New tram route options run into a roadblock of council politics - Steve Cardownie

Under the headline ‘End of the line for tram route’ journalist, Ian Swanson, wrote: “The northern section of Edinburgh’s proposed new North-South tramline looks likely to be shelved due to disagreements over the route.”

The business case alone for a second tram line would cost £50m

I predicted the same scenario in my column some time ago. Back in April I wrote that when the SNP group on the council decided to oppose both options for the northern section of the proposed route - the Roseburn Path or the Dean Bridge - that neither would gain majority support among the 63 councillors up in the High Street.

I said that if councillors voted in line with their group’s policy, then 41 of their number would oppose the Roseburn Path option.

Taking the line over the Dean Bridge would require the Greens, Liberal Democrats and Labour to vote in favour, which is highly unlikely, to say the least, particularly when local government elections are in the offing on May 6 next year.

Politicians, whether national or local, are unlikely to jeopardise their chances of being re-elected by making controversial decisions so close to an election and the two proposed routes for the northern section of the line fall into this category.

Next month’s meeting of the council’s transport and environment committee will discuss the strategic business case for the North-South line with the Roseburn Path option favourite to be recommended.

But while council officials can afford to take an objective view, not so the local politicians who make up the council, so the preferred choice is doomed to fail.

Councillors are likely to take the view that it is better to abandon the proposals rather than risk losing one of their number to another party, especially when the council is so finely balanced.

Call me cynical, but that is why the SNP group made the decision to oppose both proposed routes and instruct council officials to come up with a third option - which does not exist. No danger of upsetting the electorate with that policy then!

So, considering the jockeying for position in the City Chambers and the unpopularity of either option, it doesn’t take a soothsayer to predict the outcome.

Then there is, as they say, “the elephant in the room” and that is, even if councillors did vote in favour of one of the proposed options, however fanciful that is, and support the whole of the Granton to the Royal Infirmary and the BioQuarter route, where is the money supposed to come from to finance the line?

The projected cost of the proposed new extension is estimated to fall between £2-£2.9bn depending on the route, with no financial backing on the horizon.

The Scottish Government has refused to get involved and the council administration has said it will not contribute any council cash to the project - apart from paying for the cost of developing a full business case at around £44 million, that is.

So, the whole matter is somewhat academic, as the cards are stacked against both the Roseburn Path and the Dean Bridge options.

The council could vote in favour of the proposed south section but would still have to find the money!