{"id":39194,"date":"2017-07-06T05:00:32","date_gmt":"2017-07-06T09:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=39194"},"modified":"2017-07-05T13:02:56","modified_gmt":"2017-07-05T17:02:56","slug":"british-tram-train-project-is-already-500-over-budget-and-years-late","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2017\/07\/06\/british-tram-train-project-is-already-500-over-budget-and-years-late\/","title":{"rendered":"British tram-train project is already 500% over budget and years late"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was decided, at some point, to spend \u00a315m to build a hybrid rail connection between Sheffield and Rotherham. It’s late (not too surprising) and over-budget (also not too surprising). What is surprising is just how far over-budget the project has gone: that initial \u00a315m budget has now grown to an estimated \u00a375m, and there may be no end in sight. Hannah Boland<\/a> reports for the Telegraph<\/em>:<\/p>\n

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Artist’s conception of the Sheffield-Rotherham tram-train. (Railway-Technology.com)<\/p><\/div>\n

Transport company Stagecoach has won \u00a32.5m in compensation from the Government after the completion date for the Sheffield to Rotherham tram-train project, for which it is supplying vehicles, was pushed back multiple times. <\/p>\n

The National Audit Office (NAO), in a report released on Tuesday, said Stagecoach had claimed “prologation costs” and loss of revenue for the two-and-a-half-year delay of the government-sponsored project. <\/p>\n

The scheme was approved in 2012, aimed at modifying train and tram infrastructure and buying vehicles capable of operating on both networks.<\/p>\n

The Department for Transport had originally said it would be completed by December 2015, and would cut transport costs in the region. <\/p>\n

However, Network Rail, which is undertaking the first stage of development, pushed back the deadline, first in 2014 and then in 2016, to May 2018.<\/p>\n

The \u00a315m budget originally agreed between the department and Network Rail has rocketed to \u00a375.1m.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Tim Worstall<\/a> offers some comments:<\/p>\n

We hear ever louder cries, in both the UK and US, that government really must get on with spending billions, trillions even, on building out vital infrastructure — the problem with this being that government isn’t very good at building infrastructure. In fact, government is so bad at building infrastructure that there is a very strong argument to have it built by private economic actors. Yes, true, it’s entirely possible that the plutocrats will then profit from the public, even that only projects which make a profit get built, but we would have, given government’s record, more infrastructure for less money.<\/p>\n

At least, that’s the lesson to take from this disaster with the Sheffield-Rotherham tram-train project. It is currently an alarming 5 times over budget and horribly late. Further, at this price it should never have been built. It is simply not possible that the value in use of this will exceed the costs of doing it — this is something which makes us all poorer […]<\/p>\n

And here is in fact that cost benefit ratio<\/a> [PDF]:<\/p>\n