, whether that's walking or cycling.
01:23 Some of that's been experienced through the pandemic, for example, when people shifted the way they were travelling.
01:29 But it's a long-term trend as well. It's not just been in those last few years. It's a long-term trend.
01:35 And I think we can achieve the kind of transformational change that some other European cities and countries have achieved already
01:43 by having long-term, sustained investment in making communities that are safe and attractive for people to walk, wheel and cycle.
01:51 And when you do that, you'll help to reinvigorate the local high street.
01:55 Local high streets have been suffering a lot in recent years, but when people travel actively instead of just driving through them,
02:02 they spend more time, they spend more money and they create much more vibrant communities.
02:09 Pupils from local primary schools were among the first to test out the route, and Council Transport Convener Scott Arthur says
02:15 CC Well is a landmark project and paints the way for the future.
02:20 So this has taken quite a long time before you've managed to reach today.
02:25 Yeah, ten years. It feels like the end of an era.
02:29 So it's been through three council administrations, two elections, a legal challenge, and also cuts have held back its progress as well.
02:38 But here we are today after all that time and all those obstacles, it's now open.
02:44 And I think the fact that it's got through all that tells you that there's fundamentally something good and something worthwhile about this scheme.
02:52 And how will you know whether it's been a success?
02:56 Fundamentally, it's about people using it, I guess.
03:00 And what we keep on hearing from people is that they want more investment in cycling and walking in the city.
03:07 They want the cycle network to be well connected.
03:09 And what we've got just now, in too much of the city we've got little bits of cycle lane that aren't connected to anything.
03:15 But what CC Well really does well, if I can use that phrase, is it connects just west of the city centre, right through the city centre,
03:24 and then by 2027 through George Street and then on to Leith Walk.
03:28 So it's that connected up cycle network that lets people make those journeys through the city centre without having to use their car.
03:36 Really transformative for the city actually, long overdue.