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Two numbers, one road. The main road south from Glasgow, and indeed most of Scotland after it picks up the M73 and A702, is having something of an identity crisis.
In the 60s, most of the A74 from Gretna to Glasgow was upgraded to dual carriageway - as it passed through vast swathes of emptiness, slapping a second carriageway down wasn't a problem. Near the northern end the route begins to see some larger towns, and this part became the M74 to bypass all the built-up bits. By the early 1990s, the dual carriageway with all its nasty right turns, sharp corners and steep hills was getting overloaded. The Scottish Executive went ahead and spent a considerable amount of money on upgrading 60 miles of road to motorway, which was open by the early 1990s.
North of junction 13, this was built on a new alignment, and was called the M74. South of there, the road was mostly upgraded from the old dual carriageway, with a service road built alongside for non-motorway traffic, and was bizarrely called the A74(M). Giving an upgraded A-road a number like this is not unusual, but making a road arbitrarily change its number half way along certainly is.
The M74 has been the source of a great deal of controversy. At its northern end, in Glasgow, the last few miles that bring the motorway to its terminus on the M8 are an elevated urban motorway that was, astonishingly, built in the early 21st century and opened in 2011. This sort of project just doesn't happen in this country, and the legal and political wrangling involved to get it off the ground was nothing short of epic.
At its southern end (or, strictly, the southern end of the A74(M)), the route is a continuous motorway right down to the M1 at Rugby, thanks to the M6. When the Scottish part of the motorway was built, the new signs were manufactured with "A74(M)" and "M74" on stuck-on plates, and it is known that if these were removed it would read "M6" underneath. The Scottish Executive is now being very sketchy over whether the numbering change will happen or not, even though the motorway became continuous with the M6 in 2008.
Aside from its current tricky situation, the M74 is one of Scotland's oldest and most interesting motorways. Its early, northern section, with two lanes each way, has some odd junctions, most notably the very pricey free-flow one at Motherwell - ironically one motorway junction that simply doesn't require free-flow sliproads.
Factfile
| Start | Glasgow (M8) |
|---|---|
| Finish | Gretna (M6) |
| Passes | East Kilbride |
| Length | 85 miles |
| Terminates | M73 |
| Spurs | None |
| Meets | M73 |
With thanks to Bob, Hugh Everett, Alistair Stewart, John Prentice, Stuart Clink and Bill Brown for information in this section.
