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The M42 is there to connect the east and west Midlands (and therefore traffic going longer distances between the north east and south west) without the hassle of the A38, which was the previous route and which dumped all through traffic into the heart of Birmingham.
This newer motorway route, completed in the late 1980s, acts as the southern and eastern sections of the Birmingham Orbital, before striking off to the north east towards the M1 and then...giving up 15 miles short. The A42 connects the last bit up. Why? Well, if you're sitting comfortably...
The original A42 was the main road from Oxford to Birmingham, swallowed up early on by the extension of the A34 (originally Winchester to Oxford) as far as Manchester. The A42 number floated around for a long time without a home.
In the 1970s a short section of motorway was built as a spur south from the M6 to the east of Birmingham, mainly to serve the NEC, and it was called M42, probably so it wasn't tied to any existing A-road. Construction was started to extend the road, and the M42 today begins at the M5, running across the south of Birmingham to hit the even more recent M40, then turns north to skirt the east side of Brum, taking in its original section and then crossing the M6 and heading on to Tamworth.
Signs of a budget cut at the last minute become evident. As the M42 progresses north, at junction 9 three lanes drop to two, and seven miles later we reach the A444 at Measham. There were just 15 miles left to the M1 and Nottingham, but the budget wouldn't stretch. So the M42 ends here, a dual carriageway takes its place, and they called it the A42.
There are tales from people who worked on the A42 scheme that orders from senior civil servants at the Department of Transport forced them to build bridges too narrow for hard shoulders to be added. The intention was to avoid bad publicity from the building of a 'motorway'.
Tragic? Yes indeed, but fortunately the final report from the local Multi Modal Study, submitted in summer 2003, makes as one of its strongest reccommendations the upgrade of the A42/M42 section to dual three lane motorway all the way to the M1. At last! Now we just have to hope the government pay some attention to the idea.
Speaking of widening, an experimental scheme is now up and running east of Birmingham on the M42 designed to maximise use of existing road space. It's called Active Traffic Management.
Factfile
| Start | Bromsgrove (M5) |
| Finish | Kegworth (M1) |
| Passes | Redditch, Solihull, Birmingham, Tamworth |
| Length | 70 miles |
| Terminates | M40 |
| Spurs | None |
| Meets | M6, M6 Toll |
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With thanks to Chris Bertram, Sam Chew, Iain Dobson, Richard of Appleby Magna, Peter Binnersley, Tom, Nathaniel Porter and David Hicklin for information in this section.
