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INCA and Manacor Town Councils have discovered that it sometimes pays to be persistent. After lobbying hard, they have finally got the Balearic government to foot the bill for running the railway system underground in their respective towns. Although the projects, costing a total of 77.4 million euros, were not initially included in the government's regional transport programme, the councils have succeeded in persuading the Islands' ministry for Public Works and Transport to take the financing on board. Before celebrations can begin, however, it remains for local government to barter with their central counterparts in Madrid, and hammer out an agreement for railway network funding for the Islands. To date, progress in securing support from central government Economy minister, Pedro Solbes, has proved hard going. The long term transport plan currently in place in the Balearics has a life span of eight years and will be in force until 2012. In both Inca and Manacor, the structural schemes will prove complicated and be the source of much political infighting. Already in Inca, the Majorcan Railway company has carried out a tunnelling project under the track to replace a surface level crossing.