New year, same trams

“Le soir à Bruxelles, les étincelles des trams se voient de loin,” crooned Belgian chanssoneur Jacques Brel. The Gallic romance that clings to Mr Brel’s preferred form of public transport could not be more foreign to Edinburgh citizens, who at the beginning of 2009 are faced with a year of the worst disruption that the Scottish capital’s unhappy tryst with its tram project has yet produced. 

And yet, Edinburgh’s continental fling began so promisingly; the plans were designed to recast the city as a true European capital, not least after they were plucked out of obscurity in 2007 by a new SNP administration at Holyrood eager to jab a finger in London’s eye.

A line sweeping from Leith through the city centre directly to the airport with Scandinavian ease and efficiency; another, whisking tourists from the city to the coast, transforming Granton into a Glyfada for the Athens of the North; the final—now defunct—spur pumping young blood into the heart of Edinburgh, shuttling dewey young things straight from classes at the Kings Buildings and George Square to the bars in time for happy hour.

Like so many hopeful jaunts in search of continental romance, however, Edinburgh City Council has come down to earth having caught something rather more unpleasant.

The numbers speak for themselves: when then-Scottish transport minister Tavish Scott announced the proposals in 2006, they were costed a modest £60 million. Despite the scope of the project being reduced, the bill stands today at £512 million, with a further £96 million held in reserve. Despite a third of this money already having been spent, not a rail has been laid.

To say that management of the project by Transport Initiatives Edinburgh (TIE) has come in for criticism would be an understatement of the kind which its critics at The Edinburgh Evening News have rarely entertained. With new chairman David Mackay—the former SRU executive who was at the helm during the disasterous spat with the Murray brothers that nearly resulted in the liquidation of the Edinburgh Gunners—stepping in at TIE just as the council names the SNP’s Steve Cardownie—the fiercest critic of Mr Mackay's predecessor, Willie Gallagher—as its "trams champion," the potential for more conflict has only grown.

But while the stewardship of work on the ground has been speculative, the public relations front has been a complete rout for the council and TIE. At every step, the project has been beset with bad press: allegations that works were delaying responses to 999 calls; campaigns to stop the removal of landmarks such as the Hearts memorial at Haymarket and the Leith clock; a wave of vitriol in local newspapers and on talk radio following the closure of the Mound.

Indeed, if trams begin to run up and down Leith Walk in as planned 2011, it is unlikely that enough time will have passed for local entrepreneurs to forgive the disruption that roadworks have visited on their business. If so, the first commuters gliding to work on the service will be greeted by the signs reading "Edinburgh Trams: Ripping the heart out of local business," which now adorn nearly every shopfront on the street.