The Absurdity of the A75 and British & Irish Trade
Imagine a country.
A top ten richest country in the world.
Imagine that a country has a trading partner.
Imagine that country is the 4th biggest trading partner for exports and 10th biggest for imports.
Imagine that country is next door to this imaginary country with a small sea separating them.
Imagine 1.4 million passengers[^1] moving between these two countries.
What do you think the transport links would be between these two countries?
Would there be a bridge?
A tunnel? Would the road to this country be wide and easy to transverse?
Makes sense that the imaginary country would have a well-connected link to such an important trading partner.
The absurd reality
The above imaginary country is actually The United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland and the transport network is the A75 and the ferry terminal at Cairnryan.
Remember the above trade size does not include the flow of goods between North Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom. Which makes the situation even worse.
The A75 is a single road that links Dumfries with the Cairnryan ferry terminal and for its 75 miles or so length, it is just two lanes, one lane going eastward and one westward. It has the occasional overtaking lane to try and reduce fatalities, but that's it.
All day, every day large lorries ply up and down these roads. These winding, turning roads.
The scearny is beautiful. The drive isn't.
The road is often jammed and lorries take risks racing for the ferry, and often killing people in the process.
Then, they must wait for a ferry to take them across the Irish Sea.
It is absurd that a country like the UK would allow itself to have such a threadbare approach to such an important economic and trade link.
The A75 should be a dual carriageway and a road and rail tunnel should be built between the islands of Ireland and Great Britain.
It will not happen sadly, and this just highlights the absurdity of Broken Britain.
Footnotes
[^1] Passenger numbers found here - Scottish Transport Statistics 2022