The initial phase of the Edinburgh Trams project wasn't great - but I suspect everyone involved knew it was going to be difficult and it's the approach of getting the project started and once started it's difficult to kill (see Robert Moses for that strategy!).

However, it's now a good service, popular and the trams are probably going to be expanded to much more of the city?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edinburgh_Trams

Also the Queensferry Crossing bridge was built with relatively little fuss - there were some delays but those were down to some spells of very bad weather.

As a taxpayer, I can't stomach such acceptance of incompetence and mismanagement and corruption in the UK, personally.

It was a "litany of avoidable failures" as the Hardie report explained.

It does look like a tremendous success now though (not financially though. A double whammy for the taxpayer). The ends justify the means I guess?

Indeed, I wasn't trying to defend the management of the trams project - which did seem a farce.

Mind you - the investigation into the trams itself took far longer than expected and cost far more than anyone thought it should...

> the investigation into the trams itself took far longer than expected and cost far more than anyone thought it should

It's like the dessert coming out after the buffet! Doubles all round!