31/3/08

Traders in Shandwick Place are becoming increasingly vocal about the problems they face during construction of the Council's tramway project. The Council only negotiated with the Chamber of Commerce about the effect of construction on businesses. This showed a lack of understanding of business by the Council, as the large companies the Chamber represents are more able to survive large scale disruption than smaller businesses. The Chamber did negoitate an agreement which was sold as a 20% rate reduction for frontagers, rising up to a 80% rate reduction for the most affected businesses. However, this agreement has been ignored by certain officials, who have only given a 20% reduction for the most affected businesses. The Federation of Small Businesses took this up last year and has now gone public on the issue.

NETCo offered an alternative with minimal utility diversions (the work which is happening now) and laying track at the rate of up to 100m a night, with the roads available for use the next morning. We now see the results of the Council rejecting that offer, in the problems businesses are facing. The approach of the Council towards people is entirely at variance with the consentual approach NETCo offered. The Council's approach aims to squash opposition, for short-term reasons. This simply poisons people's perceptions of trams, making it more difficult to extend the system in future (as has been seen in a number of cities in England). A private company could not afford to take that approach towards other businesses.

17/3/08

The first letter on the Edinburgh Evening News site for 13/3/08 is another avoidable tale of woe from the small business sector about the Council's tramway scheme, which has now moved to Shandwick Place, as well as Princes Street and Leith. However, the closure of Shandwick Place for tram works has not caused the traffic chaos in surrounding streets some predicted.

27/2/08

The Federation of Small Business has released the latest results from their survey of traders on Leith Walk. Two-thirds of businesses have seen a "significant decrease" in the number of customers since tram work started in August last year.
Reported by the Edinburgh Evening News

There was talk of a shopkeeper being forced to remove his display by the police in order to clear the pavements of "clutter" when buses are diverted for tram works. However, there appears to have been a rare outbreak of common sense by the Council over this.

This is all in marked contrast to NETCo's private sector offer, which would have involved laying up to 100m of track a night with minimal utility diversions.

Traders are unlikely to forget the Council's attitude to them in a hurry. There is also disatisfaction with the "compensation" scheme offered to small businesses. It turns out that the Council agreed this with the Chamber of Commerce, which is hardly representative of small businesses.

30/11/07

The work to move utilities out of the way of the City of Edinburgh Council's tram project continues. Leith Walk is currently one of the affected areas. There are reports of business disruption as well as traffic constipation. There are rumours that the business rate support scheme the Council promoted is proving to not be as generous as the Council claimed it would be, with individual businesses and their representatives becoming disgruntled with the attitude of certain officials. After this work is over there will be similar disruption to lay the tracks. This is in marked contrast to what NETCo offered.

26/9/07

Work on the City of Edinburgh Council's tram project continues with the expensive, disruptive, time consuming and largely unnecessary diversion of utilities. This is im marked contrast to NETCo's private sector offer, which would have involved laying up to 100m of track a night with minimal utility diversions. Leith Walk is one of the locations currently being worked on.

1/8/07

Work on the City of Edinburgh Council's tram project has started. The first stage is diversion of utilities, which will be followed by laying track.
Had LR55 track been adopted by the Council most of these expensive, time consuming and disruptive utility diversions would have been avoided. Laying of LR55 track would also have been rapid, at up to 100m a night with roads opened for traffic in the morning. LR55 was offered by a sister company.

28/6/07

Following a vote in Parliament yesterday the City of Edinburgh Council's tram project has been allowed to continue by the new government, though they have stated that they will not provide one penny more than current estimates and if there are cost increases the Council will have to fund these.
Were this a private sector project then cost increases would be a matter for the company and its investors, not government.

1/6/07

The City of Edinburgh Council's tram project is currently experiencing political difficulties, with the First Minister concerned over its cost and possible cost escalations.
NETCo's project has been in abeyance since the City of Edinburgh Council started promoting its own project, since funders will not compete with the public sector. However, NETCo's project could be revived at any time.
With a privately funded tramway any cost escalation would be a matter for the company.

