Runaway trams

Published on Sunday 16 August 2009 20:51

When TIE and Edinburgh council refer to the £545 million "budget" for the airport to Newhaven tram line (your report, 14 August), it is easy to forget that original cost projections put the entire tram network – including the Granton loop and the Newbridge extension – at less than £400 million. Even by the time the project was being examined by the Scottish Parliament, TIE was claiming that the whole 19-mile scheme could be delivered for around £545 million.

Yet now we are being told that 545 million won't even buy 12 miles of tram line. All those lorry-loads of consultants' reports predicting costs and construction requirements appear to have contained serious errors. None of the other UK tram projects was affected by soaring costs or delays to completion, despite facing similar construction challenges. One is left with the inescapable conclusion that the Edinburgh scheme has been grossly mismanaged, and the council and TIE must jointly shoulder the blame.

ROBERT DRYSDALE

Primrose Bank Road

Edinburgh

The Edinburgh tram project, already late, over-budget and nowhere near completion, is set to be delayed further by another dispute with the contractors over costs and has all the makings of another Holyrood fiasco.

It is normal business practice to exchange contracts with a company which successfully tenders for a job, and if it has under-costed it, then it is the company's bad luck as, for example, with the renovation of London's Wembley stadium, when the Australian building company had to complete the project at a loss. The alternative was to walk away with no payment at all and also answer a lawsuit.

There is provision for this process also in Scottish law; it is puzzling that our leaders once more choose not to use it.

WALTER J ALLAN

Colinton Mains Drive

Edinburgh