Why city's tram planners should take another line

Published on Tuesday 18 March 2008 09:22

Just one route is coming to Edinburgh but City Council Reporter Alan Roden discovers that hopes are still high that part of a more ambitious scheme may yet be revived.

WITH three lines spanning the Capital in all directions, trams were billed as the emphatic answer to Edinburgh's congestion woes.

Back in 2001, plans for a 671 million network were unveiled, which would incorporate a loop from the city centre to Granton, a separate line from Princes Street to Newbridge and another route to the ERI and Newcraighall.

Fast forward seven years, and while the return of trams is no longer in doubt, describing the scheme as a "network" would be wrong. Instead, the project as it stands is just one line – known as 1a – running from Newhaven to the airport.

A spur from Haymarket to Granton, known as 1b, was put on hold when the tram plans were scaled back in 2006 amid fears that costs were spiralling out of control.

But last week, the council's transport firm TIE launched a project team to once again investigate ways of paying for this link, and it claims now to be "optimistic" that the exercise will go ahead.

Phase 1b could open by the end of 2012 – a year-and-a-half after the first line is completed – if a decision to proceed is taken by city councillors this year.

The route, which would run along the Roseburn Urban Wildlife Corridor, remains one of the most controversial elements of an already contentious scheme.

However, there is little doubt that something more akin to a tram network is preferable to the current one-line scenario.

In 2006, a report revealed that the Granton link will not bring in any more revenue than buses already do, and can only be justified because of its other benefits, such as encouraging major development in north Edinburgh.

Indeed, the Capital's booming economy is one of the reasons cited for the need to bring back trams.

There will be nearly 35,000 more people working in the city by 2015, and around 25,000 new homes are earmarked for north Edinburgh.

Trams can carry 20,000 passengers an hour – far more than buses – and some roads are expected to reach capacity for buses in as little as five years.

Therefore, without trams serving the shoreline, development prospects in Granton would be seriously damaged.

TIE has now secured a fixed price of 87 million to build the 1b line, if it can commit to the project before next spring.

The 543m already in place to build 1a includes 96m in "contingency" funding, which is designed to cover any further increases.

A few years ago, tram chiefs were confident they would not need to tap into this resource, but it is now understood only around half of the cash will be left to put towards the spur.

Among the options being considered for any funding gap is selling off council assets, such as land or publicly-owned buildings.

This is the least desirable option, and has rightly been branded by the Tories as "selling off the family silver".

Another possibility would be borrowing from either public or private sources, using so-called "innovative finance" – such as the SNP's long-awaited Scottish Futures Trust – to unlock additional investment to deliver the spur.

But the favoured option is to press for more developer contributions.

In some cities with trams, house prices have risen by up to 15 per cent and rental prices by up to seven per cent.

The council already expects the bulk of its 45m contribution to the 1a tram line to come from those who will benefit from it running alongside their developments. But new figures show that just 2.39m has been collected so far, while a paltry 3000 contribution from developers has so far been agreed towards the 1b line.

TIE executive chairman Willie Gallagher, pictured below, says: "The construction of line 1b is fundamental to the delivery of the economic benefits for the city and a core part of the trams' final business case.

"It has always been part of our plans and we will continue to develop the options that are open to us over the coming months."

Ultimately, it would be preferable for the tram route to incorporate the original idea of a complete loop from the city centre.

This would involve building the short stretch known as "phase two" from Leith Waterfront to Granton.

And tram line three to south Edinburgh remains as vital for the city's future success as it did when first proposed.

Unfortunately, a foolhardy decision was taken many years ago to prioritise the northern and western routes over this route, which then became dependant on the unlikely success of the road tolls proposal.

But it is becoming clear the best way to win future funding for this vital link – and further extensions – is to make Edinburgh's first tram line a clear success.