It is almost a year since The Scotsman published a "platform" article as an open letter to Jenny Dawe, the leader of Edinburgh City Council. All that the lady managed in reply was to tell us that "the trams will be well worth waiting for". Well, Jenny we are still waiting!
It has been a year of utter frustration for the citizens of the city who have seen work grinding to a standstill while the huge inconvenience of re-routed traffic and dramatic increases in pollution have made life a misery for so many. But people forget that during this period of inactivity the project is still draining money away.
The original budget which was due to cover a "network" has been cut progressively so that the Council now say that they only aim to construct a line from Edinburgh Airport to St Andrew Square, however, many experts and some comments, coming from those in touch with sources close to the contractors, say that there is only enough money to get to Haymarket. For many this might be a blessed relief as it might allow some semblance of normality to be restored to the New Town if Shandwick Place was to be reopened to traffic.
During the year representatives of Transport Initiatives Edinburgh (Tie) have repeatedly blamed the contractor while denying any reply from them. But the Council are paying the price for a hopelessly flawed contract which was a bespoke effort and did not use the format of major international construction contracts, thus leaving the Council completely vulnerable. They have been paying for this incompetence ever since. Added to which the Council has managed to alienate the Lothian Bus unions by proposing that the trams should be integrated with the buses to form Transport Edinburgh Ltd (TEL). So we have the prospect of our excellent bus services being drained of profit to fund the tram disaster - not good news for anyone.
Currently Tie and the contractors cannot even agree how they are to conduct their discussions to try and resolve the dispute. As they say, this saga has still got a very long way to run.
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Trams completion date
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The above photo, with the banner promising "Edinburgh Trams - Arriving 2011", was taken while work was being carried out on Princes Street at the foot of the Mound in June 2009.
Given that the dispute with Bilfinger Berger has set the project back by over a year, the money is not there to complete the line to Leith (and possibly not even there for St Andrew Square), I hope that at least we'll see trams running on a reduced route to Haymarket by Spring 2012.