Richard Jeffrey, the recently appointed Chief Executive of tie, has admitted for the first time the project to return trams to the streets of Edinburgh is not running to schedule and that it is unlikely to be finished in the budgeted cost. Mr Jeffrey was talking to the Edinburgh Evening News and stressed that the current situation is entirely reversible and is not as bad as its made out to be.
Mr Jeffrey said: The project will not be delivered in July 2011. We are working as hard as we can to make sure we are up and running as soon as we can I have a pretty good idea when that will be but it's not appropriate to announce that while we are still in talks with contractors. At the moment the plan is to stick with the original plan and open the entire route from Newhaven to the airport fully working, fully functional. However six months of training and shadow running has been designated for the route from Gogar depot to Edinburgh Park if that goes well there's a chance to reduce that six months and open other sections. But having put the city through this level of disruption, having spent this money, we have to make sure that when it opens, everything is fantastic from day one."
Moving on the budget, Mr Jeffrey confirmed that it is highly likely the line will cost more than the £512 million allocated to it, but did not comment on how much over: We're in discussions with contractors at the moment to agree on a revised programme and costs it wouldn't be sensible to discuss figures. However, he did mention that the figure will not go over the contingency figure but will rest somewhere between the original figure (£512m) and the contingency figure (£545m).
Mr Jeffrey also commented: We are replacing infrastructure that in some places is 150 years old. You can do so much in site studies and investigations but something will always crop up that's written into the project. I think we could have treated the city with a bit more respect. That's about how we communicate with businesses and the public in the way we plan and develop works and even about good housekeeping keeping areas where we are working tidy and professional. There is huge support around the city. People have said this is 'mission impossible', but since I have taken it on I've felt so enthused about everything. There's this great sense of being part of something that will be so good."
Source: The Scotsman