Motorway Database
You are here: Home - Motorway Database - M74 and A74(M)
Main - Images - Timeline - Exit List
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 is a very hot political potato right now. At its northern end, in Glasgow, politicians are still struggling with environmentalists, locals and each other to try and get the last few miles built so it will connect with the M8, despite this final section being an elevated one built through Glasgow suburbs.
At its southern end (or, strictly, the southern end of the A74(M)), the Highways Agency in England is plotting to extend the M6 to the border. When it does so the route will be continuous motorway right down to the M1 at Rugby, and the Scottish Executive will be required to kill off the A74(M) and M74 and renumber the whole thing as M6. When the upgrades went on the new signs have "A74(M)" and "M74" on stuck-on plates; it is widely assumed 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.
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. In crossing Beattock Summit, it also takes the title of the highest motorway in the UK, at 310m, considerably higher than the M62, which claims to be England's highest with a great deal of fanfare.
Factfile
| Start | Glasgow (A74) |
| Finish | Gretna (A74) |
| Passes | East Kilbride |
| Length | 81 miles |
| Terminates | M73 |
| Spurs | None |
| Meets | None |
Main - Images - Timeline - Exit List
With thanks to John Prentice, Stuart Clink and Bill Brown for information in this section.
