The futile folly of a face-saving exercise
Councillor Gordon Mackenzie has intimated that a tram line to St Andrew Square is required for the long-term economic growth of the city and that the decision should not be guided by the short-termism which generally characterises political decision making. Ironic indeed.
Edinburgh has one of the best local bus services in the UK, and possibly the world. It is famous for it. It is now even more famous for its tram fiasco. The costs of cancellation are almost certainly overstated, and the costs of continuing are almost certainly underestimated.
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Hide AdIf the tram is cancelled now, in ten years’ time it will be little more than a curious memory, and we will in the meantime have continued to build upon our bus services. If we do not cancel it, the eventual financial commitment will ruin the city.
The flaws in the original thinking are now clear to all. A vote for the continuation of this project appears to be principally a face-saving exercise by the perpetrators for the sake of the perpetrators, and would indeed smack of short-termism.
Let’s admit that the original plan was a bad one, put what has happened down to experience, and get back on track. But a continued improvement to the bus services please, and not a tram track. I urge the council to vote against the continuation of this widely recognised folly.
Stephen Druitt
Dalrymple Crescent
Edinburgh
The City of Edinburgh Council seems not to understand the difference between the economic concepts of opportunity cost and accounting cost.
The additional £231 million it seems determined to throw at the incomplete Edinburgh tram folly carries with it a lost opportunity cost. What could be gained if the project were simply abandoned and the £231m not spent? Lower burdens on council tax payers.
The opportunity cost would be the opportunity to avoid increases in council tax, leaving people with more of their own hard-earned money, the cost to them being not having trams that most of them would never use.
The new Portobello school for 1,400 pupils is likely to cost some £41.5m. It is simple arithmetic to calculate how many new schools are being lost by wasting millions more on unwanted and non-essential trams.
If the latest projected total cost for the trams is some £1 billion, the sheer scale of the opportunity cost of the trams is staggering.
Michael Hamilton
Stodrig Farm Cottages
Kelso