Melbourne's Anti-tram Lord Mayor

[Chris Brownbill <cbrnbill@enternet.com.au>]

Today's Melbourne Age newspaper has a review of the newly elected Lord
Mayor of Melbourne - Peter Costigan.  The write-up describes him as
being unorthodox in many of his views, and amongst other things claims
that "He questions whether the tram system is an effective means of
transport in the middle and outer suburbs.  Buses might do a better job,
he says".

Does this mean that he supports trams for the inner city though? 
Thankfully the trams are not run or funded by the City of Melbourne, and
in any case the City covers only a very small area so the authority of
the Mayor does not extend to middle suburbs.

Interestingly, the first action of the new Council - and Costigan's
stated personal desire, has been to reverse the removal of car traffic
from Swanston Street.  In as soon as a month from now full car traffic
could be back in Swanston Street - against the wishes of VicRoads!

We should keep a wary eye on Costigan.