I told you. I said back in January that they wouldn’t get the tram done in time for Christmas, but they kept saying they would.
Well, I just saw that infamous tram mouthpiece, Cllr Jane Urquhart, on BBC News admitting it wouldn’t be finished until early next year. She’s “disappointed” that it won’t be ready for Christmas, but “pleased” that the delay is “only slight”.
The thing is, the contractors haven’t been working nights or weekends for 95% of the time the disruption has been in place. However, I noticed that over the last few weeks this is no longer the case. It’s obvious that they were behind – from the various reported delays that have added months to the completion dates, to the amount of work that had obviously still got to be done. After all, it’s hard to keep defending dozens of kilometres of scorched earth with “it’ll be ready by Christmas” when the scorched earth in question still has deep holes with reinforced sides for sewer and drainage work, most of which have been in the exact same state for at least the last six months.
Being a tram worker is a real cushy number, as well. From what I’ve seen it seems to involve standing around all day texting on your phone and eating bacon sandwiches. Of course, the period I call “a day” has – until recently – only involved the time between 10am and 3pm Monday to Friday.
The tram is a waste of money, and all the people involved with it are not the best examples of efficient workers.
All of the above is “alleged”, of course. The people in question might instead be wonderful individuals who will get the tram finished on time, who work nights and weekends and have done since the work started, who don’t spend all day eating and texting, and so on. This is just for balance, of course.