Whisky road rethink holds up extension

ANOTHER delay in the longawaited completion of the Strathspey Railway’s extension into Grantown-on-Spey has arisen because of an oversight into the need for a new realignment of the A95 trunk road, it has been claimed.

Transport Scotland has drawn up a scheme to realign the road in order to accommodate a railway tunnel at Gaich, a mile south of Grantown.

However, it appears that the need to accommodate an entry road into the new Cairn Distillery has been overlooked by the highways authority.

Strathspey Railway Charitable Trust chairman Linda Coe told the Highland Council’s area committee: “Rather late in the day, they identified that the entry being built to the Cairn Distillery fundamentally affected the A95 realignment and under-bridge plans submitted with pre-application consultation. We have no choice but to wait for Transport Scotland to redo their plans and surveys.”

A revision of the existing plan could mean further delays caused by the need to carry out environmental surveys, she said.

It was in July 2006 that the Scottish Executive made a firm commitment to re-aligning the A95 at Gaich, allowing the extension of the heritage line to Grantown along the original Highland Railway route.

A Transport Scotland spokesperson said: “Our design consultants have been working to develop an amended design and will require to complete further detailed engineering, environmental, traffic and economic assessments.”