What Sir Bob Kerslake's report on Birmingham City Council missed out!

ABOLISH THE CITY COUNCIL AND RUN BRUM FROM LONDON TOWN

My list of dismal mistakes (solely, on transport):

It started with two out of the three city centre Birmingham rail stations being demolished; only to be rebuilt to make for fewer lines and platforms, certainly at Snow Hill.  The third, Moor Street, was closed.

In the 60s and 70s we had the wholesale closure of urban rail lines and more stations demolished and sites used for other purposes, as we foolishly put all our eggs in the one basket of fine new ring roads and road transport.

Since the 1980s, some of the rail lines have been left unused or underused for Midland Metro trams to further fragment the once unified rail network that once saw only trains.  Trams are now unnecessarily replacing not only trains but buses!  No evidence of even one car commuter switching to trams who could not have switched to the train, if trains had been left on that urban rail line now used by trams.  (The line was closed, presumably, under Beeching and, after some years, eventually re-opened for trams.  Utter incompetence and idiocy!)

In 34 years of fruitless endeavour, only one out of a whole network of a dozen tram lines has been opened!  More failure, more negligence and more incompetence.  And, that one line went on a perfectly good rail line, apart from a short section on road but, it was never connected to Wolverhampton's last rail station.  The trains went from Snow HIll to Wolverhampton Low Level Station that was demolished when the trains stopped.  The tram will finally get to the last remaining rail station in Wolverhampton sometime this decade!  What a lot of wasteful idiocy expended when they could have just left the rail line well alone in the first place.  Or, once closed, re-opened the line for trains, once more. 

Now, Snow Hill Station is planned to be demolished - for the second time!  The more adequate, Victorian station was demolished in the 1970s.

Trams instead of trains on 11 miles of our crowded rail network, desperate for more capacity (but not even trams on 45 miles of empty, double track rail line in Brum and the adjoining Black Country - I exaggerate not!).

Your city council and PTA/Centro have plumped for Snow Hill Sta to link with New St Sta using trams instead of the nearer Moor St Sta.  This is a piece of idiocy, when all the trains that stop at Snow Hill also stop at the much nearer Moor St!  You could have spent a tiny fraction of the money now being spent linking Snow Hill and New Street stations with trams, on a simple travelator (or moving pavement) to help bridge the distance for passengers travelling between Moor Street and New Street Stations.

Safer movement for all road users, including cyclists - and freeing up the road network - by making:

all the existing bridleways, towpaths and cycle/walkways fit for purpose ie - free of mud, puddles and overgrowing vegetation;

completing white lines on pavements for cyclists by dropping the kerbs;

dropping all the kerbs on access/egress points on the Harborne Line Cycle/Walkway; STILL NOT BEEN DONE!

completing the Bourn cycle/walkway by doing the excellent job that was done there by doing exactly the same with the two rights of way in Woodgate Valley CP - one side of the stream for walkers and horses with a soft surface and the other side for walkers and cyclists with a hard, free draining surface (preferably, a convex rough tarmac surface);

promote walker friendly, super-courteous and responsible cycling on shared routes;

re-open the 45 miles of existing double track, unused or under-used rail lines in Brum and the Black Country to make for more people being able to use the much safer rail network instead of the car or bike - many miles are alongside commuter congested roads, too.  For many decades, this has been totally stupid transport policy by the city council and PTA/Centro who should know better.

fund the Canals and Rivers Trust to help them make all their urban towpaths available for buggies, wheelchairs, cyclists and walkers so that the towpath network is seen as the alternative to the road network for these users that it should be.

All of this really should not need spelling out - yet again!

Sir Bob Kerslake wrote in a key report on Birmingham City Council, "Get the basics right."  How very right, too.