Edinburgh tram goes ahead despite £200m funding gap


by Arthur Allan


City leaders have voted to press ahead with Edinburgh’s tram system, despite uncertainty over how to find a £200m-plus funding shortfall. Meanwhile, a former director at


Network Rail is so incensed by the scheme that he is seeking election in a bid to have it cancelled. After debating into the


night, councillors opted to try to complete the tram line from Edinburgh airport to the city centre. They decided against pulling out of their deal with a consortium led by Bilfinger Berger, despite a two-year dispute that has stalled the project. They also dismissed an option for a truncated route, after hearing that only a line to the city centre would deliver a profit. A previous report had found


that scrapping the scheme at this stage could cost over £700m for no benefit.


Council chief executive Sue


Bruce said the city centre route was ‘the only option that will, with a high degree of certainty, produce a tram line for Edinburgh, as the first building block of a future network’. She promised to work closely with the consortium, with whom she said the council had an ‘ever- improving relationship’.


However, the total costs


of the line are estimated at £725m to £773m. With the Scottish government ruling out further grants beyond its £500m contribution, this leaves the council seeking to borrow funds or involve the private sector. Paul Tetlaw of transport campaign group Transform Scotland called on the government to ‘show similar leadership’ to the council and provide extra money. But John Carson, retired


director of maintenance at Network Rail and a member of the team that set up Tubelines, is standing in a council by-election in August as an independent on an anti-tram platform. An increasingly vocal critic of the scheme, he said: ‘The impact of the tram on the city for decades to come won’t be an insignificant and manageable issue – it could be a devastating tsunami of debt.’


n arthur.allan@railpro.co.uk


News in brief


Car movements up DB Schenker has moved 15 per cent more cars by rail during the first quarter of 2011 than it did during the same period in 2010, signalling a further recovery in a key freight market. Cars manufactured in the south east are being moved by rail to north-west England and Scotland, while vehicles made in Oxford are taken to Purfleet for export.


Amey gets five contracts


Network Rail has awarded Amey five rail signalling contracts worth a total of £37m. The company has secured contracts in Yorkshire, Nottingham, Tameside, London and Devon for work ranging from detailed design and installations, through to testing and commissioning.


New locos for Colas


Colas Rail Freight has leased five Class 66 heavy haul locomotives from Eversholt Leasing. Simon Ball, Colas’ head of freight, said: ‘We are a confident freight business that’s seeing traffic growth in various business sectors. Buying these locomotives makes long term commercial sense.’


Artist’s impression of a tram on Princes St


FirstGroup: Rising fuel costs helping drive demand for rail travel n


FirstGroup says there is increased demand for rail


travel, with more people taking holidays in the UK, and reducing car use because of rising fuel prices. Its rail services, which include


First Great Western, First Capital Connect, ScotRail and TransPennine Express, saw like-for- like passenger revenues increase by 8.5 per cent in the three months to 30 June.


First says train travel is seen as


a cheaper alternative to driving, despite fares rising by an average of 6.2 per cent in January. The price of


a litre of petrol has increased by 15 per cent in the last year.


It says trains to the south-west and north-east coasts were boosted by more people choosing holidays in the UK, as the cost of flying and a relatively weak pound made going abroad more expensive. First is echoing Stagecoach, which last month said the price of petrol was a factor in its increased profits. It added that the reason for growing passenger numbers on the First Capital Connect commuter franchise was an increase in the


number of jobs in London. In the most recent National


Passenger Survey, First Capital Connect was the worst performing franchise, with First Great Western also in the bottom five operators. Shares rose seven per cent


following the announcement of the group’s trading update.


n FirstGroup’s UK graduate scheme attracted 749 applicants for its 2011/2012 intake – 50 per cent more applications than usual. The company was looking for just 17 graduates


Thameslink framework contract goes to Invensys


n


Invensys has been awarded the Resignalling Framework


Contract for Thameslink Programme by Network Rail. The overarching contract will consist of several smaller contracts running from August 2011 to December 2018.


Simon Kirby, Network Rail’s


director of investment projects, said: ‘By involving our delivery partners at an early stage, the industry will be able to deliver one of the most complex station, track and signalling projects being undertaken on the railway network in a generation.’ Despite the win, Invensys is currently looking to make up to 20 per cent of its 1,000 strong UK workforce redundant, after failing to win a signalling upgrade contract for London Underground.


AUGUST 2011 PAGE 11


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40