Carlaw condemns ‘crass and bewildering’ decision to cancel M77 hard shoulder pilot

Transport Scotland has cancelled a £5.1m investment in a pilot scheme to open the hard shoulder of the M77 Junctions 1 and 4 to traffic.

Its justification is that the cost of the scheme is needed to pay for the new Forth Road Bridge.

Jackson Carlaw, Shadow Minister for Transport and Scottish Conservative MSP for West of Scotland, said

"Scotland is literally letting the grass grow on the development of our motorway hard shoulder resource while the rest of the UK presses ahead following a highly successful pilot on the M42 in England.

"This scheme envisaged setting up a large park and ride facility at Monkton in South Ayrshire with priority bus use of the M77 hard shoulder between junctions 1 and 4. It would ease congestion and assist carbon emissions.

"Scottish Conservatives believe that opportunities to develop appropriate sections of the hard shoulder on Scotland's motorway should be a national transport priority, easing commuter journeys and contributing towards the ambitious carbon emission targets in the Climate Change (Scotland) Act.

"The decision by Transport Scotland to cancel the M77 pilot is crass and bewildering. To justify cancelling a £5.1m project which will offer immediate benefits to commuters in the west of Scotland and potentially, far reaching long term benefits across Scotland, is disgracefully short sighted. To do so on the basis that it will help finance the £2.1bn cost of the new Forth Crossing is frankly risible, particularly when the UK Conservative Government has offered early access to hundreds of millions of pounds of new borrowing to help pay for the bridge.

"South Ayrshire Council, SPT and Stagecoach have all invested considerable time and effort to prepare for this pilot. Stagecoach alone has invested some £6m in new buses in Ayrshire over the past 18 months and was due to invest a further £2.6m directly in relation to the proposed Monkton 'park and ride'/M77 hard shoulder pilot.

"I have written to the Transport Minister requesting an urgent meeting to get to resolve this. Once again Transport Scotland has failed. Keith Brown needs to get a grip and urgently review and reverse this deeply flawed decision."

Please see link below for more information on the M42 pilot

http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/roads/network/policy/mtorsigntrafmanagement/advancemotorsign?page=4#a1019

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