£50 fine for drivers wrongly using Forth Road Bridge

Jane Barlow/PA Archive/PA Images
Author: Hope WebbPublished 28th Aug 2018

A £50 penalty has now been introduced for drivers wrongly using the Forth Road Bridge.

The Queensferry Crossing opened as a replacement last August and since then Police Scotland has been allowing drivers time to get used to the new road layout.

But one year on officers are now enforcing a fine for those caught using the old bridge, which is now a public transport corridor.

It comes after we exclusively revealed that over 100 cars a day are using the Forth Road Bridge instead of the Queensferry Crossing.

But Tim Shalcross from road safety group IAM Roadsmart believes the issue is down to large tailbacks on the new structure.

He says: "There are plently of warning signs and drivers ought to have more consideration, that said the Queensferry Crossing was supposed to be the solution to all traffic ills but it's had nothing but rectifying work going on since it opened."

Local Lib Dem MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton says: "I think there was an expectation that when the Queensferry Crossing opened it would make life easier for commuters, but that has not been the case. We see that day in and day out, in terms of the traffic problems associated with the bridge."