Tag: transport

Council sets up pothole posse

Lucky City Centre … but North Edinburgh will have to wait

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A new initiative by the City of Edinburgh Council is set to tackle the capital’s worst potholes and road defects resulting from winter weather. A dedicated team of neighbourhood staff has been put together to coordinate an intensive programme of repairs concentrating on main arterial routes – but North Edinburgh won’t be seeing any additional pothole attention anytime soon. Continue reading Council sets up pothole posse

Forth Road Bridge to re-open tomorrow

Green light for Forth Bridge traffic following 18 day closure

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The Forth Road Bridge will be open to vehicles except HGVs from tomorrow morning. The bridge was closed for safety reasons following the discovery of a cracked crossmember, but temporary repairs will allow the bridge to reopen ahead of schedule. Continue reading Forth Road Bridge to re-open tomorrow

Forth Bridge travel plan: so far, so good?

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Transport Minister Derek Mackay has thanked travellers for their patience during the first week of disruption caused by the closure of the Forth Road Bridge.

Early indications show that the travel plan launched last Sunday is helping to minimise the impact on journey times for people moving between Fife and Edinburgh.

At its peak, the Traffic Scotland website recorded over 3 million hits per day – three times more than normal – from people wishing to receive regular updates on the status of the network and plan their journeys. The plan has undergone several refinements throughout the week.

Over the course of the week journey times on the A907 diversion during peak morning hours fell by over 30 minutes, demonstrating the effectiveness of the ongoing refinements.

In addition, in response to concerns brought forward by local businesses and communities, the restrictions on the dedicated Bus/Goods Vehicle prioritisation corridor on the A985 from Kincardine Roundabout and Cairneyhill Roundabout have been lifted to accommodate all goods vehicles during weekdays, and all vehicles on weekday nights and at weekends.

ScotRail have introduced an extra early morning train on Tuesday to supplement the additional services already running, bringing the number of extra seats on offer across the Forth Rail Bridge up to 10,000 per day. This extra capacity represents an increase in 64% on usual passenger numbers.

Over the past week Stagecoach have provided an additional 33 vehicles per day, equating to an extra 11,000 seats, for services between Halbeath, Ferrytoll and Dunfermline to Edinburgh and Livingston, operating up to every 10 minutes at peak times. Journey times are relatively consistent at 1hr 30mins

Transport Minister Derek Mackay said: ““I wish to thank the public for their patience and forbearance during this last week. I appreciate that many people have had to make significant changes to their travelling plans and, through their cooperation, we have succeeded in keeping the transport network in Fife operational and getting people to and from where they need to be.

“We have been constantly monitoring the situation and taking on board the advice and concerns of the local communities to ensure that we are doing the very best job that we can. At the centre of this co-ordination has been our comprehensive travel plan, which we have taken steps to refine over the last week

“Although certain services do remain busy, there does remain some capacity on certain routes, especially on the bus network. I encourage people to keep checking the travel plan published on the Traffic Scotland website for the latest advice.

“The team responsible for fixing the bridge are working 24/7 to get it reopened as soon as possible and are making good progress. It is of course vital that until it’s repaired we continue to explore what further improvements can be made to the travel plan and take on board feedback.”

Phil Verster, Managing Director of the ScotRail Alliance, said that further refinements to the timetable will deliver further improvements. “We’ve listened to customers’ feedback this week and fine-tuned the timetable to add in extra stops at Rosyth and stations south of the Forth on selected services from today,” he said. “The information is already on our website and in journey planners. We’re doing everything we can to keep people moving. I have to pay tribute to our customers for their understanding, and to our staff for what they have delivered – and continue to deliver – in such challenging timescales.”

Andrew Jarvis, Managing Director, Stagecoach East Scotland said: “The implementation of the bus and good vehicle priority measures have meant journey times from Fife to Edinburgh are just 90 minutes and we’ve been able to increase the frequency of services as a result. With more people heading for the buses, traffic on the roads should be that bit quieter and we have a reduced fare of £3 return in place to help ease the cost of the commute. We’re pleased that so many non-bus users have tried the shuttle services and are getting to their destination in a relaxed and timely manner and we’ve had a significant amount of positive feedback from our customers.

