AS HINTS go, the one dropped by transport minister Saddiq Khan is pretty much to the point: Merseyside should drop its plans for a tramway system and start looking for alternatives.

We have long believed that a 21st-centurty tram network is the way ahead for public transport in Liverpool, but for the time being we are also inclined to agree that Merseytravel should forget the idea and move on.

We thought that we had already reached this point a year or two back, when it seemed to be a final decision that there would be no government funding for the scheme.

Then suggestions that maybe the project could be revived seemed to fall on fertile ground, and perhaps Liverpool would get its trams after all.

It seems that, in the end, they were false hopes. Within Mr Khan’s letter to tram project leaders on Merseyside, there is already the first sign of putting the blame on local bodies, rather than central government.

“The Department would have been happy to receive a fresh proposal . . . but only as long as it has been prioritised for funding by the region. The opportunity to do this was not taken up by the regions.”

In other words, it’s your fault and not mine.

Maybe the time has come to switch the money into alternative schemes. “Key transport issues in the Liverpool City Region . . . need to be addressed,” says the minister.

Talks have apparently already started between those on Merseyside and Whitehall. We will be most interested to see what they come up with, but it really does seem that, for the foreseeable future, the trams are well and truly off the agenda.