History of Edinburgh the meantime the Old Town continued to decay into an increasingly dilapidated, overcrowded slum with high mortality rates, and was practically segregated socially from the rest of the city. This was especially true where the sub-division of tenements offered the cheapest lodgings in narrow alleyways that formed the backdrop to the infamous 'West Port Murders' of Burke and Hare. In 1865 Alexander Smith wrote of one of the poorest districts, The Cowgate is the Irish portion of the city. Edinburgh leaps over it with bridges: the inhabitants are morally and geographically the lower orders. They keep to their own quarters,
Transport in Edinburgh Edinburgh Crossrail - which commenced operations in 2002, running in an east-west axis across the city, linking the stations of Edinburgh Park, in the west with Haymarket, Waverley (in the city centre) and Brunstane and Newcraighall, to the east. The other stations in the city are South Gyle, Dalmeny (for South Queensferry), Slateford, Edinburgh Gateway, Kingsknowe, Wester Hailes and Curriehill. Haymarket railway station is the second major station in Edinburgh and is located in the heart of the west end of the city, which is an area of many offices and businesses, and is thus a popular station with commuters