WORK on transforming one of Scotland's busiest stations into a major transport interchange will not start until the year after trams begin running in Edinburgh.
Details of the £190 million Haymarket scheme have been unveiled – but it may not be completed until 2016 and funding has yet to be secured.
The train-tram-bus complex was originally planned to coincide with the opening of the Edinburgh Airport to
Newhaven tram line in 2011.
However, council officials said the two-phase project will not start until the following year, and will take between two and a half and four and a half years to finish. This will effectively reduce Scotland's fourth busiest station to a building site just after three years of disruptive work to build the tram line has been completed. Four million people pass through the hub every year.
Business leaders expressed surprise at the news and called for the interchange work to be speeded up.
It will involve nearly tripling the size of the station to 8,700 square metres, topped with a new glass roof.
Funding will be sought from the Scottish Government's Transport Scotland agency for the first, £77 million phase, which could take two years. A second, £114 million phase, involving shops and taking two and a half years, is expected to be privately funded.
The only work expected to be completed in time for the trams is a footbridge and lifts to improve access to platforms.
Ron Hewitt, the chief executive of Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce, said: "This is extremely unfortunate. We would look to see if the work could be brought forward, as the interchange is a key part of the whole tram plan."
Graham Russell, the Edinburgh branch chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: "I thought it would have been in place in time for the trams to ensure maximum good publicity from the start."
Phil Wheeler, the council's transport convener, said: "Traffic will still be able to flow past Haymarket during the refurbishment and links between transport facilities will be kept as open as possible."
Tram cash pleaBUSINESS leaders are demanding a full rates rebate for shops threatened with closure by Edinburgh's trams scheme.
John Swinney, the finance minister, will be urged to personally step in to help prevent dozens of firms going to the wall.
More than 150 business owners from Leith Walk and Constitution Street confronted councillors and officials masterminding the £500 million project last night.
Their other demands include radical improvements to a compensation scheme, which is capped at just £4,000 per firm. Some businesses say they are losing more than £1,000 a week.
The full article contains 445 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
