|
|
|
 |
|
Home Page
|
How It All Began Back in the 1930s, car use was increasing, and people were beginning to travel further afield and more frequently. The government realised this, and realised the importance of a simple system of roads that would link the major urban centres. In addition, the upkeep and quality of these major routes seemed to be a little inconsistent, with standards seeming to vary between local authorities. Only a few years earlier, in 1922, had a numbering system been introduced to make navigating the United Kingdom easier. Previously, you had to know which towns you had to pass through, like a giant road dot-to-dot. Numbering meant that you only needed to remember a couple of roads. So the government decided that a new system of road classification was needed, one that would highlight the importance of specific roads. By doing so, a strategic network could be established that would link together the major cities, ports and other principal places. A network of essential routes had already been drawn up by the government previously, as they were already giving councils additional grants for their upkeep. However, with the new network, politicians realised that other roads that were not included needed to be added to the list.
The Transport Act 1936 In order to create this network, an Act of Parliament was passed to establish this new tier of road. And so the Trunk Road was born. A series of thirty routes were converted to Trunk Roads, covering the length and breadth of the country. In all, some 4,500 miles of classified road - making up 17% of all "Class I" roads - became the responsibility of the Minister of Transport, Leslie Hore-Belisha. The Trunk Road network came into force from the 1st April 1937, with Scottish roads transferring on 16th May 1937. With the Act came a new set of responsibilities for the Minister. This meant he and his department, the Ministry of Transport, were responsible for the administrative and financial requirements of the upkeep of the new network. However, some councils still retained control over the maintenance of the trunk roads. In some areas, the Ministry delegated responsibility to the local council, and also for neighbouring councils upon gaining permission to do so. Basically, if the Ministry wanted Council A to maintain the trunk roads in Council B's area, the Ministry would have to gain written permission from Council B to do so! That responsibility could also be revoked if maintenance was not carried out to a high enough standard. But to make things confusing, the Ministry could only serve notice of a transfer of control (or to have it revoked) after 1 October of any particular year - and that could only come into force from the following 1 April!
Infrastructure In addition, the Ministry was also permitted to install new lighting and signage, as well as improve existing stock. However, if new lighting was to be erected, the Ministry had to gain permission from the local authority, in order for the supplies to be connected. The Ministry was also permitted to install new signage on other approaching roads to advise of the trunk road. The Ministry was also responsible for any bridges under or over the trunk road, plus any access roads linking the trunk road with the local road it passes over or under. The department also had to construct or improve any approaches to the bridges, although if they were a local road, their responsibility would pass to the local authority.
New Roads As the Act was being passed through Parliament, a number of new bypasses were in the course of being constructed. These were intended to form part of the new trunk routes, but as the routes had already been decided, they couldn't become trunk roads. It meant that a special Order was placed within the Act, which allowed the Ministry to change the routes of trunk roads to include the new bypasses should they have opened before the Act came into force. The bypassed sections of road would therefore not be trunked and their responsibility would remain with the relevant local authority. However, for roads built or opened after 1 April 1937, the strange occurrence of both the existing and new road being trunked would take effect. The Ministry would maintain responsibility of the old road until the end of the financial year, and had to ensure the road was maintained to the required standard until that time. Once the financial year ended, the old road could cease to be a trunk route, and responsibility was handed back to the local authority.
New Numbers? During the planning stages, the Ministry suggested that a new numbering system be introduced. The reason for this was to highlight the importance of the new trunk routes, and the Act required all trunk roads to be numbered, so drivers could identify them easily. So, after some umming and arring, the Ministry decided that trunk roads should receive T-numbers, as they would eventually replace the A-numbers that were currently in place. In the most part, the numbers would stay the same - it would have just been a simple case of swapping the A with a T. Where the existing number changed (such as the A1 to A555, A406, A555 again, A500, A555 once more and back to A1), the whole lot would have received the number that clocked up the greatest mileage (so the A1 would become T1, and so would the A555!). However, there would be some oddities too - as CBRD's Chris Marshall has discovered, the A41 from Birmingham to Birkenhead would have become T42 (why not just keep the "41" number?) and the Doncaster to Grimsby route would be renumbered from A18 to T22! The new numbering system was so close to being introduced that the Ministry had even created new signage to depict the trunk roads. Based on the French "Route Nationales", the signs would be marker posts displaying the road number and distance, plus the letters "MT" to denote the road was under the responsibility of the Ministry of Transport. This would make it easier for maintenance crews to find faults and other problems. In effect, they are similar to the small blue signs found on many motorways today! Yet, the road numbers were never made public, and the renumbering scheme cancelled. The reason, as discovered once again by Chris, was due to the Ordnance Survey creating the National Grid, meaning any point could be located on a map to within a matter of metres. A draft leaflet from the OS was sent by a senior cartographer to a friend. The friend so happened to work in the Minstry! It meant that those crews could be given co-ordinates on a map, thus eliminating the need to put up new signs and confuse Joe Public with new road numbers.
The Exceptions As is the case, there were exceptions to the rule. No road within the County of London, or any other County Borough (or County Burgh in Scotland), was allowed to be trunked. It meant that trunk roads had big gaps in them, where the relevant council maintained responsibility for the roads within it, even if they were of national strategic importance. Trunk roads also ceased to be trunk if the County area was extended to cover additional areas.
So where were they? Well, they are
here! No, really, a list of all the original trunk routes is shown below.
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
All content in this site is Copyright
© 2008 to Road to Nowhere, except where
credited appropriately. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
