article: We're the same age, and we have both been assailed and corroded by the bracing weather around the Firth of Forth. Both have been carrying somewhat more of a load factor than is either assumed or advisable in the design spec. There are significant differences, though. I have not been closed until the New Year, while essential repairs are carried out. Nor have I become indispensible to the Scottish economy. Oh no. The closure of the bridge represents a significant challenge to those on both the North and South Queensferry sides, and extending a long way around. Hauliers use it to go north, and not only to Fife, but to Dundee and beyond, to Aberdeen and the north east. Likewise, they bring goods south in supply chains affecting the Lothians and beyond. One of those supply chains is to households, in that a lot of Christmas shopping is being done by road freight. This is by far the busiest time of year for the Amazon 'fulfilment centre' (warehouse) in Fife. Inbound and outbound deliveries look a lot more expensive. Among many others, the route is important to Diageo's gigantic bottling plant in Cameronbridge. It trucks containers of whisky and its other spirits to Grangemouth and the Clyde for export, and south to distribution depots in the English Midlands. Hauliers going round by Dunblane or the Kincardine or Clackmannanshire bridges face extra cost in both extra miles and traffic delays. That's just the commercial traffic. The road bridge has also become a vital link for workers, most commuting from northern homes to south workplaces, but some going the other way. Fife has some big specialist employers, including Babcock's Rosyth dockyard, Sky's contact centre, Bank of Scotland card processing at Pitreavie and the Raytheon weapons systems in Glenrothes. (The latter makes the Paveway bombs which are now being dropped on Syria by RAF Tornados.) The busier south-bound traffic in the morning demonstrates one of the big shifts that has taken place in the Scottish economy in recent decades: Edinburgh has been transformed from a modestly-sized city into a large travel-to-work region. That, in turn, has re-shaped southern Fife, as you can see in dormitory estates from Dunfermline to Dalgety Bay and beyond. On BBC Radio Scotland's Newsdrive, the call went out from the Scottish government for employers to be understanding of the difficulties now facing commuters who would normally use the Forth Road Bridge, or whose train services across the rail bridge face becoming impossibly busy. Transport minister Derek Mackay suggested altered shift patterns and car sharing. There could also be more home working. And that's where - in the dark days of a traffic-stricken December - there could be a silver lining to this large logistical cloud. Recent research shows that when people are forced to re-think their travel plans, a significant number discover that they prefer the new routes. This was based on the London Tube strike in February of last year, using the big data sets available from the Oyster cards, which track Londoners use of the Underground. The strike closed
summary: The Forth Road Bridge and I have a sort of affinity.