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Crossing shapes up as tram bridge progresses

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Published Date: 30 June 2009
CONSTRUCTION workers were overlooking work on the Hermiston Gait tram bridge over the Glasgow Main Line yesterday.
The tram workers are making good progress on construction in the west of the city, and the bridge near Edinburgh Park station is a key part of the development, allowing trams to cross the Edinburgh-Glasgow railway line.

Workers have begun placing structural beams in the deck of the bridge, a difficult logistical challenge as each of the 25 beams weighs around 70 tonnes.





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  • Last Updated: 30 June 2009 10:27 AM
  • Source: Edinburgh Evening News
  • Location: Edinburgh
  • Related Topics: Edinburgh transport plans
 
1

Euan,

Edinburgh 30/06/2009 12:22:54
Such a shame all their hard work will have been for nothing when the idiotic tram project runs out of money in the very near future and the entire scheme is scrapped indefinitely.

All we'll be left with is Edinburgh's version of a 'bridge to nowhere'...
2

Duncan in Edinburgh,

30/06/2009 12:54:02
No matter how many times you say it, it won't make it true.

The trams project will be completed. The sky will not fall and the system will be efficient and popular.

And the people who will end up looking idiotic are those like you who have predicted doom for years.
3

Incandescent,

30/06/2009 13:04:04
#2 Duncan

If, as seems likely, it is forced through against all logic, it will go into service at a date and cost that will make European, and especially Scandinavian civil engineers and project managers weep helplessly with mirth. That is the harsh fact of this sorry episode.

It may indeed indeed end up transporting a very small percentage of the population efficiently but, in terms of financial efficiency, it will be the tax-payers of Edinburgh who will be weeping for the foreseeable future.
4

Andrew,

30/06/2009 18:53:17
First line:- "Construction workers (who) were overlooking work" were forgetting just what exactly?
Should this not have read 'overseeing work' perhaps?
5

keith_stockport,

stockport 18/07/2009 13:51:46
All these arguments were trotted out 20 years ago in Manchester - there is now an excellent system in place being upgraded for a future expansion. I have spent two summers in Edinburgh near the route of the first line and see no reason why it won't be successful. Any time that something new is proposed you will get people like posters 1/3 who cannot cope with the idea. Ignore them - they aren't important.
6

daveserviceman,

edinburgh 28/07/2009 23:55:00
They had these complaints in 1905 when the original tram works started and the trolly buses should never have dug it up in 1958 we would not have the expense of putting it back in we would just have to have modernised it
7

Hmm ...,

11/08/2009 17:40:38
No, Dave #6 - even if we had kept the old tracks, they would not have been strong enough to carry the weight of these units - they are actually road-going trains - same gauge as the railways!

I hear incidentally, that Willie Gallagher, once of tie, told a lunch meeting of the Edinburgh Merchant Company that the cost now stood at £1 Billion - and rising.

Edinburgh has been unable so far to raise its £45 million contribution, how will it possibly be able to fund the £500 million it is now responsible for?

By borrowing, that's how - and a £500 million loan over thirty years at, say, 5% would need payments of over £32.5 million a year to pay off!

That should make quite a dent in Edinburgh's services!

And, of course, the optimistic passenger figures are out of the window now that the Waterfront redevelopment (the "inspiration" for the project) has collapsed.

I can see the City Council running free buses from large volume passenger generators like hospitals and colleges to the nearest spot on the tramline so that more people can use it!

 

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