The Heartlands project will totally change how people get to and from Whitburn (as well as get around it). There are proposals for new roads, park & ride facilities, a transport interchange and a brand new motorway junction.
Around Whitburn
At the moment Whitburn is stuck between junctions 4 and 5 on the M8 motorway. Coming from the west it's so easy to miss junction 5; it's small and innocuous. Miss it and you have to continue to junction 4 and then double back to Whitburn. No arguments coming from the east, junction 4 is well enough sign-posted. However, if ever a town deserved its own junction it must surely be Whitburn the emerging local development plan for West Lothian supports the provision of a new interchange on the M8 at Whitburn on the basis that the infrastructure has the potential to stimulate and promote major regeneration, housing and employment development. The Scottish Executive announced in June 2006 that the new M8 motorway junction could go ahead. A spokesperson for Transport Scotland said "The developer (Ecosse Regeneration Ltd) had to carry out very detailed development and transport appraisals to make the case and, in particular, fully justify the need for a new M8 junction. We are satisfied that in this case the appraisal demonstrates that significant economic and regeneration benefits will come from the proposal and that a new motorway junction at Whitburn forms part of the best transport solution" After much discussion final approval was granted in July 2007.
The junction will feed down into the business park including the public transport interchange with park and ride facility.area then towards the B7066 and into the town. Ecosse have also applied for planning permission to build a hotel within the business park. Construction of the new road layout started towards the end of 2007 and construction of the M8 junction is scheduled to start in late 2008. More information on the layout can be found in the Business page.
It is envisaged that the scale of the overall Heartlands development, in conjunction with the proposed Transport Interchange, will encourage bus operators to extend or divert existing bus routes and provide additional services, thus establishing improved links with surrounding communities. The proposed Transport Interchange will facilitate linkages between local bus services and the strategic Glasgow - Edinburgh services.
There will be a number of changes to the existing roadways to the west and south west of the town. Along the existing B7066 (coming from Harthill) a new roundabout at the entrance to Polkemmet Country Park. The north spur of the roundabout will lead into the country park, while the south spur will lead into the main housing areas of the Heartlands development. Following on the B7066 the next junction is possibly the most crucial. A new 4 way roundabout will be created with the east and west spurs being the continuations of the B7066. The North spur will lead into Heartlands Business Park and to the new motorway junction. The south spur will lead up to the junction with West Main Street, Polkemmet Road. Following on from this first phase of roads infrastructure will be links to the golf course and the A706 at the junction with Blaeberryhill Road. The benefits of these changes are self evident. Whitburn residents know all too well that the existing junctions at Polkemmet Country Park, the bottom end of Polkemmet Road and the junction at Blaeberryhill Road can be hazardous. Roundabouts, along with other traffic calming measures will intentionally slow the traffic down leading to safer negotiation of the junctions leading in and out of these areas of the town.
Further afield
Central Scotland is due to see massive changes in the transport network. Edinburgh Airport underwent a £100 million redevelopment to extend and upgrade the terminals facilities making it a truly world class airport and Whitburn is just under 16 miles away, less than half and hour via the motorway and given favourable traffic not really that much more from Glasgow Airport in the west. The M8 allows direct connection to the motorway network throughout Scotland leading to all points North, South, East & West. Whitburn with its new motorway junction, business park, housing & leisure facilities will be ideally placed to benefit from the increased passenger numbers created by the Edinburgh Airport expansion. The airport now caters for 8.7 million passengers a year, flying to 90 different destinations with 40 airlines and it has been estimated passenger numbers will double to around 26 - 30 million a year by 2030. Half will be inbound foreign residents visiting Scotland giving a massive boost to the tourist industry and just how many of these will be golfers coming to play on the Donald Ross Memorial Courses.
The M9 spur, a replacement for the A8000 leading towards the Forth Road Bridge fully opened to traffic at the start of October 2007, two weeks ahead of schedule. The new road follows a dogleg route over 4.5km, linking the bridge with the M9 and M8. Most of the road will be motorway with the rest will be dual carriageway. Whitburn, again, with it's new motorway junction will benefit from the easier access to East Fife and the North because of the M9 spur extension.
Plans to upgrade the A801 River Avon Gorge crossing should take a step forward when MSPs in The Scottish Parliament in mid-July are expected to confirm support for this road scheme which will improve access to the M9 motorway, Granegmouth and so on. More information can be found at the Falkirk Council website.
Trains run from Bathgate, just over 3 miles away to the northeast through to Edinburgh. It's a frequent service, the journey takes usually less than half an hour and the station has park and ride facilities. To get to Glasgow you have to journey south to Fauldhouse, which is on the Edinburgh - Glasgow Central line. Again it is a similar distance to Fauldhouse but the service is not as frequent. Timetables for each journey can be downloaded from the First Scotrail website.
That's the situation now, but in a couple of years it should change. Work to re-instate the line between Bathgate & Airdrie has already started with services currently scheduled to start in the winter of 2010. Last used for passengers in 1956 the proposal is to create a double track electrified 15-mile section of line between Drumgelloch station near Airdrie and Bathgate. With Airdrie linked to Glasgow commuters will be able to travel to either city from Armadale, good news for Whitburn.
For more details go to the projects own website at http://www.airdriebathgateraillink.co.uk/
