A741

Route

Roundabout A741

The A741 connects Paisley with Renfrew.

Leaving the A726 (Ring Road) in Paisley town centre the road heads north, crossing the M8 at J27 which is accessed at 3 points (it used to be 4; however traffic heading north towards Renfrew needs to do a U-turn). It is dualled until a controlled crossroads junction with an unclassified road in Renfrew. The road then heads into Renfrew town centre and crosses the A8. Thereafter its increased breadth suggests the road is heading somewhere significant. However the unwary motorist soon finds it terminates at the foot-only Renfrew Ferry which crosses the Clyde to Yoker.

There is also a short stub, Yoker Ferry Road, at the north end of the Renfrew Ferry which runs to the A814 Dumbarton road. When the road was given its number, the Renfrew Ferry also carried motor vehicles, hence why the number appears on both sides of the Clyde. The fact that the ferry is now foot-only has not affected the road's classification.

With the re-routing of the A625 in around 2000 to get round the Mam Tor closure, this now gives the A741 the perhaps unique honour of having a bit missing – two parts of the A741 separated by the width of the Clyde and the Renfrew passenger ferry. I'm actually surprised that Yoker Ferry Road hasn't been renumbered as it must surely be one of the most useless stretches of A-class road in the UK.

History

The Renfrew-Yoker Ferry is one of Scotland's oldest ferries, operating at the current site for least 200 years. The car ferry service began in the 1950s and finished by the mid-1980s, hence the small section of A741 found in Yoker. The car ferry service ended due to the nearby Clyde Tunnel that opened in the late 1960s.

Links

Renfrew-Yoker Ferry

• Travel Information

Original Author(s): StevoAOK & Steven Oliver