Level of support for A96 Aberdeen-Inverness dualling revealed as ministers renew commitment to £5bn scheme

Ministers have renewed their commitment to fully dual the A96 between Aberdeen and Inverness as a consultation showed nearly two-thirds support and bypasses of Elgin and Keith seen as the priorities.

However, Transport Secretary Fiona Hyslop has still to decide whether to go ahead with the full scheme or parts of it, which was largely put on hold as part of an SNP-Scottish Greens power-sharing deal in 2021, which ended last year.

86 miles of the A96 between Aberdeen and Inverurie remain single carriageway | Google Street View

The Scottish Conservatives pointed to 76 per cent dissatisfaction with a subsequent review of the scheme that included partial dualling as showing people wanted the full route upgraded.

Transport Scotland published the results of a three month consultation into a range of improvements costing up to £1 billion on Thursday which attracted 1,441 responses.

An 86-mile section between Inverness and south of Inverurie remains single carriageway.

In November, Ms Hyslop abandoned the target of dualling it by 2030 at an estimated cost of up to £5bn.

The Scottish Government agency said 63 per cent expressed support for full dualling, although that wasn’t specifically asked in the consultation questionnaire.

Specific measures which received the greatest support were dual carriageway bypasses of Elgin and Keith, road safety improvements and upgrades to the Aberdeen-Inverness railway line, which runs largely parallel to the road.

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Ms Hyslop said: “The position of the Scottish Government has not changed – the current favoured position is to fully dual the A96 and we are already starting the dualling process from Inverness to Nairn, including a Nairn bypass, having acquired the land for the scheme earlier this year.

“I have now received the report on the feedback gathered during the consultation and will be considering the findings alongside the review’s extensive appraisal and assessment work before a decision is made on improvements to the A96 corridor.

“Any decision on the way ahead for the A96 corridor will need to take into consideration the UK Government’s recent Spending Review and its impact on Scottish budgets, and the forthcoming update to the Scottish Government’s Infrastructure Investment Plan, expected later this year.”

Scottish Conservatives North East MSP Douglas Lumsden said: “These results categorically show what everyone wants and that’s for the A96 to finally be dualled.

“It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know this needs to happen, which is why this consultation was a ploy by the SNP to kick any decision into another parliamentary term.

“This sends an emphatic message to the SNP government to stop playing games with the lives of motorists and fulfil their promise of upgrading the A96 between Aberdeen and Inverness.

“It’s scandalous that 14 years after they vowed to do this, the SNP still won’t commit to upgrading the Aberdeenshire section or building a bypass for Inverurie.”

But Transform Scotland director Colin Howden said: "The Scottish Government’s transport capital investment is already horribly skewed towards vastly expensive road projects that simply don’t stand up to scrutiny.

“There is no sound economic case for these schemes - civil servants had to manipulate the figures to make any sort of economic case for the A9 dualling scheme, and the case for fully dualling the A96 is just as weak.”