Companies have started to export goods worth millions direct from Northern Ireland to England because the roads from Cairnryan “just aren’t good enough”.
The A75 in Dumfries and Galloway carries £17 billion of freight each year and is the main route by ferry from Belfast to the British mainland.
Freight companies, however, say that the failure to upgrade the route from the west coast port to the A74 (M) at Gretna means that it makes more sense to ship goods to Lancashire or Merseyside instead, even though the journey by sea takes much longer.
The A75 is a single-carriageway road for most of its 100 miles and heavy goods vehicles are limited to 40mph. Logistics companies say the route is often so slow that they
