Trams update

We have been looking at tie to find out what their latest news is. The official position regarding the provision of trams for the Capital is as follows:-

We are in the process of contractual negotiations to settle the dispute with the infrastructure consortium. We will report on the outcome in due course. In the meantime, work continues to the west of the route between the airport and Haymarket with significant structures such as the Edinburgh park viaduct and Carrick Knowe Bridge. Work is also progressing at the Gogar Depot; over 2km of track is laid along the route of the former guided busway and works at Haymarket are continuing.

We also asked them when their website was last updated as it is often hard to work out when articles have been posted. They replied as follows:-

The last update to our homepage on the website related to the TRO process and was posted on Monday 6th September.
Within the local updates sections we’ve posted in recent weeks under the Edinburgh West section for example at the Haymarket stop we’ve issued an update on 11th August and at the Murrayfield stop we issued an update on 31 August.

On the website there is information about money spent on a variety of staff related items. This forms part of a document which attempts to answer some of the questions asked by members of the public invoking FOI legislation. Edinburgh Trams has now decided to publish all information on travel and expenses incurred by the organisation and its staff. One item incurred since April 2010 is £6,432 which has been spent on membership fees of organisations which the company feels it is important to join in the spirit of corporate social responsibility. Edinburgh Trams comprises 90 people. So the membership fees amount to £71.46 per employee. The organisations were not named in the document so we asked what they were. These are the organisations for which the fees have been paid:-

Scottish Council for Development and Industry
Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce
Scottish Business in the Community
CBI