A96 Dualling: Inverness to Nairn

[roadtester]

As for the SNP it has only held Inverness since 2015 so its definitely going to be target for the Lib Dems especially as the sitting MSP has backed the line of not dualling the A96 by 2025.

In fact Fergus Ewing (SNP) has been the MSP since the Scottish Parliament was "reconvened" (as his mother, Winnie, put it) in 1999. Representation in Westminster (with some boundary differences) has been more varied, with Labour, Lib Dem and SNP during that period. Earlier, in 1992, it was the country's only 4-way marginal, with only 1741 votes between 1st (Lib Dem) and 4th (Tory) place.

You have to wonder whether Fergus Ewing should really be counted in the SNP column any more, despite that still being his formal party affiliation. He seems to spend most of his time slagging off the Scottish government these days!

[Rillington]

This was discussed on last week's edition of BBC Scotland's Debate Night.

[roadtester]

This was discussed on last week's edition of BBC Scotland's Debate Night.

Yes - see my comment up-thread.

I try to watch Debate Night most weeks, even though I’m not Scottish and I don’t live in Scotland. It’s much better than Question Time.

[Glen]

Fergus Ewing is standing down at the next election, so he is trying to make a name for himself with plenty of "standing up for the Highlands" type headlines to make sure he gets plenty of after dinner speaking work in retirement.

[green light]

Is any work realistically likely to happen on this section (or any section of the A96) before 2030?

[Mikehannah]

Unless we have a change of government in Holyrood. Any work on the A96 has been hoofed into the very very long grass never to be seen again, this is despite their sham consultation exercise telling them, loud and clear to Dual it!!

[Chris5156]

Unless we have a change of government in Holyrood.

Is any party other than the SNP suggesting they will dual the A96?

[Snowandrocks]

I suspect he's referring to the Greens as much as the SNP.

Here in Aberdeenshire, there's a lot of anger about the Greens having so much influence on the back of so little electoral support. They didn't even bother to stand a candidate in Aberdeenshire West and came stone cold last in the regional list yet are seemingly calling the shots.

The current urban centric student union type priorities of the Scottish Government really are alienating a lot of their support in rural Scotland. While it's true Fergus Ewing is retiring, I think it's that freedom that's allowing him to stand up for his constituency.

It took me over 4 hours to drive the 100 miles from Aberdeen to Inverness a few weeks back. No accidents or anything just endless plodding along. For the return journey I took the A939 over the Lecht Pass and saved an hour and a half. A sub 25 mph average on a long distance trunk road is surely pretty unacceptable even in Patrick Harvie's book.

[Mikehannah]

Unless we have a change of government in Holyrood.

Is any party other than the SNP suggesting they will dual the A96?

Please !!! It is word on a manifesto, the SNP have never been serious about the A9 or A96.
They have been expensive seeing to be doing exercises.
One would have expected a steady drum beat of contracts to dual the A9. Instead they dragged their feet before starting the first section and once completed, did they immediately start the process for the next section. Nope, they waited, then the waited some more and more still before starting a tender process, yet all along they kept saying 2025.
They have been shovel ready for sometime for the very badly needed Nairn to inverness section. Have they even started the process , NOPE!!
Yes they promised , but it was a very empty one!!

[Chris5156]

Unless we have a change of government in Holyrood.

Is any party other than the SNP suggesting they will dual the A96?

Please !!! It is word on a manifesto, the SNP have never been serious about the A9 or A96.
They have been expensive seeing to be doing exercises.
One would have expected a steady drum beat of contracts to dual the A9. Instead they dragged their feet before starting the first section and once completed, did they immediately start the process for the next section. Nope, they waited, then the waited some more and more still before starting a tender process, yet all along they kept saying 2025.
They have been shovel ready for sometime for the very badly needed Nairn to inverness section. Have they even started the process , NOPE!!
Yes they promised , but it was a very empty one!!