2/11/05

The refurbished TRAM is currently running on a test track to accumulate mileage before being delivered. The re-engineering has involved smaller, lighter but more powerful items, from motors to programmable logic controllers. The Railway Inspectorate have approved the carrying of passengers. The photograph shows the TRAM being re-engineered at Birkenhead.

28/6/05

In the entry for 1/10/04 we mentioned the refurbishment of the prototype TRAM. The two snaps below, taken earlier in 2005 on rather grey days, show the refurbished prototype at a test track. We hope to have more to say about this soon.

 

1/10/04

NETCo has been working in the background on several exciting projects over the past year. We would like to tell you about them, but the time is not yet right.

One thing that we can reveal is that the prototype TRAM is currently being refurbished as per the letter of intent mentioned below. The new equipment is smaller and lighter than the original, though has the same or greater capacity. This is welcome confirmation of the concept.

3/11/03

NETCo presented a paper at Light Rail 2003 explaining the history of the project and future prospects. This was well received.

In September 2003 we announced a letter of intent from a UK customer for the TRAM. Further details.

7/3/03

Good news for Edinburgh

Earlier this week the Scottish Executive announced that £375,000,000 is to be made available for the construction of a tramway in Edinburgh. This is extremely good news for Edinburgh.

How different the provision of quality public transport looks in Edinburgh now compared to when NETCo started. Then the Council were wedded to guided buses and dismissed trams out of hand. Now trams are stated to be the way forward, though guided buses are not yet dead. Part of CERT lives, as the curious WEBS scheme for which a contract has just been let, though this is supposed to be easily convertible into a tramway.

Instead of "trams will never run in Edinburgh" we are now told that they are the way forward. NETCo is proud to have played a part, some say a significant part, with others in changing the Council's viewpoint. We are flattered that the Council have evaluated the route we proposed and selected it for their first route.

NETCo will now be pressing the Council to be innovative in the funding of the tram system. It is possible to introduce commercially funded trams to parts of Edinburgh as we have advocated, leaving money to fund non-commercial routes, improve bus services, expand safer routes to school and all the other things for which commercial funding is probably not available. Not only that, the LR55 track outlined in this web site can be installed more quickly and with less disruption than other track systems. Everybody would be a winner and Edinburgh would be a beacon for cost-effective tramway systems.

10/4/02

Progress

NETCo has been reluctant to put much news on this site over the past year, due to a series of negotiations. We are now able to say what has been happening.

When NETCo was formed the City of Edinburgh Council were wedded to their guided bus proposals and regarded trams with disfavour. NETCo and others have chipped away and we are now in the position where the Council is publically committed to a tram system for Edinburgh. The Council has gained funding from the Scottish Executive for a study of such a system.

In 2000 NETCo launched proposals for a loop line running through the proposed developments in Granton. A report for the council recommended guided buses for these developments. However, having had NETCo's proposals presented to them, the developers were not convinced of the attractiveness of guided buses. They stated that trams were essential to getting the Granton developments built. This view was stated publically in the "Trams back on track" conference in early 2001 and repeated often in private.

In view of this the Council commissioned another report on access to the area. This recommended trams rather than guided buses and has formed the basis of current Council policy. This second report studied the route devised by NETCo in considerable detail. Our route was endorsed by this study, thus vindicating our proposals.

The current position is that the Council intends to undertake a traditional procurement process for a line following the NETCo route. They have indicated that they would be happy for NETCo to tender for this at the appropriate time.

NETCo continues to urge that the timescale for a traditional procurement process is too long, with great uncertainty of funding. If Edinburgh does get the money for such a scheme when wanted it will be the first modern tramway scheme in the UK not to have to wait years for money. NETCo continues to urge that its technology and funding model provides for more rapid construction, making everyone a winner.

NETCo has had great success in getting the concept of trams accepted and a northern loop accepted. We now seek to have our technology adopted.

In addition to Edinburgh NETCo has been involved in discussions with a large civil engineering firm about tramway schemes in a number of places, including London.

The TRAM vehicle is now completely approved and offered by manufacturers as schemes come up.