The vote was unanimous. The applause was thunderous. The handshake between Blackthorne and Voss will be printed in every almanac for a generation.

But Tuesday morning arrived, as Tuesday mornings do, and the question shifted from whether to how.

By nine o’clock, the Municipal Treasury had issued a three-page memorandum to the council’s Finance Committee outlining the preliminary timeline for the phased tramway’s financing. The document — dry, precise, and entirely devoid of oratory — is in its way as significant as Blackthorne’s twenty-six-minute address.

The bond prospectus, which will underpin the estimated 280-million-florin Phase 1 overrun, is to be circulated to institutional investors by 31 March. Deputy Treasurer Annabel Whitford confirmed that preliminary conversations with three domestic underwriting firms began Monday afternoon, before the gallery had fully emptied.

“The market responded before we picked up the telephone,” Whitford said, referring to the sharp rally in municipal bond yields from 4.2 to 3.9 per cent. “We intend to move while conditions are favourable.”

The geological survey of the Greymoor Highlands — mandated unanimously by the council as a prerequisite for Phase 1 construction — will be advertised for tender this week. Whitford indicated that the 1.2-million-florin contract is expected to be awarded by mid-April, with fieldwork commencing immediately thereafter. The survey must be completed before the late September groundbreaking can proceed.

Chief Transit Engineer Yara Okonkwo, reached at her office in the Municipal Works depot on Havelock Road, said her team had already begun updating the Phase 1 construction schedule to reflect the accelerated timeline.

“We lost three weeks to deliberation,” Okonkwo said. “We can recover them, but only if every subsequent step proceeds without delay. The survey is the gate. Everything follows from it.”

The bond prospectus will be managed by the Municipal Treasury in partnership with at least one external underwriter. Whitford declined to name the firms under consideration but confirmed that expressions of interest had been received from “several quarters, including continental institutions.”

The Continental Rating Agency, which described Monday’s vote as “constructive,” has not yet issued a formal review. Market observers expect one within the fortnight. A favourable assessment would support the 3.9 per cent yield level; an adverse one could push borrowing costs back toward pre-vote levels.

Councilman Aldric Voss — whose vote of aye prompted the most sustained ovation the Municipal Chamber has witnessed since the Armistice — was characteristically restrained on Tuesday morning. Reached by telephone, he said only: “The vote spoke for itself. I have nothing to add.”

Councilwoman Ida Pryce, by contrast, was at the Municipal Works depot before eight o’clock, reviewing Phase 1 station designs with Okonkwo’s team. Sources in her office said she intends to propose a monthly progress reporting mechanism to the council, ensuring public visibility over the construction timeline.

Patrick Seldon, whose apprentice amendment expanded the transition fund eligibility to an estimated 800 to 1,200 additional workers at a cost of 2 to 3 million florins, said Tuesday that implementation details remained to be settled.

“The amendment passed,” Seldon said. “Now we need the paperwork. Who qualifies, how they apply, when the fund opens. Samuel Obi can’t eat a council resolution.”

The Docklands Workers’ Association has requested a meeting with the Finance Committee to discuss fund administration. No date has been set.

In the bond market, municipal yields held steady at 3.9 per cent in early Tuesday trading — unchanged from Monday’s close and consistent with what analysts at Fernwich Trading House described as “a sustained repricing of municipal credit.”

Clement Varga, senior commodities analyst at Fernwich, noted that copper opened at 835 florins per tonne on Tuesday morning — a further decline from Monday’s 838 and the lowest level since 5 February.

“The copper market is now pricing in a resolution,” Varga said. “Whether the diplomats deliver one is another matter. But the trajectory is unmistakable.”

Phase 1 of the Veridan Corridor will run 8.2 miles from the Docklands terminus through Midtown to the Caldecott Square interchange, serving seven stations. It requires approximately 5,200 tonnes of copper at current specifications. At Tuesday’s prices, the copper component cost has fallen by approximately 28 million florins from its crisis peak — a windfall the Treasury memorandum cautiously notes but does not incorporate into projections.

“We budget for headwinds,” Whitford said. “Tailwinds are welcome but unreliable.”

The geological survey will examine both the copper-bearing deposits and the geothermal activity documented by Dr. Odette Collis and the Royal Institute team. Professor Elara Whitstone, who chairs the emergency geology panel, confirmed that the survey scope agreed at the 3 March panel meeting will form the basis of the tender specification.

“We have a mandate,” Whitstone said. “Now we need a contractor.”

The council’s next formal session is scheduled for 24 March. By then, the bond prospectus should be in circulation, the survey tender should be awarded, and the city should know whether Thursday’s fourth session of the Kaelmar talks has produced anything resembling a final agreement.

Until then, the work proceeds in memoranda and telephone calls and early-morning meetings at the Municipal Works depot — the quiet, unglamorous business of turning a unanimous vote into a tramway.