*NSE had their own plans with the Networker concept of a standardised fleet family with high commonality between diesel and electric variants (rather like the Turbostars and Electrostars, which are based on the Networker concept)
Imagine how much better the world would be if that ethos had continued post-privatisation?
NSE were ahead of their time - in so many ways we have gone backwards since then
Going back to the tramway, can anyone summarise briefly what the actual cause of the huge overspend is, and indeed why it seems to be continually rising?!
To me, the problem appears to be the Council not knowing what they were doing and trying to get a cheap tender.
Then when unforseen problems occured (such as problems moving gas/electricity/water supplies under ground - not much of a surprise given the rich history beneath Edinburgh's streets...) they try to get the contractors to pick up the tab for things, which causes stand-offs and delays things (before the council have to pay more for the work, pushing the costs up).
There's also the problem of them trying to do everything at once - if they'd just done the first part from the Airport to Edinburgh Park it'd be up and running already and they'd be able to have extended it to Haymarket by now (with further extensions to come). But, by digging up Princes Street, St Andrew Square, Leith Walk and the route to Ocean Terminal at the same time as the work in western Edinburgh, they've left themselves too thinly spread.
Sadly because the people who specify big public schemes like this generally have little experience of such tenders, they don't know what to specify, don't know what contingencies to have and don't know how to manage contractors. Look at how much smarter GMPTE/TfGM are about tram extensions now (compared to the initial lines) - sadly I don't think anyone in Edinburgh will get the experience of a tender for a tram extension :roll:
Compare this to how efficiently Tesco will design/ build/ open a shop - because they know what they are doing.