Good intentions and a hellish road

It’s become an annual ritual of summer another A9 accident with multiple fatalities.

Last week a girl, her mum and a motorist in another car were killed in a head-on collision just south of Ralia, near Newtonmore. It was exactly the same place two Glasgow decorators died in a head-on smash last June. Even though Ralia was one of nine places included in a £50 million safety upgrade.

Patch and mend may look sensible while plans to dual the whole A9 are prepared. But it’s fiddling while Rome burns. Repeat accidents suggest that fixing blackspots doesn’t fix the overall problem. Scotland’s longest trunk road switches constantly between dual and single-carriageway. That causes confusion, fatigue and frustration.

You can drive as safely as you like but if a foreign tourist is momentarily uncertain about the right side of the road, or a driver misjudges overtaking an HGV compelled to crawl at 40 mph, or tiredness lets a car career across the central white line the safest driver is suddenly vulnerable.

There have been more than 90 fatalities and 1,000 accidents in the last six years that’s one accident every other day. And yet the Government’s dualling programme is still “in planning.”

Why wait to get cracking? Is the recession to blame, has all the available cash and manpower gone to the replacement Forth Road Bridge crossing or is the A9 considered too quiet to justify greater urgency?

Work’s been brought forward to start in 2015 and is due to finish in 2025. By the time Scotland’s most dangerous road has separate carriageways, I’ll be drawing the old age pension. If that’s a priority, I’m a fast-moving HGV.

But the Scottish Government says 2025 is a “challenging” completion date “given design and statutory procedures to ensure all options are considered and consulted upon so we minimise potential impacts on those living in and using the A9 corridor.”

Again I know that sounds sensible but dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s while fatal collisions happen every year just isn’t good enough.

Does it really take five years to agree how to double the width of an existing road?

I realise some local folk will face disruption for years during construction. But they’ll get noise insulation, compensation, quicker journey times once the upgrade is finished and the knowledge that lives are being saved every waking day.

The Government also plans to upgrade the rail link north next year to an hourly service, persuading more freight and passengers to let the train take the strain. That’s a very good move. I always take the train to avoid the A9 if Inverness is my final destination and trains are currently full to overflowing and booked to the hilt in summer. But the rail-line is currently single track too.

How many more trains can run with very limited passing places before the timetable goes to pot and onward connections are impossible to guarantee?

Slow by road and slow by rail. Are Highlanders to lose out both ways for another decade?

I know it sounds amateurish but what about a website where everyone who wants to waive their right to object to any aspect of the dualling process can sign up today. Only those closest to the ickety upgrades would be left with a grouse and maybe that would speed up work. I’m prepared to trust Scotland’s road engineers to get it right. But can we just get on with saving lives now!