Why M8 repairs delay wouldn't impress Scotty from Star Trek

Delays in big projects like dualling the A9, building a couple of ferries and a tram line suggests Scotland needs more of a Star Trek-style can-do attitude

Scotland’s reputation for engineering was once so great that when the original Star Trek show was first conceived, there was really only one choice for the nationality of the Starship Enterprise’s engineer.

What Montgomery ‘Scotty’ Scott would have made of Scotland’s recent track record in the field hardly bears thinking about. The construction of Edinburgh’s airport tram line and a couple of ferries on the Clyde and the dualling of the A9 between Perth and Inverness have all been hit by considerable delays.

The M8 in Glasgow is a vital transport link (Picture: John Devlin) | National World

Now we learn that the completion of repairs to the Woodside viaducts on the M8 in Glasgow may be delayed, yet again, until 2027. This would mean that, if the work is finished by this latest ‘deadline’, some 150,000 drivers a day will have had their journeys disrupted by long traffic jams for a total of six years.

There may, of course, be good reasons for all this. As Scotty often said, “ye canna change the laws of physics”. Yet, somehow, he and Captain Kirk always found a way. Modern Scotland really does need a similarly can-do attitude.