18.12.17
MPs condemn £75m Sheffield tram-train pilot as a ‘how not to’ seminar
The pilot scheme to introduce a tram-train system between Sheffield and Rotherham has been like a ‘how not to’ seminar for future projects, the Public Accounts Committee has claimed in a scathing new report.
Costs on the project rose from an estimated £15m up to £75m because of DfT failures to properly challenge Network Rail’s plans both at the outset and throughout the project.
Neither organisation had properly quantified the benefits from the project, meaning decisions were made without knowing if it would provide taxpayers with value for money.
The works are running two-and-a-half years behind schedule and MPs now said that, despite Network Rail revising its plans, the committee is still concerned that the projected benefits will not be achieved.
PAC chair, Meg Hillier, argued the project had not only promised great benefits for passengers but had been put forward as a potential model for similar future schemes in Manchester, Cardiff and Glasgow.
“Instead the reality is another rail project with all the makings of a 'how not to' seminar for senior civil servants,” she commented.
The plans had been trialling new technology in the UK, but both Network Rail and the DfT failed to properly consider the “high-level of uncertainty” which would be involved with the scheme.
“There have been long delays, and it is still not clear how, or even if, the experience of running this pilot will reduce the costs and improve delivery of any future tram-train schemes,” Hillier continued.
“Not for the first time, we heard evidence intended to reassure parliament and the public that lessons learned on this project will ensure the failings identified will not arise again.”
She went on to call on the government to back up the committee’s findings with a “meaningful review” of the way it manages such projects, which would take a transparent look at the costs and results of the project.
The committee also compared Network Rail’s failings on this project to the similar issues which occurred across the GWR modernisation programme.
The first tram-train services started on the line in September, with the National Audit Office revealing earlier in the year that funding had risen as high as five times what was initially forecast.
In RTM’s Aug/Sept 17 edition, Andrew Braddock, chairman of the Light Rail Transit Association (LRTA), analysed the issues which have affected the scheme since its beginning nearly three years ago.
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