“Our staff have been amazing, coping superbly and cheerfully with changes to routes, timetables and shifts with very little notice in order to keep the travelling public moving. We have had drivers from all round Scotland, the north of England and Wales come to help out and I’m very grateful to them and their families for their hard work and adaptability.”

Roberta Blaikie funeral: transport available

Call Royston Wardieburn if you need transport to Warriston

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Regular readers will know that local activist Roberta Blaikie’s funeral is on Tuesday at 1pm at Warriston Crematorium.

Transport will be available for members of the local community – call Royston Wardieburn Community Centre on 552 5700 to let them know your requirements.

Tram to Newhaven?

‘We are satisfied there will be no impact on Council budgets in the short or long term.’ – Council leader Cllr Andrew Burns

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Councillors will discuss proposals to extend the Edinburgh tram line to Newhaven at next Thursday’s full council meeting.

If recommendations are agreed, a nine-month period of project development will commence, including the beginning of procurement processes for external support and site investigation. However it is unsure at this stage whether the SNP group on the city council – Labour’s partners in the Capital Coalition – will support the proposal to extend the line.

Once the first stage is complete, a report will be brought back to Council recommending the way forward. If Councillors agree to continue with the extension a second stage, scheduled to take 21 months and costing approximately £8.3m, will include further site investigation and working with the Council’s advisors in carrying out procurement and enabling works.

While the Council is yet to identify specific resources to fund the borrowing costs required for the project, the business case concludes that these can be funded from wider Public Transport revenues with no impact on Council revenue budgets in the short, medium and long term.

Council Leader, Councillor Andrew Burns, said: “The updated Outline Business Case provides further justification for bringing the tram to Leith, clearly demonstrating the social and economic impact the extension could have on this key area of the city.

“This first stage of project development for the extension will allow us to take another step towards achieving this. A significant period of work will ensure robust governance, allowing financial evaluation and risk analysis to be carried out.

“By obtaining funding for these initial stages from the city’s Public Transport revenues, we are satisfied there will be no impact on Council budgets in the short or long term.”

In June, Councillors considered the emerging conclusions of the draft Outline Business Case, which proposed a formal market consultation and further, detailed analysis of project finances before any decision was made.

A report, to be heard by Council on Thursday, 19 November, details the findings of the Outline Business Case for the extension to Leith.

It is recommended that Councillors approve, in principle, extending the tram to Newhaven over alternative options to end the line at Ocean Terminal, the foot of Leith Walk or MacDonald Road.

The Outline Business Case, based on a formal market consultation process, audit of the financial model and identification of funding options, concludes that extending the existing tram line to Newhaven will boost the city’s economy while delivering a range of wider benefits in relation to employment, population growth and social inclusion.

Spur lines to Leith and Granton’s Waterfront were an integral element of the original masterplan for Edinburgh’s tram network back in 2003, but these were dropped as the project ran into well-documented financial difficulties.

Back then the then Labour-led Scottish Executive allocated £375m for proposed tram routes linking the city centre to both Edinburgh Airport and Leith. Original projections indicated that trams would be running on city streets by 2009.

The project was years late and millions over-budget: the project cost taxpayers £776 million and trams did not run until 31 May last year – and then only on a single line, not a network.

An inquiry into what went wrong, to be led by Lord Hardie, was announced by then-First Minister Alex Salmond in June last year. 

The Inquiry is attempting to find out why the Edinburgh Trams project – with a final bill of £776m plus over £200m in interest on a 30-year loan taken out by the council to cover the funding shortfall  – was delayed and went so badly over-budget. The Inquiry also aims to establish why, through reductions in scope, the project 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.

The inquiry, which was converted to a statutory inquiry almost exactly one year ago, is ongoing: the process has been broken down into ten separate stages and the Edinburgh Tram Inquiry team is currently working on stages 4 and 7. This includes gathering material, retrieving and reviewing documents; and reviewing written evidence which will be considered by Lord Hardie to decide what further evidence is required at oral hearings.

No date has yet been set for publication of the report of the inquiry’s findings – these will be made available ‘at the earliest opportunity’.

When Alex Salmond announced the public inquiry last year he promised MSPs it would be a “swift and thorough” inquiry.

Swift? Perhaps not, but anyone who has any knowledge of the lengthy and complex nature of the Edinburgh trams story knows that speed has never been the driving factor. But thorough? The Scottish taxpayer, the businesses and citizens of Edinburgh surely deserve nothing less.