A north-east councillor argued yesterday that they key to making a notorious road safer could be the reopening of a local railway line.
Martin Ford said opening the Formartine and Buchan rail line would help take traffic off the A947 Aberdeen to Banff road, making it safer in the process.
The East Garioch councillor made the comments during a debate on the route improvement strategy proposals for the A947, which outline 20 options, varying from dualling the road to building bypasses around three towns.
Mr Ford said the document had “missed the point” by excluding the railway option – adding it might be the best way to reduce the number of cars along the A947’s 41 miles.
The winding road has been the scene of nine fatalities and 40 serious injuries in the last five years.
The council’s transport and infrastructure strategy manager, Mark Skilling, said dualling the road from Dyce to Newmachar – at a cost of £30million – was one of the favoured options.
He said he believed there was a “justification” for dualling the road there, while between Oldmeldrum and Banff the focus should be improving “overtaking opportunities”.
Mr Ford argued that public transport “is key” as he called for park and rides, along with a reinstated Buchan rail link to be considered an option.
The former Buchan railway connected passengers from Aberdeen to Newmachar, Ellon, Peterhead and Fraserburgh until its closure in 1966.
He said: “Yes we do need to make improvements to the roads for road safety reason but some of the plans here are far too close to ‘predict and provide’.
“We need to look at park and rides. We need to look at this while having a rail option available. It has been done in other areas. At least Ellon to Aberdeen line has to be one of the best contenders for a rail reopening in Scotland.
“The volumes that you can transport with rail are amazing, even with just single track, and the speed is just unbeatable.”
He added rail was “a far better, far less polluting” alternative, and was backed by councillors Bryan Stuart and Fergus Hood.
Meanwhile Westhill councillor Ron McKail called for speed cameras to be considered on the road.
Councillors also called for additional passing places and accident blackspot signs on the A947 as they backed a wider consultation into the options.
They also approved a consultation on plans to make the road safer at Whiterashes by reducing the speed limit there from 50mph to 40mph.