Sure - but my point is, if you get a change of government in Holyrood, which party would actually deliver the A96 dualling project? I think the answer is none of them.

[Mikehannah]

To which I answer it would be a very foolish political party that ignores the very palpable anger at the current Scottish devolved assembly ignoring of infrastructure spending north of Perth be it the A9, A96 or lifeline ferries.
A political party would clean up if they based their manifesto on the SNP failures and would go along way to staying in power if the actually delivered.

I would not be surprised if Labour does get into power and knowing how important Scotland is to them , starting day one to undermine the SNP and lay the groundwork for them being kicked out of Holyrood . Eg Let us help with the A9/A96/A75 lifeline ferries , we know you are busy so we can run it for you.
What will the SNP do, If they decline they will look bad, if they accept they will look slightly less bad. Win win for Labour!)

[Bryn666]

The question that was never answered properly is what the dualling was for.

Was it safety? There are cheaper ways to make these roads safer (overtaking sections, speed enforcement, realignment of the worst bits (e.g. as happened at Inveramsay)).

Was it capacity? Full dualling is probably not warranted using *spit* DMRB criteria and would be difficult to fund with justification. This is quite possibly why the projects have completely stalled. Also building massive new expressways is not really in line with carbon reduction aspirations.

Was it simply pork barrel electioneering to ensure those regions of Scotland didn't feel left out? Almost certainly. And that's now backfiring.

[exiled]

To which I answer it would be a very foolish political party that ignores the very palpable anger at the current Scottish devolved assembly ignoring of infrastructure spending north of Perth be it the A9, A96 or lifeline ferries.
A political party would clean up if they based their manifesto on the SNP failures and would go along way to staying in power if the actually delivered.

I would not be surprised if Labour does get into power and knowing how important Scotland is to them , starting day one to undermine the SNP and lay the groundwork for them being kicked out of Holyrood . Eg Let us help with the A9/A96/A75 lifeline ferries , we know you are busy so we can run it for you.
What will the SNP do, If they decline they will look bad, if they accept they will look slightly less bad. Win win for Labour!)

Elections in Scotland are not won north of Perth. They are won south of Stirling, and the north has not, outwith Dundee and Aberdeen, fertile ground for Labour. They are not interested in it.

[FtoE]

The question that was never answered properly is what the dualling was for.

Was it safety? There are cheaper ways to make these roads safer (overtaking sections, speed enforcement, realignment of the worst bits (e.g. as happened at Inveramsay)).

Was it capacity? Full dualling is probably not warranted using *spit* DMRB criteria and would be difficult to fund with justification. This is quite possibly why the projects have completely stalled. Also building massive new expressways is not really in line with carbon reduction aspirations.

Was it simply pork barrel electioneering to ensure those regions of Scotland didn't feel left out? Almost certainly. And that's now backfiring.

Exactly. We need an ‘Emperor’s new clothes’ politician to be brave enough to point out that the A9 does not need to be dualled and the money (if there is any) would be better spent on other projects.

[Mikehannah]

To which I answer it would be a very foolish political party that ignores the very palpable anger at the current Scottish devolved assembly ignoring of infrastructure spending north of Perth be it the A9, A96 or lifeline ferries.
A political party would clean up if they based their manifesto on the SNP failures and would go along way to staying in power if the actually delivered.

I would not be surprised if Labour does get into power and knowing how important Scotland is to them , starting day one to undermine the SNP and lay the groundwork for them being kicked out of Holyrood . Eg Let us help with the A9/A96/A75 lifeline ferries , we know you are busy so we can run it for you.
What will the SNP do, If they decline they will look bad, if they accept they will look slightly less bad. Win win for Labour!)

Elections in Scotland are not won north of Perth. They are won south of Stirling, and the north has not, outwith Dundee and Aberdeen, fertile ground for Labour. They are not interested in it.

In the Scottish elections every seat counts

[Mikehannah]

The question that was never answered properly is what the dualling was for.

