Dosn't this arise from the rather convulted battle for funding that the Metrolink has had to endure, with the conversion of heavy rail to tram on the Rochdale-Oldham section being part of one phase, with funding given, then withdrawn, then given again after some costly delay and political manouvering. The town centre extrensions were part of the TiF package, which was rejected in a series of votes, so were not actually set to be built when initial work started, but have been funded later by (its not a Plan B!) a combination of council borrowing ans tac raises?