Trams to Newhaven: decision delayed until Spring

Councillors will make a final decision on whether or not to proceed with the Trams to Newhaven project in early 2019, it was announced yesterday.

Tenders for the project were received in early September and evaluations are ongoing. Councillors were originally due to make a decision on the tram line at December’s full council meeting but this has now been postponed until March next year.

The final stage in this process is to seek best and final offers from the bidders and to clarify specific elements of the bids received, which will then be used to complete the Final Business Case for consideration by elected members.

Transport and Environment Convener Councillor Lesley Macinnes said: “We have adopted a very thorough and robust process for the Trams to Newhaven project throughout, learning crucial lessons from what went wrong previously.

“We have been very clear from the outset that we will not bring forward the Final Business Case for tram until we have vigorously tested the cost and time estimates with the market.”

Vice Transport and Environment Convener Councillor Karen Doran said: “It is important for the Council to have sufficient time to undertake due diligence and comprehensive evaluation of the final submissions and we have therefore decided to take extra time to allow this process to take place.

“We have also asked officials to extend the ongoing consultation period on the project design and plans until 11 November to ensure maximum participation and we look forward to the Final Business Case being presented to councillors for a decision in March 2019.”

A completed tram line to Newhaven will transport almost 14 million passengers in its first year of operation, more than double the current patronage on the award-winning Edinburgh Airport to York Place service (if it gets the go-ahead, of course! – Ed)

The Council has undertaken extensive consultation with residents and businesses in Leith and Newhaven to inform the final design of the proposed route and has proposed a £2.4m Support for Business package during the construction period.

Members of the public can view the Trams to Newhaven project designs and plans, which have been updated thanks to public feedback from consultation earlier in the summer, until Sunday 11 November on the Council’s Consultation Hub.

Meanwhile, there is still no end in sight to the long-running Tram Inquiry.

The Inquiry was set up to establish why the Edinburgh Trams project incurred delays, cost more than originally budgeted and through reductions in scope delivered significantly less than projected.

The official terms of reference for the Inquiry are to:

• Inquire into the delivery of the Edinburgh Trams project (‘the project’), from proposals for the project emerging to its completion, including the procurement and contract preparation, its governance, project management and delivery structures, and oversight of the relevant contracts, in order to establish why the project incurred delays, cost considerably more than originally budgeted for and delivered significantly less than was projected through reductions in scope.
• Examine the consequences of the failure to deliver the project in the time, within the budget and to the extent projected.
• Review the circumstances surrounding the project as necessary, in order to report to the Scottish Ministers making recommendations as to how major tram and light rail infrastructure projects of a similar nature might avoid such failures in future.