Was it safety? There are cheaper ways to make these roads safer (overtaking sections, speed enforcement, realignment of the worst bits (e.g. as happened at Inveramsay)).

Was it capacity? Full dualling is probably not warranted using *spit* DMRB criteria and would be difficult to fund with justification. This is quite possibly why the projects have completely stalled. Also building massive new expressways is not really in line with carbon reduction aspirations.

Was it simply pork barrel electioneering to ensure those regions of Scotland didn't feel left out? Almost certainly. And that's now backfiring.

Speaking from the point of view of a regular user and someone who has had a close friend badly injured on the A96 .
I believe the justification was mainly safety and improving communication links to the Highlands and therefore economy.
If it was Pork Barrel politics then like everything else they are incompetent at it.

[FtoE]

The question that was never answered properly is what the dualling was for.

Was it safety? There are cheaper ways to make these roads safer (overtaking sections, speed enforcement, realignment of the worst bits (e.g. as happened at Inveramsay)).

Was it capacity? Full dualling is probably not warranted using *spit* DMRB criteria and would be difficult to fund with justification. This is quite possibly why the projects have completely stalled. Also building massive new expressways is not really in line with carbon reduction aspirations.

Was it simply pork barrel electioneering to ensure those regions of Scotland didn't feel left out? Almost certainly. And that's now backfiring.

Speaking from the point of view of a regular user and someone who has had a close friend badly injured on the A96 .
I believe the justification was mainly safety and improving communication links to the Highlands and therefore economy.
If it was Pork Barrel politics then like everything else they are incompetent at it.

In the street where I lived as a child there were 4 deaths in 3 separate accidents on the A82.
Other roads need improvement too.

[Mikehannah]

Then I suggest you start a campaign!!
The A96 will certainly never be improved including the heavily used Nairn to Inverness section.

[Dunragit]

The main reason it hasn't happened is that there's no money. The economy is in a dire state compared to a decade ago. Back then, it was genuinely possible to kick-start the economy by promising large infrastructure schemes to soak up underutilised labour. Now, the problem is that we have completely run out of workers to actually build anything of note.

Some of it is people getting what they wished for and making it hard for construction workers from the EU to come and work here for specific projects. If you're a specialist who moves around to follow the projects, then you'll just not bother coming to the UK any more given the need for visa bureaucracy.

The other, even bigger problem is that our aging population means that people are retiring and then requiring more and more health and social care. Any workers that might be available are being used to look after old people, rather than building the infrastructure that the economy needs to sustain those old people.

Add to these the problem of never-ending consultation and professional service costs for infrastructure, as well as general ignorance by politicians of how infrastructure is built. No one is going to invest in the workforce and equipment to dual the A9 and A96 if it's a coin flip chance that it'll be cancelled or delayed for some arcane reason. Allowing NIMBYs to litigate schemes to death doesn't actually help anyone in the long term.

It isn't going to get better until there is a pretty dramatic break to get us out of this doom loop. The more we allow ourselves to get stuck, the harder and harder it will be to avoid getting stuck in other areas too. For better or worse the SNP government hasn't had the legal authority to avoid many of these pitfalls. Even when it has tried with projects like the rolling program of rail electrification, that has still faltered with timescales for the initial East Kilbride, Fife and Borders projects stretching out indefinitely. If the next UK Labour government doesn't actually go in and make fundamental changes to the way that things are done, then it'll founder just as badly as the Tories have.

[wrinkly]

Even when it has tried with projects like the rolling program of rail electrification, that has still faltered with timescales for the initial East Kilbride, Fife and Borders projects stretching out indefinitely.

Fife and Borders, and everything behind them in the queue such as Aberdeen, are indeed stretching out alarmingly. East Kilbride is not quite so bad. It is authorised and funded and its timescale has only had one year added to it in the last two or three years. It's due for completion by the end of 2025. The wires on the adjacent Barrhead scheme went live three days ago.

The first review of the whole programme is still expected by the end of this year so we may find out if anything is happening on the rolling stock front.