OUR First Minister looked very satisfied on the eventual completion and opening of the M8 motorway ("Faster journeys on upgraded M8 help to give economy £1bn boost", The Herald, August 15). I would like to point out that the first motorways opened in 1959, and our various governments have taken nearly 60 years to get us from Glasgow to Edinburgh ... well done.
I travelled around Andalucia, in southern Spain, last year, with motorways between that region's five large towns. We do not even have safe, fast dual roads, let alone motorways, to Lochgilphead, Oban, Fort William, Inverness, Aberdeen, Dundee and south to the Borders and Stranraer.
The Rest and Be Thankful is a land-slip disgrace that would not have been tolerated in any mountain area of Europe. We have a country road up Loch Lomond to the serve the north and west, and a historic death trap to Inverness north from Perth, which is taking forever to be dealt with. Your readers will be able think of many more.
This is a very poor record and nothing to be satisfied with.
Iain M Barclay,
Barochan Road, Houston.
I NOTE, with interest, the completion of the final section of Scotland's M8 between Glasgow and Edinburgh,
Welcome as this long-overdue M8 completion is, there is another, major Scottish transport "missing link" which also requires due completion, viz Glasgow Crossrail, a favourably multi-appraised and long-sought project which is still being withheld and denied to rail travellers.
Glasgow Crossrail would help aid the daily commute and could encourage a modal shift from road to rail, whilst further reducing, for rail users, the overall cross-conurbation journey endured by the many who are required to break that daily journey and traipse across Glasgow to access the separately-operated rail networks south-west and north-east of the Clyde.
The Argyle Line provides most beneficial, equivalent north-west/south-east cross-city/cross-conurbation through connections, its route through Glasgow Central low level having been closed in 1964 - but sensibly re-opened, with great success, in 1979.
Glasgow Crossrail could readily provide additional, selected through links and further “seamless” journey opportunities between the Paisley-Ayrshire/Inverclyde and North Lanarkshire/West Lothian/central Scotland, Stirling-Perth/Falkirk rail corridors. Its completion is long overdue.
Andrew Stephen,
Chair, Cumbernauld Commuters' Association,
71 Cedar Road, Abronhill, Cumbernauld.
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