If not HS2, then what

A good question.

If the capacity of HS2 is not going to be realised or, heaven forbid, cancelled, then the traffic that would have used it will go by road.

Every time I travel through the West Midlands and the M6 Toll road joins the M6 and the M42, traffic crosses between the three motorways while the A446 runses beside all three as another duel carriageway.

At one point, a cross sections of the roads show 13 lanes of traffic, six in one direction, seven in the other. Elsewhere its eleven.

Above is the M6 Toll/M42/A446 junctions where the toll road ends at its southern point.

Above is where the M6 Toll/M42 joins the M6 that has wound its way through Birmingham, West Bromwich and Walsall, which is about a mile from the previous junction.

And above is where the M42 and M6 diverge heading south, with the A446 crossing over both, again, a mile further on from the previous.

The final screenshot above is where the M6 ends and joins the M1, with the A14 diverging east to Cambridge, which also carries a large part of the traffic heading to Dartford so to divery traffic from the northern part of the M25. This justion, like the ones above are recently improved, enlarged to cope with the amount of traffic they all now carry, even then, at peak times all are at a standstill with the volume of traffic.

I can't remember anyone from the "green" lobby protesting about these works and the sheer huge area that each mega-juntion takes up, or the pollution they create.

If we follow the A14 eastwards, we reach the point where it used to cross the A1(M) at a roundabout, which then had a flyover, but now has this, the the A14, built in 1990/91 now upgraded from a four lane road to a six lane one all the way to Cambridge. The A141 used to be the A14, but couldn't cope with the traffic, so the new road was built to the south, crossing over important water meadows. Where the A1 and A14 run beside each other, there are up to 11 lanes of traffic.

We know that building more roads just creates more traffic, and yet politicians and many people don't see roadbuilding as a subsidy as they see upgrading or new rail lines. Protest of new road schemes seems to be a thing of the past, like the A34 at Newbury, work just seems to start without fuss. Bigger rads create more traffic that generate more pollution and lengthens journey times.

Used correctly, high speed rain can be used, and has in mainland Europe, to reduce or even eliminate short haul flights, with some airlines now operating trains instead of planes on some routes. High speed rain can also reduce car use, while freeing up regular lines for freight, taking even more traffic off the roads. And high speed rail, and normal lines too, can be powered using renewable energy being greener still.

If we want it.

Only this week, Michal Gove equated car travel with freedom, something done in the 50s to justify the removal of urban tram systems and the Beeching cuts. Freedom to sit in your car polluting the atmosphere.