DRIVERS will be confronted by Scotland's first motorway bus lane this year when a dedicated route is expected to open as part of traffic measures introduced during the construction of the new Forth Road Bridge.

A 2.5-mile stretch of the southbound hard shoulder of the M90 has been earmarked for buses carrying more than 28 passengers.

It is hoped the dedicated lane will ease congestion during the £1.5 billion construction project until its completion in 2016.

It will be supported by a number of traffic control measures including CCTV, electronic gantry signs and the use of lay-bys as emergency refuges.

It would be the first time motorway lanes have been dedicated to buses in Scotland and the first instance of opening hard shoulders to non-emergency vehicles on a routine basis.

Hard shoulder running has been introduced in England to free up space on heavily congested sections of the motorway network, including the M1 and M42 near Birmingham.

A 3.5-mile section of the M4 was dedicated to buses by the then Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott in 1999 and was dubbed Prescott's Folly by motorists, who complained it was seldom used. It was scrapped in 2010.

The proposals unveiled by Transport Scotland, the national transport agency, have been broadly welcomed by groupsd such as the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) and the Confederation for Passenger Transport UK (CPT), which represents more than 1000 bus and coach companies.

Neil Greig, director of policy at the IAM, said: "In general I don't like the idea of using the hard shoulder as a bus lane as it's potentially dangerous.

"But what we have here is Scotland's first managed motorway which would have really intense use of CCTV, refuges for people to use in case of emergency and variable speed limits.

"The experience in England is that this is turning out to be safer."

Paul White, of the CPT, said the measures would help reduce congestion during construction of the new crossing.

"Bus lanes can be very effective at reducing peak-time congestion. They have been proven to deliver and safety fears have, thankfully, shown to be unfounded," he said.

"Let's not have them viewed in the same way you'd view temporary traffic lights or a coned-off lane through roadworks. I would very much like the attitude of Transport Scotland to be that they're taking the opportunity presented by the Forth Replacement Crossing project to install a motorway bus lane.

"It is intended to be a permnent infrastructure improvement."

The Scottish Government is still examining whether to introduce a dedicated bus lane on the M77 between Glasgow and Kilmarnock.

In November last year it announced £725,000 was being spent to begin design work. The project had earlier been delayed due to funding difficulties.

As part of their dual bridge strategy, ministers are planning to turn over the existing Forth Road Bridge to buses, cyclists and taxis, and use the new crossing for general traffic.

A spokeswoman for Transport Scotland said: "The scheduled completion of the Fife ITS (Intelligent Traffic System) element of the Forth Replacement Crossing project will see bus hard shoulder running implemented on the M90 later this year.

"This will remain in place at least until the construction of the Forth Replacement Crossing is completed, which is on schedule to open in 2016.

"Thereafter, a feasibility exercise will be undertaken to establish whether the bus lane should be retained on a permanent basis."