Thanks, Andi for this.
With the 87 Kms WOM in the 90s, I was campaigning up and down the line of the route at public meetings I organised and, in two General Elections for the Green Pary - '92 and '97. Always being positive by saying the Black Country Railway that runs parallel to the line of the proposed KBH and M5/M6 needed the passenger trains back over its entire length before building the WOM. At that time, I was saying only as far as Walsall. Only in this decade did the railway lobby groups tell me that it does, in fact, go all the way to Burton on Trent with double track lines but no passenger trains - 56 Kms unused, wasted, with every engineering structure in place, like the bridge over the M6 Toll! Look at my photos:
You write, Andi that "we aren't ignoring the issue at all". By that you mean the WOM. That is brilliant. What I am asking is that all greens and Greens to please campaign, from now on, for completing the 120 Kms Western Bypass Railway, aka Black Country Main Line Railway, FIRST AND FOREMOST, before anymore work on the WOM. Our railway line that goes through Netherton is "of national strategic significance". It must have regional and commuter trains and not "bus on rails" trams. "Bus on rails" trams are immorally expensive and prevent the return of regional and even inter-city trains coming to the Black Country. The authorities are deceiving us when they say we must have trams first in order to get the trains back. It is a lie. And, is further evidence of the longest running and biggest scandal in UK finance/transport history. I have written reams about it over the years.
The threat of the WOM makes it even more urgent that all Greens and greens read my stuff over recent years about trains back on our existing railway lines instead of trams. It is the most important argument to deploy to delay the WOM further. How can anyone disagree with the parallel and nearby, unused main line railway being given top priority over the WOM? We have a winning, knock out argument!
With Dudley GP on board we can stop the trams stopping the trains AND stop or, at least delay, the WOM in the process. Do you all now get the importance of what I have been writing about for years?
Please don't ignore what I am saying and please help me!! This campaign to delay the WOM and get the trains back FIRST should never have been a one person campaign, as it certainly feels like to me.
Tim
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