All major urban areas will be required to put forward a plan for their underground system. These will be rated for value for money, plausibility and environmental impact (measuring short term emissions and long-term traffic reduction). Every five years each conurbation will present its latest proposal during a live T.V. show and the public will vote for the option to be realised. The show will be called Tunnelvison. Unsuccessful bids may receive some works to make future bids more viable.
Air transportation costs and environmental impacts may well shortly be significantly reduced; each underground system plan should examine the potential for linking in local airports.
All cars will be given a fuel efficiency rating from zero to 20. A per point tax will be levied on all car sales. A trade in of a less efficient vehicle will earn a per point rebate.
Research will be conducted into slide-in slide out battery packs for cars. This will enable electric car drivers to “fill up” at fuel stations. Drivers will only pay for the net electric charge taken on.
The railways will be re-nationalised. Talks will be held with our Irish counterparts regarding connecting our railways on the west coast, potentially benefiting both countries tourism revenues.
Diesel is a major pollutant and a fossil fuel; the diesel engine was originally designed to run on vegetable oil. The U.K. could drastically reduce pollution and therefore the incidence (and cost) of health issues, while reducing carbon emissions by converting all diesel engines to run on vegetable fat.
The manufacturers of diesel vehicles stipulate that the conversion of these vehicles to run on vegetable oil invalidates the warrantee. Legislation will be passed to end this stipulation. There will be a VAT holiday on the cost of converting a diesel vehicle to vegetable oil. Local councils will be helped to implement re-cycling of used cooking oil, thus creating a virtuous loop and reducing the occurrence of fatbergs.
HS2 will be cancelled immediately; plans will be drawn up for an underground replacement; built in stages over the next generation- ultimately linking the Eurostar service to Dublin.
A feasibility study will be conducted into the possibility of closing the whole country down for a week to conduct all upgrades to road and rail systems in one go. This would be known as Brunel week. A full mobilisation will be required as will engineers from our N.A.T.O. allies; we will of course reciprocate in due course. An extra bank holiday will be declared each leap year for similar.
All buses will be fitted with “Caterpillar” lights and cameras. When the Caterpillar lights are in force it will be illegal to overtake a bus at a bus stop. This will allow the bus to stop to let passengers board and disembark without the space in front of it being filled up with passing vehicles. On pulling away the bus will be able to move forward into any gap which has been created allowing the traffic behind to travel forward and still be in the same relative position. This will reduce bus transit times, and emissions, on busy roads. Drivers who overtake a bus with its Caterpillar lights on will be fined.
Service stations will be obliged to display petrol prices in whole numbers.
All new vehicle headlights will be fitted with sensors to ensure they are turned on automatically when moving after dark. The minimum size of indicators will be increased, and manufacturers will be obliged to explore adding secondary, higher (eye-level) indicators- particularly on shorter vehicles.
All vehicles to be fitted with a forward-facing pencil light which marks the breaking distance, giving drivers a better understanding of vehicle spacing.
More cameras will be installed to ensure proper use of yellow box junctions, fines to go directly to local council, subsidising public transport.
Cameras on motorways will be used to capture drivers average speed, and fines issued accordingly