It's never been ideal for car driving and there has never been much parking but Lothian Regional Transport, who run the city buses in Edinburgh, are an award winning company and many travellers were perfectly happy with the public transport available before the whole trams fiasco even started.
The authorities, which means of course ultimately the taxpayers, have now spent £402m of the £545m budget, with a new estimate cost of £600m.
The construction work should be almost completed BUT just 28 per cent has been finished.
Here is how the saga unfolds.
- October 2007 - Approval given to Final Business Case for Trams Project
- December 2007 - Approval given by the Council for TIE to sign contracts with for supply of vehicles and design, construction and building of network
- April 2008 - Contract negotiations are concluded
- June 2008 - Construction of the network commences
- November 2008 - Willie Gallagher steps down as executive chairman of TIE
- April 2009 - Phase 1B of construction project is cancelled due to financial problems
- May 2009 - Richard Jeffrey becomes new executive chairman of TIE
- January 2010 - Important milestones of construction schedule slip by up to two years
- March 2010 - Announcement that construction work will be delayed by a further 30 months
- June 2010 - Project costs rise to £600 million or more
- July 2011 Original estimated completion date
- 2014 Current estimated completion date
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