On Thu, 16 Sep 2004 13:49:39 +0000 (UTC), marcb
wrote:

I see the people of Manchester are uspet about the shelving of their
tram extensions, and quite rightly. But what exactly are the costs that
can't be quantified in this and other projects?

M.

Originally it was about £500m with £300m coming from central
government. Now it is up to about £1000m with £500m coming from
central government with costs still rising... Furthermore, GMPTE are
requesting increased annual funding for maintenance.

Darling has got cold feet (on light rail in general) and has pulled
the plug on it in its current form (which, to be fair to the PTE is
largely down to the state insisting the private sector takes all the
risk thus inflating prices).

GMPTE are miffed because their entire public transport strategy
appears to be built around Metrolink to the detriment of everything
else (IMHO). Metrolink has done well where they have converted heavy
rail lines to LRT (eg Altringcham-Manchester-Bury) and very badly on
the largely on-street section from Cornbrook to Eccles as it is much
slower than the corresponding rail and bus services and much more
expensive (Eccles-Manchester is 25 minutes by tram and 8 minutes by
rail!). Furthermore, heavy rail conversion is much cheaper than
on-street stuff. No need to move utilities etc. Expect to see some
pruning of the project!


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