The former policy adviser, who worked for both the Federal and Territory governments before being elected to the Legislative Assembly in 2016, effectively had the decision to split the second stage of light rail into two parts, and to commence work on the Civic to the lake leg in the immediate future, made for him by Chief Minister and Treasurer, Andrew Barr.

Public reaction to that proposal, which involves some significant gambles given the National Capital Authority has yet to sign off on a vital lake crossing, is still playing out.

And, while it is true the first stage of the project has been delivered and appears to be proving popular, even after the introduction of fares, there is still some debate over its actual cost and cost effectiveness.

The tram, however, is probably the least of Mr Steel's worries right now. The real hot button issue is the impact of the sweeping changes made to the city's bus timetables as part of the transport revamp rolled out in conjunction with light rail stage one.

This newspaper has been inundated with letters from residents complaining it now takes them much longer to get from point A to point B, that they frequently have to make the trip via a point C that was not on the route before, and that, in many cases, the nearest bus stop is now up to a kilometre away.

Other concerns have included fears for the safety of students who have lost access to dedicated school bus services, and his predecessor, Meegan Fitzharris's reluctance to consider changes until a review of the new service scheduled for the end of the year.

These are all reasons why the transport portfolio is second only to health in its capacity to regularly generate bad news for the Barr government, as well as long-suffering commuters.

That adds up to a lot of pressure on a newly minted minister who, it is fair to say, is just off his L-plates and onto his Ps.

There are some positive signs he is the right person for the job, however.

Mr Steel is actually a serendipitous choice in that he was brought up in Torrens where he attended Torrens Primary, Melrose High School and then Narrabundah College before attending the ANU.

If anyone in the government is highly motivated to get the light rail across the lake it would be him.

While there are some who would dispute Mr Steel's claim southside residents are now "clamouring for us to come to Woden" the fact is he has more skin in this game than most.

Clear progress on getting the tram to the lake's edge would go some of the way to countering the belief, firmly held by many southsiders, that they are second class citizens in their own city and that they do not receive the same level of love from the government as people living in the north.

And, even more crucially, he has indicated he would be open to tweaking the contentious new timetables in response to patrons' complaints.

That has to be seen as a step in the right direction.

Given the ACT Labor government, which has been in office for most of this century, is due to face the judgement of the people in just over 12 months Mr Steel will get a very short learning window before he finds himself facing significant decisions. He cannot afford any mistakes.