A £600m scheme to reintroduce trams to Edinburgh is facing a significant new financial problem.
The viability of the planned operation relies on a concessionary bus fares scheme for pensioners and disabled people being extended to the trams.
Glasgow MSPs said if the scheme, which attracts a Scottish Executive subsidy, was extended to trams it must also be introduced on the city's underground.
The SNP claimed the extra costs of this move would be unaffordable.
The Scottish Executive is expected to give its views on the business case for the trams in the next few weeks but a decision on extending the fares scheme could take a year.
The plan to bring trams back to the capital for the first time in half a century has been approved by MSPs and councillors in Edinburgh.
The first phase will run on a route from Leith to Edinburgh Airport, via the city centre.
The second phase would serve the Granton area of the city, connecting it to the city centre through Craigleith and Roseburn.
Free travel
The start of construction work has been fixed provisionally for April next year, with services to begin running in 2010 or 2011.
The executive has already committed £450m for both lines.
However, it has emerged that the business plan is based on the free travel concessions being extended to the trams.
The tram operator would receive a subsidy from the executive for all trips made by concessionary passengers, as bus companies do at the moment.
Labour MSP for Glasgow Anniesland, Bill Butler, said if the concessionary scheme was extended to the trams, it would be only fair for the underground in Glasgow to also be included.
Glasgow Springburn Labour MSP Paul Martin and Alastair Watson, chairman of the underground operator SPT, also pressed for the extension.
The SNP's Kenny MacAskill said that with 13 million subway journeys annually, the extra cost would be significant and unaffordable.
A spokeswoman for Transport Scotland said there would be no review of the concessionary fares scheme until next year and no changes made before 2009.
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