Damaging derailment

The word tram comes from the low German traam, meaning a beam or shaft; things we associate with light as well as transport. It is not just the people of Edinburgh who would benefit from a shaft of light being shone on the latest murkiness to descend on the city's £512m tram project. It emerged yesterday that the next phase of the scheme, due to begin in Princes Street today, has been put on indefinite hold because of a dispute over the contract.