CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
@paulmilne, If you read the article the £380 covered the cost of the cake as well as the iced frame. I suspect the council got the best value for money available, as Dave pointed out having the sponge in the shape of a tram and iced would cost far more.
I wonder if the EEN even stopped to ponder how much of the £380 was for the actual cake plus delivery.
You're all missing the point I think. What really matters here is how the council are giving good money to a baker that can't make an edible cake in the shape of a tram!
It's a cyclic bit of moaning too. If reporters didn't pitch up for such vacuous events there wouldnae be need for a cake, fake or no, in the first place.
“Normal hard-working taxpayers will be alarmed to hear that their cash contributed to a PR stunt intended to make the City of Edinburgh Council look good."
Really? Taxpayers upset that Council uses PR budget for PR purposes? #notnews.
The cake was actually made for the launch of STV Edinburgh, so thoughts that the Council itself had decided to get a cake made in the shape of a tram are actually incorrect. The cake was there, it could be bought, meh, why not.
"Patrick Langan, 50, said: “I find it quite bizarre that a cake would cost that much...”"
Clearly Mr Langan has never seen the prices of wedding cakes, which are generally just as inedible...
A story on a cycling forum about paying money for cake with a negative spin, hahaha! I think this wins the internet. :-)
@kaputnik, The point I was trying to make was that said baker perhaps pointed out to the council that it would be cheaper to have an iced box plus a cake rather than a tram shaped cake which I imagine would take more work.
Who wants to bet that the cost of servicing the FOI request was more than £380?
(There may be a directly related thread)
Ah yes -
http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=14264&page=8#post-201018
Is it bad that I watched the video just to see if I recognised the Carradice owner.
"
EDINBURGH tram inquiry chairman Lord Hardie issued an ultimatum to the city council over potential conflicts of interest at today’s first hearing.
The former judge opened the long-awaited preliminary session by announcing that officials were grappling with six million project documents, and he could not say when the first witnesses would be called to give evidence.
"
http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/transport/tram-inquiry-opens-with-ultimatum-1-3908851
Are these enquiries paid one figure for the job, rather than by the hour? #jobsfortheboys/girls
"
Paris Gourtsoyannis (@thistlejohn) tweeted at 10:39am - 6 Oct 15:
Edinburgh #traminquiry starts with a joke: Lord Hardie can't, as asked by member of the public, get West End tram stop moved closer to shops (https://twitter.com/thistlejohn/status/651331041874063360?s=17)
Paris Gourtsoyannis (@thistlejohn) tweeted at 11:05am - 6 Oct 15:
Lord Hardie issues warning over Edinburgh Council decision not to make defunct tram project firm TIE ltd part of the inquiry #traminquiry (https://twitter.com/thistlejohn/status/651337512774946816?s=17)
"
Good. Even based on the assumption that this would have been the one project that came in on budget, it made no financial sense.
"it made no financial sense"
I have never been a fan of the tram because of the financial realities. The money would have been much better spent on a 'proper' walk/cycle network. (Walking/cycling would now be a lot better if CEC had said 'the tram works will cause major disruption AND it won't be going back to the way it was'...)
However this (once again) says that in many other places PT is seen as a service and not subject to the simplistic economics of 'fares must cover costs'.
In London fares may or may not cover the running costs of CrossRail etc. but capital costs are basically a gift from the Gov (aka UK taxpayers) - aka a subsidy!
Of course that is what happened for Edinburgh's tram (due to politics). For any extension CEC would have to borrow money and Edinburgh taxpayers, or higher fares, would need to pay it back.
"
Councillors have been given restricted access to confidential data on the project to help them come to a view ahead of the council meeting.
"
Very helpful.
"
We need to invest in the infrastructure of the city. Completion of the tramline to Leith and Newhaven should be a priority for investment by national government and the council should be looking to see if there are other sources of funding too.”
"
If I had £144 million I would r un it down leith walk
Do you have £144 million?
SNP playing politics in the press to vandalise the project again.
I can't believe for a moment the extension has a poor cost/benefit given the region it runs through, the St James contribution and the fact the trams and rails are already owned.
Imagine if the service we have today was cut short at Haymarket.
@hankchief, alas I am a bit short but my council tax is maybe a hundred thousandth of the total?
I can't believe for a moment the extension has a poor cost/benefit given the region it runs through
A region that's very well served by buses. So the question is, if they spend £144m, how much extra revenue will that generate for the council?
The problem I have with the trams is that they, by and large, use the same roads as the buses.
And, where they do, they're really not any faster than the existing buses.
"So the question is, if they spend £144m, how much extra revenue will that generate for the council?"
The related question is 'how much will be saved' by having fewer buses?'
The answer to do date seems to be 'not a lot'.
CEC/ET has so far been unwilling to say 'people will have to get used to more bus/tram interchanges'.
That will be a hard sell at the best of times, (a tram stop at the London Road/Leith Walk junction would help), even more difficult without transferable tickets.
A bigger question is 'if they already have the trams and the track why is the cost of extending the route so much?'!
Why should trams 'have' to make a profit/extra revenue?
Will the additional Forth bridge make a profit? Dualling the A9? The Aberdeen bypass?
We've been indoctrinated into thinking that public transport must pay its way, whereas it's fine to subsidise massive road building projects.
Of course you've answered your own question!
Though in the case of Edinburgh's tram the ScotGov provided the capital for a 'network' - and didn't get it. So realistically there was never any requirement to 'make a profit/return on capital' in a conventional commercial sense.
By contrast, Edinburgh's buses have usually made a profit/surplus in spite of (or perhaps because of) constantly updating its fleet and having relatively low fares.
You must log in to post.
Cycling in Edinburgh Flickr group
Video embedded using Easy Video Embed plugin
posts