Transport in Cornwall - Road Transport in Cornwall

Road Transport in Cornwall

Cornwall is one of the few English counties with no motorways. However, trunk road access to and from the rest of the UK is at the heart of Cornwall's transport infrastructure and it is now possible to drive on uninterrupted dual carriageway from Glasgow to Bodmin Moor.

The principal road routes into Cornwall for both freight and passenger vehicles are the A30 from Exeter and the A38 from Plymouth and south Devon.

A30: The A30 between Exeter and Penzance is part of the Trans-European Road Network and is regarded by the Highways Agency as a strategic route corridor to the south west. The route has been greatly improved and upgraded in the past thirty years. There were only two short sections sections of dual carriageway on the 111 miles (179 km) of the A30 between Exeter and Penzance before 1976, but today only 20 miles (32 km) of single carriageway remain (one short stretch on Bodmin Moor and the rest in west Cornwall).

A38: A38 traffic into south-east Cornwall used to face severe delays at the Torpoint ferry (see below) across the River Tamar but this was relieved by the opening of the Tamar Bridge (a toll suspension bridge) in 1961. According to the Highways Agency, ...it is not envisaged that the A38 has, or will have, a strategic role to rival that of the A30; rather it has a sub-regional role to provide access between Cornwall and Plymouth and other parts of South Devon. Nonetheless, the A38 provides an alternative route for traffic from Exeter and the M5 motorway heading to south-east Cornwall. The increase in traffic warranted two extra lanes being added to the Tamar Bridge in 2001 (the first suspension bridge in the world to be widened while remaining open to traffic).

Other routes into Cornwall include the A39 from Barnstaple and Bideford to Bude and on to Wadebridge and south-west Cornwall; the A3072 from Hatherleigh and central Devon to Bude; and the A390 from Tavistock to Callington and Liskeard.