Blow to public transport drive as million more cars use bridge
THE number of journeys over the new Queensferry Crossing has risen by more than one million in the past year, despite SNP ministers pledging that the bridge would cut traffic congestion.
Almost 28million vehicles crossed the bridge in the 12 months to October – up 3.9 per cent on the previous year and a record high, figures show.
Most traffic switched from the old Forth Road Bridge to the £1.3billion structure, initially called the Forth Replacement Crossing (FRC), after it opened in 2017.
Scottish Government quango Transport Scotland said the FRC project was ‘promoted on the basis that future demand for cross-Forth travel should be met by public transport rather than car.’
But with the annual journey total jumping from 26.68million to 27.73million, critics have questioned whether the strategy is working, amid claims that promised bus priority measures have still not been completed.
Colin Howden, of sustainable transport campaigners Transform Scotland, said progress had been ‘glacial’ in delivering
‘Glacial’ progress
commitments in the FRC public transport strategy.
IAM RoadSmart policy and research director Neil Greig, said: ‘Public transport measures that only assist those travelling into central Edinburgh were never going to provide alternatives that would have any impact on bridge traffic serving a huge swathe of central and eastern Scotland and beyond.’
Transport Scotland said the level of traffic growth might not continue, and bus journey times between Fife and Edinburgh on the old bridge had fallen by up to 40 per cent.
It pointed out that the new crossing’s wind barriers meant it had stayed open to highsided vehicles on around 30 occasions when severe weather would have resulted in restrictions on the old bridge.