{"id":1086908,"date":"2026-07-13T16:43:30","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T16:43:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1086908\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T16:43:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T16:43:30","slug":"bus-disruption-in-edinburgh-to-continue-indefinitely-after-princes-street-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1086908\/","title":{"rendered":"Bus disruption in Edinburgh to continue indefinitely after Princes Street fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Disruption to public transport in Edinburgh city centre is expected to continue while a probe into a fire at a former department store is carried out.<\/p>\n

Bus services have been re-routed away from Princes Street to George Street while the city’s trams are operating on a reduced network as a result of the blaze at the old Debenhams site last week.<\/p>\n

Lothian Buses said the situation was “fluid” and there was no date for a full reopening of the network.<\/p>\n

Police Scotland and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) said an investigation into the cause of the fire was ongoing.<\/p>\n

City of Edinburgh Council leader, Jane Meagher, warned disruption to services was “inevitable”.<\/p>\n

Officers from the fire investigation unit have now been granted access to the building.<\/p>\n

The probe was previously unable to get under way due to concerns over its structural safety<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Images from the scene show the roof of the building was completely destroyed, while other parts have been severely damaged.<\/p>\n

Tram services are only operating between the west end and the airport.<\/p>\n

A large section of Rose Street and Rose Street South Lane remain closed.<\/p>\n

\"Fire<\/p>\n

50 firefighters were tackling the blaze at its height [Dillon Laing]<\/p>\n

It comes ahead of a busy period for the city, with road closures due to come into force ahead of the festival season at the end of July.<\/p>\n

George Street is usually closed to traffic during August, when bars and venues are permitted to extend across the road.<\/p>\n

Willie Hamilton, Lothian Buses chief operating officer, said the current closures posed a “significant challenge” to operators and commuters.<\/p>\n

He said: “Princes Street is right at the heart of Edinburgh’s public transport network, so any closure has a huge impact.<\/p>\n

“We are involved in discussions on a daily basis and I would urge anybody, when they are travelling to check in advance.<\/p>\n

“It is a fluid situation and it will be changing, sometimes hour to hour.”<\/p>\n

He added: “Once we’ve got a date for length of time for this, that will determine whether the upcoming closures, for example of George Street for the festival, has to be a consideration or not.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Bus services have been diverted away from Princes Street to George Street during the closure [BBC]<\/p>\n

At its height, 50 firefighters were battling the flames<\/a> at the B-listed building after being called to the scene in the early hours of Thursday.<\/p>\n

The building previously housed part of the Debenhams department store, which closed in May 2021 following another fire the previous month.<\/p>\n

River Island and Levi’s had shops on the ground floor of the building but both units have closed.<\/p>\n

It was in the process of being transformed into Scotland’s first Zedwell hotel after the site was bought by real estate firm Criterion Capital, owned by billionaire Asif Aziz.<\/p>\n

A planning application, lodged in March, would have seen the building clad in a false fa\u00e7ade including an advertising screen to hide building work prior to the fire.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The roof of the building was destroyed and large sections have been badly damaged [BBC]<\/p>\n

Council leader Jane Meagher warned commuters who use public transport to plan for their journeys to be disrupted.<\/p>\n

She added: “We will reopen Princes Street as soon as it’s safe to do so but, with investigations ongoing at the site, it’s too early to say when that will be.<\/p>\n

“This is one of our main thoroughfares, so I’m afraid it’s inevitable that its ongoing closure will lead to travel and other disruption in the city centre.<\/p>\n

“We’re doing everything we can to keep the city moving and are working closely with our bus and tram colleagues to keep delays to a minimum.<\/p>\n

“We also recognise the effect this is having on city centre businesses and have been in touch with them to offer our support.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Disruption to public transport in Edinburgh city centre is expected to continue while a probe into a fire…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1086909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,43882,1102,227682,4884,297166,29072,34379,175229,712,16,15],"class_list":["post-1086908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edinburgh","tag-britain","tag-bus-services","tag-edinburgh","tag-george-street","tag-great-britain","tag-jane-meagher","tag-lothian-buses","tag-princes-street","tag-rose-street","tag-scotland","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116913677014885430","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1086908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1086908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1086908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1086909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1086908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1086908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1086908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}