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The Background to the Review
1.1 The Scottish Strategic Roads Review was
announced to the Westminster Parliament on
19 June 1997. The announcement noted:
" This review will consider the full range of factors, including traffic growth, which will give rise to pressure for further major improvements across the trunk road network over the next decade. In parallel with the review, as part of the work leading to the White Paper, we shall examine means of restraining growth, including consideration of the opportunities for doing so on the trunk road network. We will also consider the role which new technology and improved information systems can play.
The review will examine the criteria (including accessibility, safety, economy and environmental impact) for setting priorities within the trunk road programme. It will also review the scope for improved value for money for expenditure on maintenance, structural repairs and minor schemes." 1
1.2 This paper reports on the conclusions of the review. It provides the context for the programme of major trunk road improvements which the Minister for Transport and the Environment is announcing to the Scottish Parliament.
The Scottish motorway and trunk road network
1.3 The Scottish motorway and trunk road network extends to some 3,200km and it is vital to the communication needs of the people and industry of Scotland. A total of some 50 billion person kilometres are travelled on Scotland's roads annually and it is estimated that about 60% of this (roughly 30 billion people kilometres) is accounted for by the motorway and A class road network. This compares with around 2.5 billion passenger kilometres travelled annually on the Scottish rail network. The same broad pattern holds true for freight transport where the comparison in 1997 shows 157 million tonnes carried by road against about 7 million tonnes by rail. However, as rail freight journeys cover, on average, more than 3 times the distance of road freight journeys, the comparison is much less stark if a tonne kilometre measure is used.
1.4 Major improvements have been implemented across the trunk road network since the 1960s delivering:
1.5 The last of these projects was completed earlier this year. Since May 1997, major trunk road improvement schemes have been completed on the M9 (Newbridge Underpass), the M90 (Halbeath Interchange), A96 (Blackburn/Kintore Bypass), the A830 (Polnish Bridge to Loch nan Uamh), the A828 (Creagan Bridge) and the A75 (The Glen). In addition, over the years, numerous discrete schemes designed to ease traffic flows and improve road safety have been implemented. The result of all this investment has been substantially reduced journey times and a dramatically declining accident rate.
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Creagan Bridge - opened June 1999 |
1.6 These improvements to the trunk road network have been accompanied by very major increases in both the number of vehicles on the roads and their usage. At the end of 1998, there were almost 2.1 million road vehicles licensed in Scotland, an increase of 28% in 10 years. Traffic volumes nationally have doubled in the past quarter centuy. Looking to the future, the 1997 National Road Traffic Forecasts 2 suggest that, on the basis of past policies and on the assumption that the 1996 road network remains broadly unchanged, traffic overall is set to grow by 38% over the next 20 years and by 53% over the next 30 years.
Trunk roads within an integrated transport strategy
1.7 The Scottish Executive recognises that the trunk road network has an important contribution to make to an integrated transport strategy. However, a 'predict and provide' approach, in which road capacity is increased to match forecast traffic growth, is environmentally unsustainable, unaffordable and self-defeating. Environmentally, road traffic is responsible for 80% of all transport emissions and is the fastest growing source of UK emissions of carbon dioxide. In addition, there is growing recognition that, in some circumstances, new road capacity simply generates extra traffic, thus undermining the expected improvements in travel conditions and adding to pollution. As the Scottish Integrated Transport White Paper Travel Choices for Scotland 3 emphasised, the objective must be to view trunk road improvements in the context of an integrated transport strategy which encourages sensible road usage, particularly car usage, while promoting reliable, more sustainable and attractive alternatives for the transportation of people and goods. Enabling car users to choose public transport as an option for all or part of their journeys has an important role to play here.
1.8 This approach has been embodied in the first round of allocations from the new Public Transport Fund announced in the White Paper. Projects supported include bus priority and park and ride schemes in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Dundee, Glasgow and West Dunbartonshire, rail improvements combined with park and ride in Edinburgh and improved rail interchange facilities in Glasgow. Twenty six bids for funding from the second round of allocations were received and the Minister for Transport and the Environment has recently announced that 20 of them have been awarded a total of over £25m.
1.9 The rail industry estimates that rail passenger numbers in Scotland could grow by 30% over the next 10 years and that the volume of freight carried could triple over the same period. The latter trend will be assisted by 4 recent major awards of Freight Facilities Grant, an environmental scheme designed to remove freight from our roads. These involve:
All of these projects will transfer freight from road to rail.
1.10 This balanced approach is reaffirmed in the Partnership for Scotland 4 agreement which set out, in May 1999, a Programme for Government for the first term of the new Scottish Parliament. The agreement said:
"We will deliver an integrated transport policy which will provide genuine choice to meet transport needs as well as protecting the environment."
There is a role for trunk road investment within the integrated transport strategy but this must be as part of a balanced approach which ensures that the public resources available for transport are used to best effect.
1.11 A key first requirement is to ensure that the existing trunk road network is maintained in a sound condition, through proper and timeous interventions. This has been neglected in the past but it is a responsibility which the Scottish Executive takes particularly seriously. This is the subject of Chapter 2 of this paper. Before turning to major new schemes, there is also a need to ensure that the trunk road network is used in the most effective way possible through improvements in the way we manage traffic and the use of the existing network, and that the scope for securing substantial benefits to road users through relatively modest investments is explored thoroughly. This is the subject of Chapter 3.
1.12 Safety is also of paramount importance to the Executive and Chapter 4 records substantial improvements across the trunk road network while emphasising that there is no room for complacency. Chapter 5 of the report recognises the importance of the trunk road network to the Scottish economy. It also reports on the recently completed investigation by the Standing Advisory Committee on Trunk Road Assessment (SACTRA) into the relationship between traffic growth, transport investment and economic growth. A particular conclusion of SACTRA's work is that there is no simple link between roads investment and local economic regeneration and so claims of local benefits must be particularly closely scrutinised. The chapter also considers the pressures which new development can put on the trunk road network. The Executive recognises that the design, construction, management, maintenance and use of the trunk road network can all have environmental impacts. Chapter 6 reports on the steps being taken and planned to minimise any harmful impacts and maximise benefits.
1.13 A key element of the Strategic Roads Review has been to develop and apply a new framework for the appraisal of major trunk road improvements reflecting the 5 criteria of:
1.14 This framework was the subject of a consultation exercise during 1998 and the results of this are reported in Chapter 7 and the associated appendices. The chapter also explains the changes introduced to the method following the consultation and the results of applying the method to the 17 major schemes under consideration in the review. The Minister for Transport and the Environment will announce, at the same time as this report is published, the major schemes which are to be included in the forward trunk road programme
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