Edinburgh Tram Project: Can it be brought back from the brink?

Published on Friday 1 October 2010 17:20

DESPITE all TIE's fighting talk about salvaging the tram project by opening part of the route next year, it is now on the brink of disaster.

The 18-month impasse between the tram firm and its construction contractors appears to be reaching a head, even before TIE has exercised its threat to pull the plug on the Bilfinger Berger-led consortium.

TIE still hoped to completed the off-road section between Edinburgh Airport and Haymarket, despite the dispute halting work on street sections.

But with the contractors slimming back to a skeleton staff, the already slow progress of work is likely to reduce to a snail's pace, leaving the tramway little more than a deadlocked building site.

City council-owned TIE is now faced with a lengthy and costly legal battle with the consortium when they finally part company.

TIE also appears to be losing hands down in the independent adjudication process to solve the dispute.

The latest development signals a further delay of months - possibly years - in getting the project completed. New contractors will almost certainly have to be found, and new funding to pay them.

This has raised fears that council-owned Lothian Buses will be asset-stripped to raise the extra millions required. TIE chief executive Richard Jeffrey is due to take a similar post at bus and tram umbrella body Transport Edinburgh, which, it is feared, could pave the way.

The council appears to have no option but plough on with the tram scheme alone.

Jettisoning it after spending 400 million would be politically unacceptable with elections looming, and there will be no more money from the next Scottish Government, whether it be SNP or Labour.