Leader: Trams debacle needs another vote

dinburgh city council is coming under intensifying pressure to perform an about-turn on its vote last week to run the tramline from the airport to Haymarket only. The Scottish Government has tilted the scales by indicating that it would withhold £72 million in funding for the scheme, as the latest proposal is a drastic modification of the original project to which it pledged support. A volte-face so soon would be a further humiliation for the council. But it is one for which councillors have only themselves to blame. Such was the heavily politicised atmosphere surrounding last week’s blame-dodging vote that even the most basic points appear to have been overlooked: the lack of a turnaround facility for trams at the Haymarket end; the extra bottleneck at Haymarket were the tram to attract any passenger volume; and the impost of an annual loss, starting at £4m a year for a white elephant.

The Labour caucus withdrew its support for the St Andrew Square option, while the SNP loftily abstained. The result was a vote for the worst possible option available, unleashing a storm of criticism.

Now a further vote may be taken on Friday, hopefully with some flexibility shown by the contractors, which would reinstate the proposal to run the line to St Andrew Square. Business and leisure passengers would have greater reason to use a tram which ran to the centre of the city. And it would still be open to the council to limit its financial exposure by leasing out the line. The case for a second vote is now compelling.