Letters: Fear not, the tram line will pay its way . . in 375 years

If the tram leaves on a return journey from the Square to the Airport once every 10 minutes, 24 hours a day, every day, then each year it will have completed 52,560 journeys.

If we divide 2m by 52,260 we get a figure of just over 38.05. This is the amount of money (over and above that set aside for running overheads and future upgrade costs) each and every return journey will have to generate to achieve the predicted 2m profit target.

I hope this is achievable. If it is, then I propose Edinburgh trams, as a mark of goodwill, uses that money to pay back its investors.

That's half a billion pounds paid back to Scotland's taxpayers, plus the additional quarter billion paid back to whoever's going to make up the spending shortfall we currently have (I've rounded the total at 750m to keep the maths simpler).

At 0 per cent interest rates, at 2m per year, Edinburgh trams will have cleared its debt to the taxpayer in 375 years.

I hope I haven't oversimplified things with my figures. However, I'm sure our council leaders know what they're doing.

Tom Ellingham, Montgomery Street, Edinburgh

Lib Dems don't get enough credit

IT was very disappointing to read an article by Martin Hannan on his view of politics through yellow and black tinted glasses.

He makes out that he appears to be sorry to see the recent results for Lib Dems (News, July 5), but the whole tone of the piece seems to be gloating.

Those of us who witnessed the triumphalist SNP candidates and party workers smirking at their equivalents in Lib Dems, Labour, Tories and Greens would recognise this trait.

A recent survey showed that 75 per cent of the Lib Dem policies had been enacted compared to 60 per cent for the Tories yet this has barely been mentioned in the media, although some have acknowledged how well the Lib Dems succeeded in getting their amendments made to NHS reforms.

It is also interesting to note that certain Conservative leaning newspapers are reporting that many back-bench Tories are resentful of their Lib Dem counterparts for their successful input to new legislation.

M Gray, Craigleith

Action needed on fuel poverty now

SCOTTISH Power's 19 per cent hike in gas and electricity charges last month has now been followed by British Gas's 18 per cent increase this month. The other four energy companies - EDF, Eon, Scottish and Southern and NPower - are widely expected to announce similar increases soon.Perhaps the energy companies or the Government can explain how people are supposed to pay these exorbitant bills when wages have not gone up, benefits have not gone up and pensions have not gone up.

Half the pensioners in this city are now experiencing fuel poverty (i.e. spending 10 per cent of their income on this bill) and there are one million households in Scotland living in such dire circumstances.

And with the SNP Government cutting 20m from fuel poverty programmes and the Con-Dem coalition at Westminster reducing the winter fuel payment by 25 per cent, this shameful situation is unlikely to improve any time soon.

First Minister Alex Salmond promised to eradicate fuel poverty in Scotland by 2015. He is now further away from his goal than ever.

It is time the Government intervened to ensure bills are capped and to diversify away from burning fossil fuels as part of an affordable and sustainable energy policy.

Colin Fox, national spokesman, Scottish Socialist Party

What's story with Maw and Tory?

WHEN the Scottish parliamentary elections were taking place, did anyone apart from myself notice the striking similarity in appearance between the cartoon character Maw Broon and Annabel Goldie, leader of the Scottish Tories?

N Nisbet, Moat Drive, Edinburgh