A730

Route

The A730 is an urban road through the suburbs of Glasgow.

Gorbals Cross - Burnside

At its northern end the road commences as Gorbals Street at the junction of the A8 Norfolk Street and Ballater Street, just south of the River Clyde.

Travelling south traffic needs to use the parallel A728 as the A730 is actually one-way northbound with a contraflow bus and taxi lane southbound, hemmed in to the west by multi-story flats (which are due for demolition and regeneration), and to the east by the Citizens Theatre and one of the railway lines that used to carry trains across the river to the erstwhile St Enoch Station; the bus and taxi only section ends at the junction of Cumberland Street.

After the junction of Cumberland Street it multiplexes with the A728 in a one-way system, being called Cathcart Road at this point. The two routes continue south as Cathcart Road (formerly Cathcart Street) with the A728 continuing to the south and the A730 heading south east as Caledonia Road. At this point the road is wide and on a new alignment created as part of the regeneration of the Gorbals and Hutchesontown districts (these districts were massively redeveloped during the 1960s, being almost completely demolished and replaced with sub-standard housing, much of which has also now met a similar fate). The A730 was part of this redevelopment; Old Rutherglen Road is what remains of its original route, some of which has now been completely destroyed.

The road becomes narrower as it passes industrial areas, the Southern Necropolis (a large cemetery opened in 1840), and yet more multi-story flats. With a few turns at roundabouts and traffic signals, it crosses the Oatlands district in a brand new alignment (it used to be straight at this point), before returning to its original course on Rutherglen Road. It multiplexes with the B763 for a short distance in the Shawfield district before leaving Glasgow and entering the Rutherglen district of South Lanarkshire as Glasgow Road. The route previously lay entirely within the Glasgow City boundaries prior to local government reorganisation in 1996.

Approaching a roundabout on New Rutherglen Road

It continues south east past the Shawfield greyhound stadium and through industrial areas, becoming a dual carriageway once more before going under the M74 and over the West Coast Main Line. It crosses the B768 at a traffic-light-controlled junction at the western end of Rutherglen Main Street before continuing south as Mill Street. It meets the B762 from the west, multiplexing with it, and continues south for a short distance, becoming a single carriageway once more as it passes under the railway.

At the next junction, the A730 formerly turned left, along Blairbeth Road, to enter the Burnside district. However, this is now part of the B762, and the A730 continues south along Fernhill Road. This has been realigned, and now sweeps round to the left, a right turn leading to the rest of Fernhill Road. The A730, meanwhile, travels along what feels like a cutting - a new piece of road known as the Cathkin Relief Road. This was built through former parkland and wasteland to connect up with the much older Cathkin Bypass, which appears to date back half a century or more. This leads through to the Cathkin Roundabout on the A749, and the end of the A730.

History

Originally the A730 started on the then-A77 Gorbals Street, more-or-less exactly where the Citizens Theatre is now, before heading along Old Rutherglen Road (as it is now). Development in this area mean the original route cannot be followed by traffic. At the other end, it turned left in Rutherglen along what is now the B768 to end on the A74 (now A724) in the Eastfield area.

More recently, the A730 has been extended further at the south end. It formerly followed Blairbeth Road, which is now the B762. At a junction with Burnside Road the B762 turned north, after what was a longer multiplex than now exists, meeting the A749 at a junction less than 150 yards on, while the A730 continued east, more or less parallel with the A749 and itself ending at a junction with the it, near the start of the A749's dual carriageway section.