Scottish council elections: Lib Dems maintain to Edinburgh trams

Edinburgh’s controversial trams project could be extended if the Liberal Democrats return to power in the city, the party said yesterday.

Council leader Jenny Dawe claimed this may be the only answer to the city’s growing public transport needs with population levels in the capital expected to top half a million in the coming years. The party is keen to fulfill the original plans to extend the line out to Leith and Little France.

“It was always the intention it would not be a tram line – a tram network is what I still believe Edinburgh needs,” Ms Dawe said.

The curtailed trams project is now only expected to consist of one line between Edinburgh airport and the east end of Princes Street. It has been dogged by cost overruns and delays that have caused widespread disruption in the city in recent years. But Ms Dawe backs extending the system down to Leith and the city’s booming bioquarter near Edinburgh Royal Infirmary as part of wider regeneration plans.

“Part of that regeneration could be delivering the kind of public transport, through the tram, that many of the investors in the bioquarter have consistently asked us for,” she said.

“They want to be able to get from the airport out to the bioquarter and the best way to do that is by tram.”

Last December, the Scottish Government confirmed a £500m commitment to the project.