Now tram system may be partly privatised, admit bosses

Published on Tuesday 14 June 2011 18:06

PART of Edinburgh's troubled tramline could be funded and completed by a private company if agreement is not reached with the current contractors, the city council has signalled.

Transport convener Gordon Mackenzie said that he had already had talks with a firm which had offered to finance and finish the route east from St Andrew Square in the city centre to Newhaven.

He ruled out separate trams being run on different parts of the line from Edinburgh Airport.He said a more likely scenario was the council being charged for using the eastern part of the route if it was built separately.

This approach has already been followed on the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) in London for an extension built and maintained by another firm.

Mr Mackenzie's move comes as the council faces a shortfall of 200 million to complete the line as far as St Andrew Square because of a two-year dispute with the construction consortium led by German firm Bilfinger Berger over changes. Councillors were due to decide in two weeks whether to keep the project going, or mothball or cancel it.

It is understood the full costs of these options may not be available in time.

Some 440m of the current 545m budget has already been spent, with only a few miles of tram track laid.

The outlay has also included diverting far more underground pipes and cables from the route than expected, building the fleet of 27 trams, and several bridges and viaducts.

Mr Mackenzie said: "We had an approach from a company interested in taking the tram forward once the current dispute is resolved.

"It offered to design, build, finance and operate a further part of the route to Newhaven. It also talked about operating the trams. We said we were not interested in someone else operating the route because we want that to be done by (council-owned] Lothian Buses.

"We could look at other models of delivery. There are people who have approached the council, saying, 'We would be happy to build extensions to a tram network', and then you get into a discussion as to whether they would run it or lease it to the council - that's a model which doesn't require the same upfront investment from the public sector."

Mr Mackenzie stressed the council was focused on reaching agreement with the Bilfinger Berger-led consortium first, and not seeking interest from other companies at this stage.

He said what could be looked at in the future, if required, was something similar to the planned Borders Railway between Edinburgh and Tweedbank.This will involve the winning bidder building and maintaining the line separately from the rest of the rail network, which is run by Network Rail, but which will be used by ScotRail trains paying an access charge.

Mr Mackenzie said: "That's certainly a model that could be looked at."

Tram consultant Scott McIntosh, of Mott MacDonald, said the arrangement had been successful on the DLR extension to Woolwich.

Mr McIntosh, who has worked extensively on tram schemes in England and Europe, said: "It has worked remarkably well, with everyone involved as happy as anyone can be. DLR is an experienced company and knows what it wants."

Tram critic John Carson doubted whether any other firm would want to get involved. Mr Carson this week announced he would stand as an independent anti-tram candidate in a city council by-election expected in August.

He said: "This is the biggest transport disaster in the world at the moment. I don't know why anybody would want to go near it."