Peter Jackson column

Jul 10 2003 By Peter Jackson, The Journal

Last week I wrote about roadworks and their prevalence. They are something of an obsession of mine, but don't worry, I don't intend to bang on about them again.

But I shall continue the road theme, this week having seen renewed calls for upgrading of the A1 and a leading transport expert declare the Government's plans to reduce road traffic congestion to be doomed.

Professor David Begg, chairman of the Commission for Integrated Transport, said at the beginning of the week that a widening gap between motoring costs and fares on public transport will scupper plans to encourage people to abandon their cars in favour of trains and buses.

Cars are becoming cheaper and road tax has been reduced for less polluting vehicles while the costs of using public transport rise inexorably.

Which means, of course, that the A1, only a dual carriageway for the greater part of its passage through the North-East and only single carriageway in much of Northumberland, will get even busier.

But there seems little chance that this will persuade the Government to widen it. It does not rank in even the top 10 of the country's congested roads. Above it in the congestion stakes, among others, are the M25, the A3, A34, M6 in the West Midlands and the M1 in the East Midlands.

It's ironic that the A1, the longest designated road in the UK, at 403 miles, and probably the oldest - reputedly 2,000 years - should be the poor relation among trunk roads.

Incidentally, it's not called the A1 because it's the oldest road. In the 1920s when the Government launched a huge road-building programme, it decided to number the roads. The bureaucrats identified six main radial routes out of London - to Edinburgh, to Dover, to Portsmouth, to Bath, to Holyhead and to Carlisle.

And it numbered them, starting with the Great North Road, one to six, going clockwise.

Even then building more roads only encouraged more traffic and the A1 in Northumberland seemed to soon acquire a reputation for being something of a white-knuckle ride.

One Iain Anderson in 1935 wrote about his southbound trip down the A1: "By the time we left Alnwick … the full volume of outward-bound Sunday road traffic was at its peak. In the 30 miles between Alnwick and Newcastle I witnessed more gross bad driving than I had seen in a year's driving in Scotland. Despite the breadth of the road, despite the fact that the road was in excellent condition and in many places marked with traffic lanes, motor car after motor car would break out from the northward stream of traffic, cross the central traffic line onto the lanes of the southbound stream, forcing any southbound traffic almost onto the pavement or edge of the road. The speed itself of the overtaking traffic was never less than 35 to 40 miles per hour."

Not much change there then, except that speeds were obviously far greater 70 years ago.