NEWS RELEASE

The M74 - not a good way to create jobs 11th May 1998 TRANSform Scotland today responded to claims that building the M74 motorway through south Glasgow would benefit Glasgow's economy. TRANSform were concerned at the 'Complete to Compete' grouping's claim that road-building would create employment (1). TRANSform Scotland Chair David Spaven said, "The M74 Northern Extension is a 1960s solution to a twenty-first century problem." "It has been long known that building new roads creates new traffic. (2) But now the Government's advisors also tell us that new roads can damage the economy just as easily as stimulate it." (3) David Spaven continued: "We'd like to see how 'Complete to Compete' has calculated its job creation claims. If you're interested in creating jobs, then why concentrate on a capital-intensive project? Investing in tarmac has never proved an efficient way of creating jobs: urban regeneration is far more likely to be successful from investments in housing, education, environmental improvement, direct assistance to small firms and training programmes than through building roads." "What 'Complete to Compete' has conspicuously failed to do is to evaluate the economic benefits of a sustainable transport strategy for the M74 corridor based on new rail links, investment in new freight rail heads west of Glasgow, and the creation of a priority lane for lorries over the Kingston Bridge." ENDS Notes to Editors: (1) It was understood that the 'Complete to Compete' group were to launch claims that not building the M74 would cost jobs. (2) In February this year, the interim report of SACTRA (the Standing Advisory Committee on Trunk Road Assessment), "Transport Investment, Transport Intensity and Economic Growth", concluded that road-building was not good for the national economy: "The available evidence does not support arguments that new transport investment in general has a major impact on economic growth in a country with an already well-developedcountry with an already well-developed infrastructure." The report was perhaps the widest-ranging study on the topic ever done, and included representatives from the CBI among others. (3) SACTRA concluded in "Trunk Roads and the Generation of Traffic", 1994, that "induced traffic can and does occur." That is, that simply building more roads can generate more traffic. END OF NEWS RELEASE