Date: 04/09/2007

TRANSPORT Minister Stewart Stevenson says he is looking forward to travelling on Edinburgh's trams - despite leading the Government's attempts to kill them off. He promised full co-operation from the Scottish Executive in delivering the £594 million project for the Capital, even though he had resisted the case for the trams to the bitter end. The vote in parliament in June for the trams to go ahead was the first defeat for the minority SNP government. But now Mr Stevenson has signalled that the Executive is ready to embrace the transport scheme and make it work. He said: "The arguments about the trams are now finished. We have agreed with parliament we will implement the trams, and we are committed to providing the funding that we have agreed and committed to helping in any practical way to deliver on the project." He said there would be "no diminution" of Executive support for making the project work. "If we are having trams in Edinburgh, they must make a meaningful and useful contribution to public transport. I'm confident they will.[Edinburgh Evening News 28 August 2007]

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