The fun begins,now we see what Salmond is made of

28 June 2007
NATS DERAILED
Salmond suffers first defeat over tram plans
By Magnus Gardham
[align=left]ALEX Salmond's government crashed to their first Holyrood defeat yesterday after MSPs voted to save two key transport projects.
The Executive were heavily outvoted on their pledge to scrap Edinburgh's planned tram network and airport rail link.
The defeat - by 81 to 47 - prompted a climbdown by finance secretary John Swinney.
He agreed to press ahead with the trams blueprint. He also said he would reconsider the rail link scheme, despite the fact that it was criticised by spending watchdogs.
Swinney will now try to iron out problems with the rail link before MSPs vote again in the autumn.
The SNP had campaigned against both schemes before May's Holyrood elections. And before yesterday's vote, transport minister Stewart Stevenson repeated his opposition.

But Labour, Lib Dem and Tory MSPs joined forces to defeat Salmond's minority government.

Labour MSP Des McNulty said: "It's a good day for democracy." The vote was not binding, but Swinney said he accepted the wishes of parliament.

Both projects will cost about £600million each. Swinney said he would honour the £490million already committed to the trams - but not a penny more.

That means only part of the project will go ahead unless cash can be found elsewhere.

Swinney said he would look again at the Edinburgh Airport Rail Link (EARL), but said it was unlikely to get the go ahead.

He said : "In my personal opinion, EARL is pretty dead. There are practical problems such as tunnelling under a live runway, getting the type of trains that do not exist yet to run on the system and problems with the project board."

Transport minister Stevenson backed a second Forth crossing, which will almost certainly be a bridge.

But there were problems with other transport schemes.

A planned Borders rail link is in doubt after the government refused to come up with extra cash.

The Glasgow Airport Rail Link will be delayed by a year, not opening until 2012.

The Aberdeen bypass will also be put back a year until the end of 2012.

And the M74 extension in Glasgow could face delays after Stevenson ordered a cost review.[/align]