Tram chief predicts turnaround in public opinion

Published on Thursday 21 May 2009 22:22

PUBLIC opinion will swing behind Edinburgh's tram scheme after the first tracks are laid next month and it will come to be seen as indispensable, the project's new chief has told The Scotsman.

Richard Jeffrey said he was also certain there would be clamour for tram extensions after the first line was opened.

The chief executive of TIE, the city council's tram firm, also insisted the Edinburgh Airport-Newhaven route would be completed within the 545 million available funding.

However, he admitted the latest delay of several months from July 2011, which he announced on Wednesday, could push the opening date into 2012.

Mr Jeffrey said this year's bitter dispute with TIE's construction consortium over work in Princes Street had still to be finally resolved, but he was working to improve relations.

He said there were more than 400 issues outstanding on the overall project, but these had had "little or no impact" so far and the number was normal for the size of the project.

One issue, which Mr Jeffrey would only say related to the "nature of changes to the contract", will next week be the first to go to a mediation process.

Critics have questioned the cost of the project and the disruption caused to the city centre by the roadworks.

Mr Jeffrey announced that tram tracks – the first visible signs of the line – would be laid in Princes Street in the second week of June, with sections of the road west of the Mound being re-opened to pedestrians over the following two months.

"This will lead to a much more positive environment. I'm confident there will be an overall shift in public opinion this year," he said.

The tram chief compared the project to the building of the Forth Bridge by the Victorians. He said: "It is on a par with those great engineering projects of the past – on that scale of magnitude and importance for the city.

"This is the most complex project in Scotland for a generation."