BT Outreach Apologises for Light-Related Traffic on A91

On Sunday 15 February, temporary lights on the A91, between St Andrews and Guardbridge caused hours of traffic delays. 

The lights were set up by BT Openreach to allow them to reset a cover on the road, which has led to a week of repairs after the discovery of a collapsed chamber beneath the A91. 

A technical malfunction caused the lights on both ends to get stuck on red for more than three hours, resulting in back-to-back standstill traffic for up to 40 minutes in both directions on Fife’s second busiest road. 

The broken lights caused so much frustration that some drivers disregarded them completely, pulling out of their lane into oncoming traffic and risking a head-on collision. 

Fife council received over twenty calls from constituents complaining about the incident. Liberal Democrat Councillor Jane Ann Liston (St Andrews & Strathkinnes) criticized BT Openreach for poorly handling the situation. The councillor said she was first alerted to the issue around noon, and when she cycled out to look at the situation three hours later, the lights remained stuck on red. She told local papers how she found one man “using what looked like a hi-viz vest to control traffic,” noting, “he didn’t even have proper stop-go boards.” 

An Openreach spokesperson apologized for the delays, acknowledging the concerns raised about roadworks and temporary traffic management and stating that they are investigating further with their contractor. The spokesperson stated, “We’re sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused road users.”

The incident has stirred up debate over the needs for access to the rail system from within St Andrews to ease transportation efficiency. 

Councillor Liston claimed that the traffic incident demonstrated the inadequacy of St Andrew’s public transit link. The councillor is chair of the StARLink (St Andrews Rail Link) campaign, an organization established in 1989 in the hopes of reconnecting St Andrews to the rail system. According to their website, the town of St Andrews has around 17,000 residents, including students, making it one of the largest settlements in Scotland without a railway line. 

St Andrews is also a popular tourist destination, recording seven million visitors in the year of 2024, according to BID (Business Improvement District). 

According to Liston, “there would almost certainly be people who missed their trains today due to the buses being caught in the snarl-up.” The councillor disagrees with claims that a better bus system to Leuchars Railway Station would be an effective improvement of St Andrew’s railway and public transit accessibility maintaining that, after all, “incidents of this kind also hold up the buses.”

Photo by Wikimedia Commons