The Scotsman Bulletin Thursday June 12 2025 #Transport
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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.