A row has broken out over whether to give the go-ahead to a revamp of Edinburgh’s transport system after the new nationalist government at Holyrood opposed it. Financial Times
Last week Alex Salmond’s minority administration avoided an early parliamentary defeat – but only by accepting a cross-party amendment urging it not to delay or cancel 'arbitrarily' plans for trams and a rail link to Edinburgh airport.
However, later, during first minister’s questions, Salmond told the Scottish parliament he was 'not convinced' by the £650m plan for an airport rail link or the £600m scheme to provide Edinburgh with a modern tram system.
Both schemes were authorised by legislation by the previous Scottish executive, run by a Labour and Liberal Democrat coalition, but the SNP can stop both projects by denying them funding.
The SNP manifesto pledged to abandon both schemes in favour of improving rail links across Scotland.