A commercial tram service could run from Edinburgh airport in 2014, after a decision by councillors to continue with the overbudget project.
On Thursday night, after a five-hour debate, Edinburgh City Council voted to press ahead with the tramway, despite a cost overrun of £225 million, taking the total budget for a truncated route to St Andrew Square to £770 million. The line they approved is about two-thirds of the route planned in 2007, which was meant to cost £545 million and to open this month.
Council officials have two months to confirm the additional funding, if they are to honour an agreement with engineering contractors that both the route and its finances will be assured by September 1. Sue Bruce, the council’s chief executive, said that she would be “exploring every opportunity” to raise the funds and did not rule out seeking European funding. “It is difficult to attract finance when the strategic decision is uncertain,” said Ms Bruce. “Now we have greater certainty about the strategic direction we are taking, we have something to build a financial discussion around.”
Potential sources of revenue include the city’s financial reserves, supported borrowing, public private partnerships and sponsorship. It has also been proposed to reach agreement with the Scottish government, enabling the council to retain a higher proportion of revenues received from business rates.
The SNP Administration, while insisting that it will deliver “not a penny more” in aid to the tram, is thought to favour building the shorter route rather than an embarrassing waste of public funds on a failed project.
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While acknowledging that there were significant obstacles to overcome, Ms Bruce said that she could foresee a commercial service running in three years. “We anticipate getting trams into the depot in December, and to see them running on the test track at Gogar, probably by the end of the year,” she said. “We hope to get trams up to the Haymarket, the line complete by the end of 2013, and a revenue service running by 2014.”
She could not confirm when the one-mile stretch between Haymarket and St Andrew Square would open because it will require the relaying of tramlines on Princes Street and additional tracks to a terminus on York Place.
However, Ms Bruce said: “Once you have the initial line in, you can add to it, you can grow it and that offers a great opportunity to Edinburgh. The development down at the Waterfront and all the way to Granton is a really important part of the city. People there originally expressed a view that the tram would be helpful. Hopefully we can eventually get the tram to them.”
On Thursday councillors voted to accept a Lib-Dem proposal for the “incremental” delivery of route 1a, with trams terminating at St Andrew Square, instead of Leith, as originally planned.
A Labour amendment had proposed terminating the route at Haymarket, while the SNP tabled a public referendum to decide whether the project should be scrapped, at a cost of £750 million. Both were voted down.
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The route accepted by councillors is about two-thirds of the 11.5 mile route planned to Ocean Terminal, which was once costed at £545 million. The 2007 business plan suggested that the first trams would run this month.
For much of the time since then, there has been a dispute between Bilfinger Berger Siemens, the construction consortium, and TIE, the company established by the council to run the project.