Transport jobs cut in Edinburgh

The £600m tram project is expected to take three years to complete

The company formed to deliver transport projects for Edinburgh has announced 15 redundancies.

Transport Initiatives Edinburgh, known as Tie, was set up by Edinburgh City Council to work on projects such as the trams and the airport rail link.

But the new Scottish Executive has ordered a review of the airport rail link and there are doubts it will go ahead on the same scale.

However, preparatory work has begun on a new £600m tram system for the city.

Tie said it had been asked to deliver the tram project and participate in a review of the Edinburgh Airport Rail Link.

Chairman Willie Gallagher said: "We are restructuring the organisation to reflect these priorities."

He said the changes also acknowledged the move to the delivery phase on the tram project, meaning that different skills were required for different stages of work.

"All Tie's staff are skilled and employable - over the coming weeks we will be working with our employees and recruitment partner to assist them in securing positions either in the tram project or elsewhere," he added.