Trams are off-track

You'll remember that the SNP opposed the Edinburgh Tram project. £500 million of funding for it was forced through Parliament against the wishes of the SNP Government and it was forced through Edinburgh Council with only the SNP voting against. Every other party in Scotland supports this project, only the SNP sees it for the monster it is.

Word reaches me that all is not well. I am pointed to the current construction update which shows the following:

COMPLETED WORK SITES
Utility Diversions
Area Start Date Completion Date
Tower Street to Commercial Wharf (Leith) 9 July 2007 12 October 2007 Russell Road to Balgreen Road 20 August 2007 24 September 2007 McDonald Road to Balfour Street (Northside) 6 August 2007 21 December 2007
Jane Street Junction 15 October 2007 14 January 2008 Princes Street initial works 7 January 2008 8 February 2008

CURRENT WORK SITES
Utility Diversions
Area Start Date Estimated Duration
Jameson Pl to Brunswick St (Leith Walk) 7 January 2008 25 weeks (approx)Balfour Street to Foot of the Walk 14 January 2008 25 weeks (approx)
Shandwick Place Closure 1 March 2008 19 weeks (approx)

PLANNED WORK SITES
Utility Diversions
Area Start Date Estimated Duration
Constitution Street Late March 26 weeks (approx)

OTHER WORK
City Centre Area
Enabling work in the St. Andrew Square area is ongoing and is scheduled to last until the end of July 2008.

This, of course, isn't true - I was on Leith Walk today and the works they claim as being completed are nowhere close to completion. That's not all - February's factsheets (available on the tram website - http://www.tramtime.com/index.html ) show the current (wrong) construction data as being a slippage from the programme.

Factsheet 1 has the laying of the track starting in April (just a couple of weeks away) - good luck with that. Factsheet 2, though, is even better - it says that all the work on Leith Walk should be over by now, with work ongoing elsewhere.

So with a publicly-owned company trying to disguise the facts about how far behind it is with construction we have to be asking how it's doing with keeping the costs within budget and whether it has solved the engineering problems yet, don't we?

That's what I'll be doing next - the frequently asked questions still say it's £62m so far...