Can we imagine replacing the Woodside Viaduct?

Dear readers, old and new. The last time I checked in with you was shortly before the Christmas break. I remember returning in January thinking ‘uh oh, it might be a slow start to the year’. You know the old adage: be careful what you wish for.  

It’s proved apt. In the past four months we’ve had some of our biggest stories yet, including the CCA’s sudden closure, the Union Corner fire; a £1m charity tax avoidance scheme (one of the strangest stories of my career so far), the collapse of an exclusive private school and why some of Glasgow’s Iranian diaspora are hanging toy rats outside a Southside Islamic centre.  

As a result of this frenetic period, we’ve had over 7,000 new people sign up to The Bell and our mission to deliver proper old-school journalism back to Glasgow. Hello to you! We hope in our virtual pages you’ll find not just investigations and insight into how your city operates, but community. That’s why I’m writing about myself today (not something that comes easily to me and many other repressed Scottish men). For the uninitiated this is one of our regular writer’s editions. And my first of the year comes at an interesting time.

All things go

By now, it’s clear change is underfoot in Glasgow, some of it voluntary, some of it necessitated by disastrous infernos. The city centre is a bit of a building site but I don’t see that altogether as a bad thing — after all, don’t sparse trees look ugly right before they burst into bloom? As for the new gap site at Union Corner, I’ve got a pitch: turn it into a market for local vendors, with protective coverings for stalls and spaces for hanging out. Just somewhere to actually stay still in the city centre and be protected from the elements. Kings Cross in London is a decent example; outside you can grab a Scotch egg or overpriced loaf of bread before catching your train. Except here it could be greener, less expensive, and with fewer Harry Potter tourists.

While some things are changing, others feel constrained by fear. Take the Woodside Viaduct, my static nemesis. With the temporary props coming to the end of their ugly construction, Transport Scotland is faced with one big decision to make. Three options are before it: replace that section of the motorway, repair it, or demolish the whole job lot. I have presented those in descending cost order.

The political doomerism — or scunneration as I like to call it — that I and many Glaswegians are prone to makes me unconfident that our politicians, and governmental bodies like Transport Scotland, have the vision and funding to remove that part of the motorway, which would be my dream (I love driving, before you @ me, it’s a guilty pleasure).  

But this isn’t quite true. Some local politicians — like Christy Mearns and Paul Sweeney — have backed ideas including bulldozing the Woodside Viaduct and replacing it with some grand local traffic-only boulevard. A Broadway in Glasgow anyone? There is some ambition kicking around. 

Other European countries might provide an example. I was recently in a hostel in Andorra (I didn’t buy hunners of fags so don’t bother asking for any) speaking with a Dutch woman. I asked her how the Netherlands had the political support to get rid of their similar inner city motorways and replace them with the cycling culture we know it for today. She said they didn’t really, they just did it, built the bike lanes and public transport after, and now it works wonderfully after a decade or so of pain. In my weaker moments, it can feel like Glasgow is stuck in an everlasting decade of pain and scuppered plans, without the wonderful bit at the end. But I suppose that’s what elections are for.

It’s now a month before we head to the ballot to pick a new Scottish parliament. I’m wondering if candidates can capture imaginations and really motivate voters with a positive campaign. Or, will doomerism and blamerism reap the spoils?

An update on The Bell

It’s also a period of change at The Bell. We’re in the middle of hiring for a new staff reporter. Believe it or not, they will be our second full-timer; Robbie, The Bell’s co-founder, is on three days a week (belied by his stellar output). He’d have you believe he spends most of his off-days foraging, but he’s really producing radio documentaries, mostly for BBC Radio 4. 

This means that, for 40% of my time spent at work, I’m all alone in Bell HQ when I’m not out reporting. So on a personal level, I’m thrilled to get the company. Plus, we’ll be able to say to Robbie things like: “oh, you wouldn’t get it, we were just talking about it on Wednesday” — imagine. 

Hi, thanks for reading. We're Robbie and Calum, and we run The Bell. Today's edition is a way we like to connect with our readers. We strongly encourage commenting and letting us know your opinions on the issues within: to replace or remove the M8 at Woodside? What should go in the gap site at Union Corner? That's the big, hundred-million pound question. To do this, and read the rest of the edition which includes musical and literary suggestions, you need to sign up to be a paying subscriber.

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