Trams - 'There will be widespread scepticism'

When trams first ran the length of Leith Walk the route was famous for a stop known as the "Pilrig muddle".

Today's tram bosses are clearly either no students of history or simply do not believe in bad omens as they are now looking at fresh plans to take the modern version past that spot.

Having accepted that the new line can initially only be built as far as St Andrew Square, tram firm TIE is preparing a second phase of building work to extend it to the Foot of the Walk in Leith.

It is aiming to do this within four years and there are even suggestions of being able to do so within the existing budget.

There will be widespread scepticism about the suggestion, given the calamitous experience to date with the project.

Were it to happen, it would be a significant improvement on the initial airport to city centre service, although still well short of the intended destination in Newhaven. It would come as a blessed relief to many Leith businesses who currently fear seeing none of the economic benefits of a completed line despite suffering so much disruption.

If it is possible, this phased approach makes sense, spreading the benefits as far as is practical across the city, yet stopping short of the undeveloped Waterfront until economic prospects change dramatically for the better.

Back in the early 1920s, the "Pilrig muddle" was created because Edinburgh's old-fashioned cable-drawn cars were incompatible with Leith's modern electric vehicles, forcing passengers to disembark from one and walk to the other.

At least this is one problem that today's tram bosses won't have to contend with. Unless, that is, they plan to finance the second phase work by drafting in cabledrawn cars to take passengers down Leith Walk more cheaply.

Murder most foul

The evidence suggests there has been a murder. It looks like STV have bumped off their old scriptwriters and replaced them with ones imported from the graphically violent school of US crime dramas.

Many viewers will share Blyth Duff's tinge of regret. Such long-lasting series have to move with the times, of course, but as Edinburgh's own RL Stevenson knew so well, most of the best horror is seen only in the mind.