Kevin Lang, a Liberal Democrat councillor who opposes an extension to the Edinburgh tram service, has uploaded a timer to his website.
The timer chronicles the amount of time between Transport Secretary Fino Hyslop’s statement on 1 May 2024 that a tram extension would be unaffordable, and the current extension plans.
The timer aims to highlight the discrepancy between the government, which claims a tram extension is unaffordable, and the council, which is moving forward with the extension. The timer now indicates that it has been over 500 days since Hyslop’s claim.
The stunt also raises questions about how the tram extension would be funded. The timer’s display questions how the tram extension will be funded, for which no answer has been forthcoming.
The Edinburgh University Liberals Society offered this comment:
“[N]obody seems to have any idea where the funding is going to come from. The Labour council administration has flip-flopped over whether it might be paid for out of council tax, and the Scottish government has refused to commit to anything. This is a multi-billion-pound project, and I don’t think you can proceed with plans for a tram extension if you can’t say who is paying for it.”
Illustration by Alex, @paperingoverthecracks