Trams will run through to the city centre after local politicians perform a u-turn

Edinburgh councilors have voted to reverse last week’s heavily condemned decision to cut the city’s beleaguered tram scheme in half.

An emergency committee held today agreed to salvage the original plan for an 11-mile line which will link the city’s airport with the town centre.

Last week Labour and Conservative councilors joined forces to derail the original plans and pass an amended scheme which would have seen the line stop a mile short of the city centre.

The U-turn came after the SNP group, who had abstained during last week’s vote, decided to back their Lib Dem coalition partners in voting for the line to run to the centrally located St Andrew Square.

The Scottish government had said it would withhold £72m of funding if the track had stopped short of the city centre.

The tram project has been plagued by cost overruns since work began in 2007, with projected costs for the original plan almost doubling from £545m to £1bn in four years.

Turner & Townsend, which will take over management of the project from Transport Initiatives Edinburgh in the next two weeks, is understood to be considering setting fixed price contracts.

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