M8 - Ribbon of Misery

It successfully avoids any of Scotland’s beautiful countryside as it cuts its way from Glasgow to Edinburgh. The sides of the road are littered with economic misadventures. The Maxim Business Park Ghost town, the Chunghwa Picture Tubes factory, the Motorola factory etc.

The thing you really notice about the M8 though is that it is hopeless at what Scotland’s economy needs it to do - move people and goods efficiently across the central belt. Try leaving Glasgow Airport at 7.30 am - you will be lucky to make it to Edinburgh by 9.30 am.

This isn’t good enough - Scotland’s position on the periphery of Europe mean it has to excel at infrastructure, not just air routes to other places but roads within our own country. The M8 is not the only transport lemon - the fact that the A1 and A9 are not fully dual carriageways means that Scotland - literally - cannot deliver as it should.

Anybody who has been to France, Germany or Spain (but probably not Greece) knows it does not have to be like this.

Sometimes we try to improve things - the old A8 around Eurocentral is being upgraded into a motorway - a good move but sadly inadequate. A 2 lane nearly motorway is being turned into a 2 lane proper motorway - an improvement - yes but value for money and what Scotland needs? - absolutely not.

The problem - as usual - is money. The state doesn’t have it and that is unlikely to change. We have a bad habit of refusing to pay for things we use - believing that they can only be provided “free” by the state. If we want some real action to improve Scotland’s road infrastructure we have got to accept road tolling.

Forget the infuriating queues you remember from the old Forth Crossing toll, modern technology can deduct money off your credit card without you touching the brake. So that we don’t annoy tourists you could have 20 free passes a year and then pay an average of £1 each time you cross the Kingston Bridge or White Cart Viaduct, or go past Harthill Services or pass East of the M9 turnoff.

The Kingston Bridge has over 150,000 vehicles each day crossing it and the other locations around 30,000-50,000. Let’s conservatively call it a total of 250,000 - so £250,000 a day or £91 million a year.

If a new not-for-profit company was created which had the right to this money it could easily borrow over £1 billion and get to work on making the M8 into a proper 3 lane motorway - no bus lanes but extra capacity for those who have paid the toll.

The results? First, charging would divert some traffic onto public transport - increasing revenues and saving the taxpayer money as well as easing congestion. Second, a lot of jobs would be created. Third, Scotland starts to get the infrastructure it badly needs.

£1 billion is only a start but it is a big start - add in tolls on other key routes as they are improved (not before) and we would soon have a fund which could over time transform not just the M8 but the A1, A9 and countless other inadequate roads.

We need to get used to the fact that nothing is for free and accept it is fair that we pay for some things as we use them. Is there any politician out there with the courage to act?

Pinstripe is a senior member of Scotland's financial services community