Working for more than 20 years on the tram project, Pat Armstrong has helped change the face of Nottingham. After retiring as director of the tram network at the city council, he tells Local Government Correspondent Delia Monk what went on behind the scenes...

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PAT Armstrong vividly remembers the first tram arriving in Nottingham. It was barely dawn, at about 5.30am on a chilly morning in March 2004 and he was patiently waiting in Wilkinson Street.

And then, on the back of a low-loader truck, having travelled from the Bombardier site in Derby, Nottingham's first tram turned off the ring road and came into sight.

For Mr Armstrong it was a momentous occasion. Fourteen years after he first became involved in the project, it had finally happened – the first trams were being delivered and he had played a pivotal role in making it happen.

The idea to bring trams back to Nottingham was born in 1988 by the Nottingham Development Enterprise, a private-public organisation which believed it would help reduce congestion and boost the local economy.

Research was carried out and by 1990 a report backed up the theory and suggested a line to Hucknall would probably be the best route initially.

At that point Mr Armstrong, who worked for Notts County Council, was asked to set up a team of officers to help develop the project.

Little did he know it was to become his baby for the next 21 years.

He has met plenty of scepticism along the way, especially at the beginning.

"An awful lot of people said it would never happen," he said.

"Some colleagues said you're wasting your time, it's a big risk to go and get involved.

"I just thought this is something different, I knew nothing about trams.

"People presume I'm a rail buff and always wanted to build railways, it's not the case.

"I've worked in traffic management, road safety and highways and therefore I had the necessary knowledge of the transport issues that were likely to be involved in building a tram."

With an academic background as an economist and having studied a masters degree in Transport Management at Leeds University, it was decided he was the man for the job.

And today Mr Armstrong marvels at some of the opportunities that job presented him with.

In 1991 and 1992 he appeared before committees at the House of Lords to present Nottingham's case for the tram.

At the time an Act of Parliament had to be passed to allow a new railway or tram line to be built – and that rested almost entirely on his performance in Westminster.

"As a local authority officer you don't very often get that opportunity, I was in front of the committee for two and a half days.

"It's like appearing in a court of law, the committee ask questions and there's a legal representative there.

"You're under questioning and you can't ask a colleague for an answer – you have to have the information."

After being successfully awarded an Act of Parliament and approval for a Government grant, the team was then told that it would have to apply for private finance initiative (PFI) funding.

It was one of the first PFI projects on such a large scale.

Mr Armstrong's team and contractors worked closely with the Treasury to draw up a contract, which set a precedent for all future PFI schemes in the country.

He also appeared before the European Commission in Brussels in order to seek funding for the project.

But perhaps one of the most tense moments was the last hours leading up to the final sign-off of lines two and three, out to Clifton and Chilwell.

To make matters more complicated, a new contractor had been chosen.

This meant all the paperwork had to be signed to end the contract with the existing consortium Arrow Light Rail at almost the same time that the paperwork was signed to begin the new contract with a consortium called Tramlink Nottingham.

Arrow was dealing with about 14 different banks all over Europe, while Tramlink was dealing with another five.

But there was another additional pressure – the European Investment Bank (EIB) was about to close for Christmas.

It was about a week before British banks were closing for the festive break, but if they missed the deadline then borrowing rates could have rocketed, putting everything at stake.

Mr Armstrong said: "It all came to a crescendo where people were working all hours to finalise hundreds of documents that had to be ready for the signing process – one for closing the old contract, one for opening the new one, all within several hours."

He said they worked right into the very final hour that EIB was open.

The deal was done, with only minutes to spare.

If they had missed the deadline, Mr Armstrong said it would have made things "hard".

Tramlink had negotiated very good borrowing rates, which would have all been put at jeopardy.

"With the banking situation as it was, the very fact we got a deal at all was quite remarkable," he said.

"People in the industry said how on earth did you manage when it appeared the European banking system was close to collapsing but we held together a deal that was better value than expected."

If they had failed he said the price would have changed.

"We think it would have been more expensive.

"We got deals with banks because they'd been negotiating for a long time but if they'd had to have started again then we wouldn't have got it at such great rates."

As the last of the dotted lines were signed there was a huge feeling among everybody involved.

"We were too exhausted to celebrate," said Mr Armstrong.

"We had been working round the clock for quite a long period. The lawyers were working 18 to 20 hours a day and didn't have any sleep the last night, it was hard going."

Mr Armstrong admits it is quite difficult to cope with the amount of time it takes to deliver a project like the tram.

The first line was discussed in 1988 but it was not finished for another 16 years, and the second lines will have taken about 14 years.

However, he thinks the project was successful because the politicians were so committed to it, and kept the pressure on.

He said he also had a lot of stability within his team – and consultants, with many people having worked on it almost as long as himself.

"And there's been no vanity in Nottingham," he said.

"It's been called a vanity project in the letters page of the Post but it's not been like that.

"A lot of people see a project like this as having a huge amount of kudos, they want to do it their way, they want to control it.

"But that hasn't happened in Nottingham – everybody has worked towards a common goal to get the best route to bring the most social economic benefits.

"All we expect of the operator is to perform highly in punctuality, reliability, cleanliness, the conductors being there, the car parks being opened, the stops being lit.

"We let them decide everything else, they're the experts.

"Therefore we've had a PFI that's been very successful."

On his last day at work, Mr Armstrong was graced with a ministerial visit.

It was January 18 and transport minister Norman Baker paid Nottingham a visit to congratulate the city on its tram extension.

Mr Armstrong agrees it was an appropriate ending to an enthralling career.

And with the construction of the next lines already under way, he added: "I shall watch it from the sidelines as a member of the public without any responsibilities."