Council chiefs are to spend £160,000 of taxpayers’ cash opening a Tram Shop — in a store driven out of business by the disastrous transport project.
Edinburgh city bosses say the centre will provide info on the controversial system.
But furious critics of the office — on the site of axed sweet shop Sugacane — called the move “ludicrous”. SNP deputy council leader Steve Cardownie said: “On the face of it this does not look like value for money.
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Yes, it has been a fiasco, with the current estimated completion cost now £776 million, more than double the original estimate, for only a small part of what was intended to be a circular route embracing the city centre, Haymarket and Leith.
It has taken a ridiculous length of time for the city to get its trams but it is important for everyone to put the situation into proper perspective.
Yes, the costs have spiralled to more than double the original budget of £375m. Yes, at £90m per mile it is without doubt the most expensive tramway in the UK and one of the most expensive in the world. And yes, a full public inquiry needs to be held and to reward success and punish failure.
More than £150 million has been spent on Edinburgh’s troubled trams scheme in the last 12 months, bringing the price to almost £600m and raising concern the total cost of the scheme could exceed its latest budget.
Figures released to The Scotsman show more than £150m has been eaten up in the last year alone to take spending way over the original project budget of £545m with at least another two years of work still to be carried out. About £70m has been spent over the last three months alone, with the final tally reaching £592m by the end of March.
Bosses of the firm building Edinburgh’s scandal-hit trams project were told TWO YEARS ago that they risked dumping toxic waste illegally.
The Record revealed earlier this month that main contractors Bilfinger Berger dumped 800 tons of contaminated soil in ordinary landfill in a move that could have saved the firm up to £1million.
Evidence has now emerged showing the German firm were warned the stockpile contained heavy metals and chemicals and regarded the waste as contaminated until days before it was dumped in a facility for “clean” soil.
City MSP Neil Findlay said the revelation “beggars belief” and called for action to be taken against Bilfinger.
Scottish Power confirmed that more than 100 customers were affected after a cable was damaged by ‘someone else’.
An iconic clock in Edinburgh city centre was stopped by a power cut after tram workers damaged a cable.
The black out affected the Balmoral Hotel, Waverley Station, St Andrews House and around 100 other Scottish Power customers in the capital around 9am on Wednesday.
The clock at the Balmoral, renowned for running a few minutes fast, also stopped at 9am.
THE famous Balmoral clock has stopped after a power cut believed to have been caused by tram works.
Around 100 businesses were left without electricity this morning after a power line was damaged, thought to have been caused by contractors working on the long-running tram project.
The clock on top of the Balmoral Hotel on Princes Street is now stuck at 9am.
Scottish Power was first alerted to the problem in the city centre at around 9am.
The power company said the issue was resolved an hour later.
Details of the pay-off received by the boss of Edinburgh’s controversial tram company are to be kept secret, BBC Scotland has learned.
This comes despite an assurance the figure would be made public.
Richard Jeffrey left TIE last summer, after a bitter dispute with the contractors building the line brought the project close to collapse.
There has been criticism of salaries for senior TIE executives, with six earning more than the first minister.
Secret forecasts drawn up for Edinburgh City Council predict 5.4 million people a year will use the service between the airport and St Andrew Square in the city centre when it opens in 2014.
That compares to a forecast of nearly 12 million passengers travelling each year on the full 11-mile route, including the section from the city centre to Leith and Newhaven Harbour that was mothballed last year.
The figures, disclosed to The Herald following a Freedom of Information request that was ultimately referred to Scotland’s Information Commissioner, illustrate the long-term difficulties created by cutting off developments east of the city centre that the trams were to serve.
They have already scoured Europe in an unsuccessful bid to off-load their unwanted tram cars.
Now city council leaders in Edinburgh want to turn the £2 million vehicles into “nocturnal couriers” to save them from redundancy.
The Scotsman has learned goods could be ferried between Edinburgh Airport and locations along the route into the city centre under a plan being floated with business groups.
Seven trams are already being tested at the recently-completed depot at Gogarburn, but another 20 are on their way to join them, even though at least half will not be needed. The scheme is planned to open in 2014. SNP councillors, who performed a major U-turn last year to rescue the tram project when it was on the verge of cancellation, are believed to be opposed to the idea of trams running through the night to deliver goods, deeming it “unworkable”.
As far as Edinburgh’s tram project goes, it is perhaps one the most unlikely developments . . . the work is now ahead of schedule.
The Mound is now set to open to buses, taxis and bicycles on March 3 – four months earlier than planned – while the Princes Street works are due to be finished in June, one month ahead.
Work in St Andrew Square is also said to be going to plan and due for completion by Christmas, while council leader Jenny Dawe said she was “now confident” that the full line to York Place will be completed “by 2014 as planned”.