I use the A9 regulary and it's a complete disgrace that this road is not better maintained - it is in desperate need of more dual carriageways to avert any further deaths. This is a MAJOR route that is used by locals, tourists and trade. Too many lorries zooming up and down, tailgating one another so you can't overtake properly or safely.

We don't need trams in Edinburgh, but we do need a better A9.

The A9 simply does not need to be dualled, it does not experience the traffic levels to even begin to build a business case for that kind of expenditure. Perhaps if lorries are the problem, then further rail-freight investment is required. Dualling the route would have a massive impact in environmental and ecologial terms. The A9 issue is one of safety, and not levels of traffic, and as such there are other options available rather than dualling.

You speak for yourself Fergus when you say we don't need trams. Edinburgh is the only capital city in Europe without a sustainable mass transit system, and years of underinvestment in our road network has left the city crying out for something. You only have to look to the west, where in Glasgow there is an underground, and a good low level local train service, to see the major benefits that transport investment can bring.

#2 but the Edinburgh tram project is effectively only half a service. It doesn't cover the population of the city.

Too little too late Mr Salmond. Least someone has finally seen sense though!

"FIRST Minister Alex Salmond has revealed he would have rather spent £500 million on dualling the A9 instead of building Edinburgh's tram line."

Then stop this tram fiasco NOW, Eck ... before a rail gets laid!!!

#3 - It does not cover 93% of the population of the city never mind only half!!!!

Mr Salmond is 100%correct on this matter.

Any future Government funds should most definitely not be squandered on any more transport projects in the Capital, but instead be given to Scotland as a whole for the development of far more worthy transport initiatives.

Mr Salmond of the Tartan Tories is being opportunistic and simplistic.

Dualling the A9 will massively increase long-distance commuting and have knock on effects in many communities.

Instead, speed limits on the A9 should be more rigorously enforced.

#3 So are you saying that Londoners and Mancunians are calling for their tram systems to be scrapped because it doesn't cover the whole city? I haven't heard of any calls for that (rather calls for extensions), but if you would like to be consistent and call for that, I'm sure they will tell you where to go.

The question of permitted (legal) lorry speed limits along the A9 is one way to address this problem, They should be increased to the European standard of 80 kph/50mph. On the A9 a blanket speed limit for all vehicles of 50 mph along the single carraigeway sections would save lives , but few car users would support this. So long as there is a differential between the truck speed limit and that for cars overtaking accidents will occur.

One way that this issue is addressed in Europe, on non dualled roads is to have alternate third lane overtaking lanes marked by rumble strips, with plastic uprights as dividers and in places of short sightlines a physical armco barrier . This works well.

Widening some peices of the A9 to incorporate this 3rd lane arrangement along alternate sides would be cost effective. But until traffic levels along most stretches of the A9 increase markedly, the justification for throwing more of Scotland's limited roads budget at dualling all of A9 has no economic case, ( Of course it is a sure vote winner in scottish terms , for not many voters are living immediately adjacent to the lifeline A82 corridor, despite the fact that huge numbers of Highlanders depend on this 1930's standard trunk road). This A82 is the worst road of 'trunk' route importance in Europe, the A9 is one of Scotland's best. The A82 each year leads to some of the highest accident figures among users -when expressed in a percentage - of any road in the developed world. There are many pressing infrastructure requirements in Scotland. The A9 is nowhere near the top of that list.