A74(M) and M74 Motorways - Naming Confusion

Naming Confusion

See also: M6 motorway

The motorway is usually referred to in public as the M74 motorway, but south of Abington, the road is really the A74(M) motorway, noted on each sign in this southern section of the road (save for one erroneous "M74" sign at Gretna Green services). As the motorway is one continuous route and has a continuous junction numbering system, its entirety is usually erroneously referred to as M74. Typically, upgraded A-road designations like A74(M) are retained for short bypasses of existing road, whereas the M74/A74(M) is one continuous intercity route.

When the A74(M) was constructed in the 1990s, many of the signs were given patches with the A74(M) number on: these patches can be peeled away to reveal "M6" underneath. One such sign, which can be seen at the VOSA checkpoint just past the Crawford/Thornhill on-slip, states that it is the "M6 South" instead of the "A74 (M)" South.

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