Some real napkin maths here but in order for HS2 to take 120 years to become carbon neutral, it would have to reduce road use by 0.08% and domestic air travel by 0.06%. If it reduced air and driving by just 5% it would be carbon neutral in 1-2 years. Time to make some policy. 
One awesome example of policy that should be implemented as soon as HS2 is launched is the outright banning of any domestic flights that are served by high speed rail, like France. railjournal.com/passenger/high…
On the left, the most popular airports for domestic flights to London. On the right, the HS2 route. Looky at that they match. Ban 100% of _those_ domestic flights and HS2 would be carbon neutral in months.
We don’t even need to wait for HS2. If it’s less than 3 hours by train just ban that flight. Subsidise the tickets a little instead of constantly subsidising flights. Huge emission saving immediately, then even more routes banned when HS2 opens.
Passenger kilometer CO2eq emissions are a pretty simple way to visualize how this all works.
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