NEWS
A series of u-turns throughout August has left the Edinburgh tram project back where it was at the beginning of the month – finishing in the city centre at St Andrew Square.
This eight-mile route is still less than the 11.5-mile stretch initially envisioned, when the tram was to run from the airport to Leith. But, despite being three-and-a-half miles shorter, it is costing hun- dreds of millions of pounds more than first thought.
Opposition councillors on Edin- burgh City Council had at one stage managed to cut back the scheme to finish at Haymarket, after the SNP (which rules the city in coalition with the Lib Dems) ab- stained on a crucial vote because of its longstanding opposition to the whole enterprise.
But this was unacceptable to the Scottish Government, which im- mediately threatened to withhold the final £72m tranche of fund- ing not yet committed. That was
enough to bring the SNP back on board, and they voted with their Lib Dem coalition partners at an emergency meeting on Friday, September 2, to restore the proj- ect’s scope to its previous level – terminating in the city centre.
The opposition Labour group,
which had been instrumental in cutting the project back to Hay- market, also reversed its position in the face of the Scottish Govern- ment’s threat.
Councillor Steve Cardownie, head
of the SNP group and deputy council leader, told the Edinburgh Evening News before the meet- ing: “The SNP group, despite all objections to the tram project, will step in to ensure that the line goes to St Andrew Square at least.
“The people of Edinburgh have been short-changed already. They were promised a line to Newhaven and we will not see them short- changed again by seeing the line curtailed
to Haymarket, which
lacks business sense and com- mon sense.”
Increase in journeys by light rail
The number of light rail journeys in England has increased, with revenues up a tenth, according to a report by the Department for Transport.
The number of passengers travelling by light rail or tram increased by more than 5% from 2009/10 to 2010/11. The number of journeys was last recorded as 196.5 million, which is the highest figure to date.
Revenue had also increased by 9% to £20.9m, which is the second highest it has ever been. Vehicle miles increased by 1.8% to 13.9 million, despite a 9% reduction in the number of available cars, largely caused by redevelopment work on the Blackpool Tramway.
Tyne and Wear Metro was the most profitable line, taking £6.4m, followed by the Manchester Metrolink, with £3.6m and the Croydon Tramlink, with £3.3m.
French train manufacturer Alstom has abandoned its bid to supply Crossrail rolling stock.
The announcement came as
Crossrail explained why the pro- cess to award the contract was being pushed back a year – both to save costs and to await the results of the review into procure- ment launched in the wake of the controversy over the Thameslink rolling stock decision.
Alstom declared that it didn’t be- lieve it had suitable carriages for Crossrail, and so would have to invest money in order to design rolling stock before entering the competition for the contract.
Crossrail is seeking a simple train design that fits in with its existing stock, rather than an innovative new design.
An Alstom spokesperson said:
“We consider that the necessary adaptation of our existing prod- ucts in service in other countries is incompatible with both Alstom’s strategy for profitable growth and Crossrail Ltd’s requirement for minimal development costs.”
© Crossrail
ing Berkshire and Essex to Central London, requires 60 new trains, each around 200m long and with capacity for 1,500 passengers.
There are four companies left in the running for the £1bn depot and rolling stock contract; Bom- bardier Transportation (UK) Ltd, Siemens, CAF and Hitachi Rail Europe Ltd.
The £16bn Crossrail project, link- 4 | rail technology magazine Aug/Sep 11
Explaining the decision to delay the procurement process, Andy Mitchell, Crossrail programme di- rector, explained: “Crossrail has identified that significant opera-
tional cost savings, running into tens of millions, can be realised for taxpayers by introducing Crossrail rolling stock to the rail network over a shorter period of time.
“Continuing with the original pro- curement programme would have delivered the new train fleet earlier than was necessary.”
In a statement, Crossrail said: “Crossrail now expects tender documents to be issued in 2012 to ensure that the bid period is not extended unnecessarily result- ing in increased costs to bidders.
Crossrail had previously indicated that the tender would be issued in late 2011 with contract award in late 2013.”
Crossrail will now introduce
rolling stock to the Great Eastern Main Line from May 2017, rather than December 2016, with the fleet progressively introduced to the existing rail network well in advance of services commencing through Crossrail’s central section. Under the
previous timescales,
much of the fleet would have been stored waiting for the Crossrail tunnels to be completed.
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 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92