Comment: City trams plan refuses to die

Feb 18 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

THE constant on-off story of Merseyside’s tram system was one of the region’s great debacles of recent times, so it is surprising – when so many of us will have naturally assumed it was dead in the water – to see it back on the agenda this week.

The passenger transport authority is today expected to vote to authorise for all "necessary and appropriate steps to be taken to revive the scheme", despite it already having cost £70m without a single piece of track being laid.

Depending on one’s view, this is either a heart-warming example of optimism and determination in the face of daunting odds, or – given the huge amounts of money already spent – a monumental act of folly for which the phrase "flogging a dead horse" could almost have been invented.

The Daily Post reveals today that work has already started in building up a revised business case for the trams, more than two years after then Transport Secretary Alistair Darling refused to hand over the £170m the Government had committed to Line One between Liverpool city centre and Kirkby.

It is understood that, if a new financ- ing package is put together, work could start as early as next year with a projec- ted build time of around 18 months.

However, we have been down this road before, and there are still a great many "ifs and buts" that need to be resolved before this scheme can ever become a reality.

But that does not mean a tram system should not be investigated further. Since the collapse of the scheme in November, 2005, there have been many changes which could strengthen Merseyside’s case: not least Everton FC’s proposed ground move to Kirkby – served by Line One – which has improved the original cost benefit ratio.

It is now up to Merseytravel to convince Government ministers, who hold the all-important purse-strings, that the scheme still has widespread support in the area. But the passenger transport authority should be given every credit for trying.