Edinburgh trams.

[hibee reborn]

Just out of interest, can someone explain easily and clearly what is going on?

[Ed De Gramo]

Just out of interest, can someone explain easily and clearly what is going on?

I'll try....

Basically the company hired to complete the project are taking too long and will probably end up being fired.....forcing either the tram works to be halted or more likely a new company taking over....

Either way its all ******ed up and waaaaaay behind schedule :grr::grr:

[lapsedhibee]

Just out of interest, can someone explain easily and clearly what is going on?

There's a short documentary out there somewhere explaining that in essence it's a £500 million project to replace the number 22 bus. The documentary footage includes a wee guy with a moustache's reaction to this truth.

[GhostofBolivar]

There's a short documentary out there somewhere explaining that in essence it's a £500 million project to replace the number 22 bus. The documentary footage includes a wee guy with a moustache's reaction to this truth.

I thought it was a £500m project to ferry tourists from the airport to Ocean terminal without them ever having to interact with a local.

[khib70]

Just out of interest, can someone explain easily and clearly what is going on?
Mainly lots of guys in high-vis waistcoats looking into holes in the ground and scratching their heads:rolleyes:

[hibsbollah]

http://www.edinburghtrams.com/index.php/route_map/

[Phil D. Rolls]

The company building the system has got the council by the short and curlies. It is a tactic they have used elsewhere - get the thing beyond the point of no return and then ask for more money.

The council is refusing to play ball, so no work is getting done.

[J-C]

What I've been told is Edinburgh agreed in the contract to pay a certain amount of money per month for the costs etc, Hillfiger Berger decided they wanted more money as they are struggling money wise on this and other projects. The council have told them where to go and that the money originally being paid on the monthly basis was all they were getting, so Hillfiger Berger have basically downed tools and are refusing to carry on with the work in the city centre.

This may put them in breech of contract due to the fact that monies that were agreed is all the council have to pay, so the council are staking them to court and suing them for breech of contract.

I think the way the council are thinking is lose £200m now or keep going and take a £700m hit on completion, which is now being said to be around 2014, 3 years over the original completion date.

[heretoday]

Meanwhile that costly extravagance - the no 22 bus - rumbles on....

[Phil D. Rolls]

Meanwhile that costly extravagance - the no 22 bus - rumbles on....

Although no longer on the guided dodgem track at Broomhoose, which seems to be broken.

[Mibbes Aye]

What I've been told is Edinburgh agreed in the contract to pay a certain amount of money per month for the costs etc, Hillfiger Berger decided they wanted more money as they are struggling money wise on this and other projects. The council have told them where to go and that the money originally being paid on the monthly basis was all they were getting, so Hillfiger Berger have basically downed tools and are refusing to carry on with the work in the city centre.

This may put them in breech of contract due to the fact that monies that were agreed is all the council have to pay, so the council are staking them to court and suing them for breech of contract.

I think the way the council are thinking is lose £200m now or keep going and take a £700m hit on completion, which is now being said to be around 2014, 3 years over the original completion date.

If I've read this correctly then essentially the delay is because the Council are trying to resist getting stiffed by a contractor over public money.

Seems a reasonable stance.

[Mibbes Aye]

Meanwhile that costly extravagance - the no 22 bus - rumbles on....

The good old 22 :greengrin

I remember it, albeit vaguely, before its route went along the Approach Road as the gleaming spearhead of Lothian Buses. Was a good service then and it became an even better one when it was recast.

The trams were never about a competition with the 22 though. It was a simple business case - more people are going to live in Edinburgh and it will be in the north of the city. More people are going to work in Edinburgh and it will be in the west of the city. For that to work, you need transit from the centre to the north and to the west. Cars would mean gridlock. The extra buses would mean more pollution and potential gridlock.

The recession has slowed this process down but it doesn't really change the basics. If and when Edinburgh continues to develop and grow, it will do so pretty much as originally planned - residential build in the north, business expansion in the west - and that's what the trams were meant to help deal with.

[Phil D. Rolls]

The good old 22 :greengrin

I remember it, albeit vaguely, before its route went along the Approach Road as the gleaming spearhead of Lothian Buses. Was a good service then and it became an even better one when it was recast.

The trams were never about a competition with the 22 though. It was a simple business case - more people are going to live in Edinburgh and it will be in the north of the city. More people are going to work in Edinburgh and it will be in the west of the city. For that to work, you need transit from the centre to the north and to the west. Cars would mean gridlock. The extra buses would mean more pollution and potential gridlock.

The recession has slowed this process down but it doesn't really change the basics. If and when Edinburgh continues to develop and grow, it will do so pretty much as originally planned - residential build in the north, business expansion in the west - and that's what the trams were meant to help deal with.

I'm a fan of trams, but the West of the city argument would be stronger if it actually went through Edinburgh Park instead of only stopping at Gogar.

Of course it scoots past Fred Goodwin's Lubianka at Gogarbank, and I wonder how much the project was part of his quest for personal deification.

[gringojoe]

There's a short documentary out there somewhere explaining that in essence it's a £500 million project to replace the number 22 bus. The documentary footage includes a wee guy with a moustache's reaction to this truth.

If that's the documentary I saw it said the money spent so far, not the final bill, would have been enough to pay for free public transport in Edinburgh for 10 years.

[BroxburnHibee]

I'm a fan of trams, but the West of the city argument would be stronger if it actually went through Edinburgh Park instead of only stopping at Gogar.

Of course it scoots past Fred Goodwin's Lubianka at Gogarbank, and I wonder how much the project was part of his quest for personal deification.

It is to cut right through the park from Hermiston Gait.

The bridge over the railway is almost complete.

Waste of money.

[Phil D. Rolls]

It is to cut right through the park from Hermiston Gait.

The bridge over the railway is almost complete.

Waste of money.

Thanks, I hadn't been aware of that. In that case it will cut down quite a bit of traffic coming across town to EP, and IMO is a bit better value for money.

[Jack]

So its gone from lines, to line and now its a li :rolleyes:

http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/scotland/Exclusive-Trams-set-to-stop.6378495.jp

[sg7nil]

And now it's not even going to enter Leith as it's going to stop at York Place.

Total waste of money.. stop it NOW! fill in the holes in the road and recover them with tarmac before more money is simply thrown away.

It wouldn't be so bad but the bit that's not being built now is the bit that had the most work done on it already.

It also put a lot of small businesses out of business, I wonder if any of those people will be compensated? (not bloody likely!)