Leader: Tram success? Think walking on water

N THE Biblical miracle, a crowd of 5,000 was fed on five loaves and two fishes. Edinburgh city council is confident it can pull off a similar feat in the realm of local government finance. It intends to complete the tram project to St Andrew Square, borrow £200 million to help meet the increase in the final cost – and all this without cutting services. Even Houdini would gasp. The loan will be repaid at the rate of £15m a year over 30 years and will cost a total of £450m, bringing the overall cost of the project to nearly £1 billion. The trick? The burden will, in effect, be spread across the shoulders of another generation of council tax payers.

Few on the council can feel happy with this. But it is the best solution on offer – all this assuming the details are nailed down and in place within the next fortnight. Meanwhile, officials have drafted in consultants – an ever- replenishing pool in Scotland’s capital, it seems – to review how the project is run, with local-authority-owned tram developer Tie likely to be wound up. Few tears will be shed given the management’s record and the money – including legal fees – burnt up getting to this stage. As more disruption looms for Princes Street, residents are left with a grim determination to finish this accursed project as soon as possible: that would be miracle enough.