Agenda item

Motion by Councillor Whyte - Mass Rapid Transit in Edinburgh

“Committee:

1. notes that some six months have passed since the Committee acknowledged that the further expansion of the Tram network in the city requires an initial unfunded £44m to develop the Outline and Full Business Cases and that Committee is yet to receive a formal update on approaches to the Scottish Government seeking funding for this work
2. further notes that the initial estimates of the funding required to complete a north-south tram link from Granton to the Bioquarter sit at £2 Billion, that this is likely to increase as the delivery timescale is expected at 10-20 years, and that no funds have been identified to achieve this;
3. additionally notes that it is Council policy to press ahead with a City Mobility Plan that relies on a Mass Rapid Transit system to replace current travel modes and that suggested implementation dates are relatively short;
4. therefore agrees that a report should be provided to a future Committee meeting (within six months) setting out the possible options for moving ahead with a Bus Rapid Transit system for the north-south and other potential routes recognising that such a system could be replaced by Tram in the longer term and that evidence from the Belfast Glider system indicates that this could be achieved in a quarter to a third of the time of Tram implementation, at potentially one tenth of the cost and with similar short to medium term transport outcomes;
5. further agrees that the report should provide short medium and long term cost benefit analysis of alternative systems, clarify likely costs and delivery timescales within an Edinburgh context, set out the relative flexibility of each system and provide outlines of possible funding methods available to the Council.”