Transport Insights

A Tory council leader and a Labour metro mayor have formed an unholy alliance to bring the scrapped A1 Morpeth to Ellingham scheme back from the dead, using an unfortunate, but unrepresentative, rash of fatalities as a pretext.

I have written extensively on this blog about how the Tory government secretly shelved the scheme, which was then officially cancelled by Labour on cost grounds.

At the time of the cancellation, it was expected that the scheme could cost more than half a billion pounds and National Highways had already sunk £70m into it.

Now, the BBC reports:

Calls for safety improvements on the A1 in Northumberland have intensified after five people died in two major incidents just nine days apart.

It’s a classic media framing: there have been two fatal incidents in close succession, therefore something must be done. But it looks as if Northumberland County Council leader Glen Sanderson and North East mayor Kim McGuinness are jumping on the safety issue to get capacity on the route increased though dualling.

They have written transport secretary Heidi Alexander to urge the need for “action to avoid further fatalities on the road” but as the council’s press release makes clear

are seeking a meeting with Government to address growing concerns around a lack of dual carriageway and overcapacity.

[…]

Cllr Sanderson added: “While we understand that some local safety schemes are underway, these will not help remedy the key issues of overcapacity and lack of dual carriageway.

“Working with the Mayor, our own councillors and the county’s MPs, we want to put party politics aside and enter a discussion with Government around reviewing the decision not to dual this key road.”

Not only was the scheme scrapped but the government rowed back on enhancement schemes when it published the third Road Investment Strategy (RIS 3).

The BBC says:

The government has pledged safety improvements including junction upgrades, improved signage, road markings, barriers and lighting.

And quotes local Labour MP David Smith as saying he would push for these to be rolled out as soon as possible:

We know the A1 through North Northumberland needs safety improvements and these have already been committed to by National Highways but these need to be swift and I will continue to press for them to be delivered as quickly as possible.

I’m not sure what National Highways has committed to. It looks as if the route might be one of 24 in the RIS 3 Safety National Programme, of which just 18 across the whole network are due to be completed by 2031, but that isn’t a commitment.

I asked National Highways but was invited to contact the Department for Transport. But the BBC already has its comment:

National Highways is actively working on solutions for this stretch of the A1 that could improve safety and congestion.

I don’t think actively working on solutions that could improve safety gives much hope that anything will change. The problem is that, having cut back on enhancements, the government simply isn’t prepared to put the resources behind other measures to improve safety.