Too many trams - 'This is typical of the project so far'

Published on Friday 12 August 2011 11:05

THE poor, beleaguered team at trams firm TIE could have been forgiven if they had watched the London riots last week hoping for a bit more looting and burning in Croydon.

A couple of Molotov cocktails lobbed into the local transport depot in that particular borough might have been their best chance to recoup a proportion of their losses - by flogging some of their own excess trams to Transport for London.

The riots are, of course, no laughing matter. But, then again, neither is the ridiculous situation we find ourselves in here in Edinburgh with at least 10, and possibly as many as 20, trams more than we will need any time soon.

Having ordered 27 trams right at the start of the project for the original multi-line route, TIE and the council had hoped to now sell or lease most of them.

According to the latest budget, put to the city council when it voted in June to continue with the project, that might have brought in a much-needed 20 million.

That might seem small change in the scheme of things for a project which is careering its way to a likely cost of 750m or more.

But that 20m, like every penny over the Scottish Government's 500m contribution, will need to be found from local coffers.

Meanwhile, we have the prospect of 27 trams serving a line between the Airport and the city centre of less than ten miles, meaning they should at least be more easily found than taxis.

The News still hopes to see a working tram line in the Capital one day soon but it is impossible to see this latest difficulty as anything other than typical of the mismanagement of the project from the start.

Labour can't hide from its share of responsibility for all that has gone wrong, but spokeswoman Lesley Hinds is right to ask why 27 trams were ordered in bulk so early on, when it should have been obvious that some parts of the line might be operational before others.

But then again, that would have required some common sense and foresight - two qualities that have been sorely lacking in the entire trams fiasco.