The Scotsman Bulletin Thursday June 12 2025 #Transport

The Scotsman

Transcript

00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin for this Thursday.

00:05My name is Dale Miller, I'm Deputy Editor at the Scotsman

00:07and I'm joined by our Transport Correspondent, Alistair Dalton.

00:12Just before we get to talking about the front page of today's Scotsman,

00:17Alistair, there is a developing breaking story as we speak.

00:21A passenger aircraft, an India craft that was departing from an airport

00:26in India has crashed soon after take-off, within a minute of take-off.

00:33There are unconfirmed reports of 242 people on board, 232 passengers and up to 12 crew.

00:42It was bound for London Gatwick.

00:44We don't know any of the details about nationalities of those on board the aircraft at this stage,

00:51but reports on the ground that it's crashed in a residential area.

00:55The Air India Chairman or one of the Chiefs has put out a statement confirming details of the incident,

01:02which appears to be a terrible tragedy at this stage.

01:06More details will emerge.

01:08You can read the story that we've got up currently at scotsman.com

01:13and there will be more to emerge around this incident throughout the day.

01:18Alistair, I know you haven't had a chance to get across the full details yet,

01:22but we'll be looking at the safety record of eating in the year as well.

01:25So please stay tuned on our website for all the very latest about that incident

01:30and the implications for those on board and worried families

01:33that are no doubt on the ground in the UK.

01:37Firstly, moving on to the front page of the Scotsman,

01:41and we led on the spending review fallout, $9.1 billion boost.

01:46At least, Scots shortchanged the claim of the SNP.

01:49There were details in Rachel Reeves' announcement from the House of Commons yesterday

01:53that there was UK government support for the ACORN carbon capture project.

01:59There's still some doubt over how much money and how it was going to be initially committed.

02:03We know that Energy Secretary Ed Miliband is up in the region today to talk more about ACORN,

02:10so we'll bring you all the latest from there.

02:12And also there was money for a $750 million supercomputer

02:16that will be built at Edinburgh University,

02:18and $250 million for Faslane where the Trident deterrent is kept as well.

02:26So a lot of money within the spending review from the UK government,

02:32but not enough to satisfy the SNP government that it would cover off

02:35on things like the national insurance increases that were announced earlier this year.

02:40Alistair, there was a story that you produced as well.

02:43It's up on the website.

02:45It's a little bit close to the home.

02:47It's about the Sheriff Hall junction,

02:49which a lot of our readers and a lot of viewers on this will know very, very well.

02:54Can you give us an update on what the story was all about?

02:56Yeah, so this is about the very long-running saga of plans to upgrade this major junction

03:05on the Edinburgh City Bypass, which will be notorious to, as you say,

03:11many of our readers and drivers.

03:13It was the only junction on the bypass when it was built in the late 80s,

03:19which has a roundabout and leads to regular tailbacks and congestion.

03:27I just noticed this morning there's about a mile queue heading east today.

03:32Very soon after the roundabout, the road was built,

03:39there was a realisation that it needed to be upgraded.

03:44It was built as a roundabout because it concerns about the stability of the area,

03:50the form of mine workings and the geological fault.

03:53But the last few years, they needed to upgrade it.

04:01And the world's money set aside seven or eight years ago by the Scottish Government

04:09to improve it so that you would have clear running lanes and slip roads.

04:16But the plans did run into significant controversy,

04:22and there were several thousand objections which led to a local inquiry,

04:28public inquiry, two years ago, whose hearings finished at the end of the beginning of February 2023.

04:38And then the report from that inquiry went to ministers in October 23.

04:44So it's now 20 months since that the findings were delivered to the Scottish Government.

04:52And in the latest development, Fiona Hislop, the transport secretary,

04:57has told MSPs she still can't provide the date when the decision will be made

05:03whether to go ahead with the scheme.

05:06She says there's thousands of evidence that came up at the inquiry,

05:11which her officials are still rigorously checking, she said.

05:17And, yeah, opposition MSPs were disbelieving about how long this process is taking

05:24and how much electricity is concerned about the situation.

05:29Anyone familiar with your coverage of the A9 jewellery project as well,

05:33Alistair, will know that sometimes these projects do not move as quickly

05:37as many would expect.

05:39I know a lot of our readers and viewers would know Sheriff Hall very well

05:45and the problems in the tailbacks that often result, particularly around peak hour.

05:51You can read that story from Alistair Dalton at scotsman.com.

05:55If you ever can't find any of his coverage, head to the transport tab in the navigation bar.

06:01As I say, we will bring you all the latest on the Air India plane crash as we get it.

06:07Please tune in to scotsman.com for that.

06:10Follow us on all social media channels and we'll have a full wrap of all the latest

06:14transport coverage in tomorrow's Scotsman.

06:16Thanks to you, Alistair.

06:18Thanks to everyone else for joining us.

06:21We'll see you next time.

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