No need to throw good money after bad

Sunk cost is past expenditure that has no present value. “Honouring” sunk cost consists in having faith that if only more money was spent, somehow past expenditure would regain its value. Herein lies the fallacy.

The fact that money has been wasted in the past should not feature in any argument that proposes to waste it in the future. Sunk cost should be ignored and the benefit of future expenditure, if any, evaluated on its own merit.

The pathetic fact is that HSC and the enthusiasm for the further escalation of expenditure on what is an obviously failed project, is more directed to the creation and preservation of myths to pass on to future generations about the wisdom, foresight and acumen of the decision- makers than about achieving any viable outcome. This is especially true when the money involved is extracted by force from helpless taxpayers.

Far from demonstrating these qualities, the ETF will expose the naivety, immaturity and ignorance of business matters that characterises today’s politicians.

The time has come to stop HSC and to reconsider what problem, if any, the ETF was intended to solve. I cannot even guess what it was, except to infer that in some way passengers from the airport were ill-served by buses and taxis, or that their arrival and departure was causing a traffic problem in the city.

Perhaps some business interests envisaged passengers from abroad crowding into Princes Street shops to buy their tartan dollies or into the Royal Bank of Scotland in St Andrew Square to cash their traveller’s cheques. Or was it simply the same vanity which resulted in that scandalously expensive monstrosity beside the Palace of Holyroodhouse?

What could possibly justify expenditure on a tramway with its colossal overhead investment, its limited number of stops and its permanent rigidity? Not, one would have thought, a system designed for a fast-changing world and a “vibrant” capital city. One has to ask: where will the arriving air travellers go to and where will the departing travellers come from and what role could a tram possibly play in aiding their journeys to and from the airport?

Market research, not political opinion or vested interests, should provide the answer and a suitably flexible transport system designed to meet passengers’ needs. To those who say that this is all too late, the answer must be: it is never too late to stop wasting money.

FENTON ROBB

North Street

Eyemouth

Why can’t there be transparency and a clear time-line on what is to happen with the Edinburgh tram line?

Given the recent decision, why can’t we see some “connecting up” rather than a rush to dig up Princes Street again, causing widespread misery? Psychologically, would it not be better to concentrate on the airport to Haymarket link so that we could see something physically take shape that bears some resemblance to the ultimate goal?

The Gogar roundabout chaos should be tackled and cleaned up as well as the vandalism perpetrated on Edinburgh Park – now having sat untouched for nearly a year. Is it asking too much for the public to be reliably informed on what is to happen?

SHEENA CRAIGEN

Downie Grove

Edinburgh

I WRITE this whilst waiting at Edinburgh Airport for 12 hours for a plane to Norwich. During this time I have watched an incessant number of Fife trains passing a few hundred yards away across the old runway. A short tunnel and a temporary platform, such as the one knocked up at Whitehaven last year, and we have a cheap but effective airport train service.

In fact, not one plane has used the old runway in the past eight hours, so a shuttle bus would suffice. I make no charge for this suggestion.

TONY BAKER

Colinton Road

Edinburgh