The IJGlobal Podcast
IJGlobal - Infrastructure Journal - is host of this podcast series where members of the editorial team delve into matters relating to the finance, procurement, delivery and operation of infrastructure and energy projects around the world. This coverage ranges from greenfield project / corporate finance through to M&A activity in this space, and infra fund activity... all of it in the infrastructure and energy world. You can find IJGlobal at www.IJGlobal.com - and it is an established provider of news and market intelligence in this sector, boasting 2 extensive databases tracking international developments.
The IJGlobal Podcast
Infra Dig – Nightmare on Edinburgh Tram
If there’s a UK transport project from yesteryear that continues to set teeth on edge, it has to be Edinburgh Tram. The only solace IJGlobal readers take from it is… that it wasn’t a PPP.
In this week’s Infra Dig podcast, IJGlobal editorial director Angus Leslie Melville talks to return guest Mike Flynn of Michael Flynn Associates about this disastrous, directly-procured light rail project.
Mike – known widely as an itinerant builder of railways – delves into his knowledge of the Scottish capital’s plans to build a tram system and looks at what went wrong.
Some 45 minutes later and there’s a lot more to say… and Mike never even touched on the inquiry that has been running since 2008, racking up a cost (so far) of £12.5 million, with no end in sight.
To put that into context, the Iraq Inquiry was announced in 2009 and published in 2016.
This podcast gives a railway-builder’s view of a disaster project that brought the centre of Edinburgh to a grinding halt for years, set the public side to war with the private, but now provides a valued mass transit solution… with plans afoot for an extension.
