Edinburgh trams.

[joshd]

I thought we should have a topic for the discussion of the continual failings of the contractors commissioned to build the Edinburgh tram routes. There has been delay after delay, route changes, route shortages, resignations, legal battles, monetary demands, and it doesn't seem to be coming to a close soon.

The company that has been contracted to build the routes, Bilfinger Berger, now wants £700,000,000 to continue building, leaving a whopping £200,000,000 funding gap with Edinburgh city council.

There has been a lot of stupid things such as laying the wrong sort of track etc etc and it is already more than three years behind schedule.

I admit it will look good, when finished, if ever.

Leave your thoughts if you wish on how the Scottish Government and Edinburgh City Council could have handled the situation better.

Josh.

PS here is a preview of what it should look like once finished!

[61653]

I don't know much about the situation in Scotland, but it seems to me that the contractors haven't been up to scratch, suggesting that the tender for the work was probably rushed and flawed, and awarded by people who didn't know what they were doing and didn't get the right advice from engineers etc., so simply plumped for the cheapest bid. There should be a department of the DfT (or the Holyrood equivalent) specifically for handling major infrastructure projects like this. That way, tram projects can build on lessons learned in Sheffield, Nottingham, Croydon and Manchester; HS2 can build on the skills base aquired through building HS1; the list could go on. Also, that way there'd be no way the Luton-Dunstable link would be being built as a guided busway: Surely the St. Ives-Cambridge debacle should have sunk this 'Emperor's New Clothes' nonsense!


At least eventually, Edinburgh will have at least some transport infrastructure befitting a capital city, and not some glorified bus-lanes!

[Griff]

It was all so much easier back in the day. They just plonked down tram tracks left, right and centre. Should never have decommissioned them all.

[orudge]

Upon reflection now, I do quite wish that the SNP had been able to cancel the project when they came to power (as they wanted to). It's caused no end of disruption in Edinburgh, and we're still no closer to actually having these fabled trams. That money could have gone a long way to dualling the most dangerous bits of the A9, or making improvements to the Aberdeen - Inverness railway line (such as sorting out Inveramsay Bridge), or closing the gap in the M8, or any number of other projects that would actually be useful. Edinburgh has a top-notch bus service, and while trams may well be nice (I certainly wouldn't object to them if they could actually get them built competently), there are other cities and towns in Scotland that need transport improvements much more than Edinburgh needs a vanity tram.

[Ploes]

It upsets me, that even if they "Finish it" to the square, it will mean all roadworks on Leith Walk with have been for nothing.

[Born Acorn]

Upon reflection now, I do quite wish that the SNP had been able to cancel the project when they came to power (as they wanted to). It's caused no end of disruption in Edinburgh, and we're still no closer to actually having these fabled trams. That money could have gone a long way to dualling the most dangerous bits of the A9, or making improvements to the Aberdeen - Inverness railway line (such as sorting out Inveramsay Bridge), or closing the gap in the M8, or any number of other projects that would actually be useful. Edinburgh has a top-notch bus service, and while trams may well be nice (I certainly wouldn't object to them if they could actually get them built competently), there are other cities and towns in Scotland that need transport improvements much more than Edinburgh needs a vanity tram.

Would they spend that money on roads though? Swampy and his kind seem to have irked all levels of government away from road improvements.

[orudge]

You've not been paying much attention to what's been going in Scotland recently, have you? We've just spent a huge amount of money on a nice new bit of city motorway in Glasgow, we're finishing the M80, we've completed all sorts of assorted road improvements in the past few years, and we're building a new Forth Road Bridge soon! As well as, hopefully, the Aberdeen bypass, once these stupid idiots stop being annoying, or the courts overrule them. We still like roads, for the most part, because we realise we don't really have many alternatives for much of the country!

[Born Acorn]

I suppose in Scotland, but it seems down here every hurdle there is must be jumped through. For example, the Wrexham Industrial Estate access road has been in planning since the 1970's, but legal and financial problems have meant work only started in June!

[orudge]

Indeed, things are a tad grimmer in England in particular, Wales also. To be fair, local council schemes up here are few and far between and mostly take ages too, but national schemes tend to get done. It should of course be noted that the M74 was meant to have been built (along a different route) over 30 years ago, the M80 probably should have been built over a decade ago, and so on, so in a way we're just playing catch-up.

[audigex]

On a positive note, I had a lovely Scotch Pie earlier.

[alan63]

nice idea mannn i like that!

[teccuk]

Yet another twist in the ongoing saga.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14765978

I am so effing glad i'm not working on this.

[Kevo00]

Honestly, I think Lyle Lanley has been working on this project. What are they going to do with the lines laid down Leith Walk; just leave them there as a white elephant?

Trouble with this episode is that it has cast doubt on the viability of trams as a technology, even though this episode is about poor project management, and has nothing to do with the viability of trams. John Kay (who I do actually have time for) had a go in the FT this week, and so did the Economist. Unfortunately, the outlook is bleak when the newspapers the financiers read queue up to have a go.

[Ploes]

Why could they not have just gone for Trolleybuses?

[Kevo00]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-e ... e-14965150

I know its a different policy area but it does seem like Edinburgh City Council's transparency and governance standards are not the best.

[Born Acorn]

Is any council scandal free?

[John]

Is any council scandal free?

No,


But then the worst my council has managed recently is to close a school, then change their mind after the local elections (that Bath and North East Somerset).

Not quite the same league though.

[Born Acorn]

I think the only thing ours has done recently is that it still went for City Status for the town; against an opinion poll.

[Kevo00]

Ah, good old BANES. That's a familiar name from Private Eye's Rotten Boroughs column, although maybe more so a few years ago than now.

The point re Edinburgh was that the council were abusing Edinburgh specific powers to preserve the specific character of the New Town(s) by allowing friendly contractors to overcharge - doesn't sound a million miles away from the tram scandal.

[audigex]

My absolute favourite thing about the Edinburgh trams is that the artists impression photos all seem to assume that it's going to be raining. Scottish Optimism is the best kind.