MSPs have urged Transport Minister Humza Yousaf to treat tackling congestion on Edinburgh city bypass as a “national transport priority”. Thursday’s Holyrood debate heard that the road is no longer fit for purpose.
Lothian MSP Miles Briggs’ contribution to the Edinburgh City Bypass debate:
Deputy Presiding Officer
I believe that the future of the A720 city bypass is important not just to Edinburgh and the wider Lothian region but to all of Scotland as it is the key trunk road serving our Capital City.
Improving the bypass is an issue that I have been pressing the Scottish Government on since my election in 2016 and I will continue to do so.
As a Lothian MSP I continue to be contacted by frustrated constituents and business people who face frequent delays when using the bypass to commute or transport goods, especially but not exclusively at peak times or when there is an accident on the route.
Concerns have also been voiced by the Federation of Small Businesses in Lothian. Many drivers tell me their experience is that these tailbacks and traffic jams are becoming more and more regular.
Indeed, some drivers tell me they are choosing to drive through Edinburgh city itself rather than risk being stuck on the bypass, something that is adding to the pressure on local roads within the city itself.
The transport information company Inrix in late 2016 identified the bypass as the most congested trunk road outside London with four of the UK’s worst bottle necks located on the route.
It suggested the westbound section near Dreghorn Barracks was where drivers faced the worst delays and predicted that by-pass congestion would cost the economy as much as £2.8 billion by 2025.
With Scotland’s economy already facing such sluggish economic growth over the next few years, this is something which is extremely serious and something we cannot allow.
Transport Scotland’s Transport Model for Scotland uses 2014 as a base year for the total number of vehicles per day using our trunk roads and it indicated 78,000 vehicles every day used the city bypass west of the Dreghorn junction in 2014.
It predicts this will grow by an extra 10,000 vehicles to 88,000 each day by 2022 and by a further 10,000 vehicles by 2032, with 102,000 vehicles using the by-pass each day by 2037.
In addition, the % of heavy goods vehicles using the bypass will also increase so around 14,300 lorries and heavy goods vehicles will be using the route each day by 2037 compared to the 2014 figure of around 9,400.
Constituents and businesses are rightly alarmed about these increased usage predictions as the capacity of the road already cannot cope with the current volume of vehicles using it.
And the projected increase in vehicles may well be underestimating the number of extra vehicles that will use the route if Edinburgh, Mid, East and West Lothian continue to experience such fast population growth and new housing developments along the route of the bypass such as at Shawfair.
Edinburgh and Lothian – currently the only parts of the Scottish economy which is still growing – we are now the powerhouse of the Scottish economy – and for that growth to be sustained in the future we must have the infrastructure to allow the area to continue to attract the businesses and inward investment in key sectors like life sciences with Edinburgh’s BioQuarter, Queen Margaret University and proposed film studio at Straiton located just off the bypass.
Gridlocked trunk roads create a bad impression for inward investors and those wanting to visit our area. Edinburgh is a showcase for the whole country and we need to have the modern and efficient transport infrastructure.
The Minister will I am sure in his contribution at the end of this debate refer to the Scottish Government’s investment at the Sheriffhall roundabout where final plans for the much-needed grade separation and flyover will be revealed sometime next year – I hope we can get a firmer timetable and more details from the Minister today.
Introducing grade separation at this notorious bottle neck is of course welcome but this action is many years overdue – people have been campaigning hard for this improvement for a decade and a half or more – and commuters are angry it has taken this government so long to implement this and take action.
But it is vital that the Scottish Government receives the message from Lothian residents and businesses that while Sheriffhall will be an important improvement, it is only one part of what needs to be a far broader, long term and coordinated programme of improvements to the bypass which will ensure traffic can keep moving in the decades ahead.
This means looking at innovative solutions, assessing whether extra lanes will be needed, looking at the possible use of hard shoulders in some situations and utilising technology so that the bypass can become a smart motorway.
It also means looking at how genuinely effective public transport options as an alternative to using cars and lorries on the bypass can be developed.
I receive complaints about the bus service in West Lothian on an almost daily basis and it is clear that residents in that part of Lothian do not have the same confidence in their bus services and therefore often do not use public transport and this is an issue which I believe needs to be seriously considered – I am sure my Lothian Green MSP colleague (AW /AJ) will have more to say on this in their speech.
The Minister in responses to written questions has said that the Scottish Government is looking at further measures to improve traffic flow on the bypass and reduce congestion.
But we have no further information beyond this and therefore I hope he can provide more details when he speaks at the end of this debate.
And I hope too that the Minister can also provide very clear assurances that the Scottish Government recognises the strategic importance of the city bypass, considers improving it to be a national transport priority and is fully committed to ensuring that this trunk road is fit for purpose in the decades ahead.
What I would like to see and what I am calling on the Scottish Government to take forward today is a feasibility study into widening the city by-pass and new options to address this growing congestion.
That is what Lothian residents and businesses deserve and that is what I will continue to press the Scottish Government.
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