The Brexit brickwall = the tram rut = we Brits are going nowhere fast. As well as by tram, train, bus or car!
"The link between Brexit and the increase in fossil fuel use" comes from the billions already spent over these last three years of referendum and, all the to-ing and fro-ing with meetings galore and documents. The more we spend the more we use up our fossil fuel reserves. At the same time, as we burn them up, we tighten the grip of the runaway greenhouse effect to cause the collapse of the planet's life support systems. We are all druggies addicted to fossil fuels. They have given us unheard of comfort and wealth but also a nasty and deadly downside that will continue to roll out this century, methinks.
With the over £60,000 per metre extension to Grand Central, the annual passenger journey figures have gone up to over 6 million. This is still well short of what they said in the 1990s, in order to get the money out of government. Putting the trains back on the same 20 Kms mainline railway would have cost about £3,000 to £4,000 per metre in the 1990s. Probably, less than that. And, of course, there would now be no need for the expensive Metro extension to Wolverhampton railway station. The nation has more money than sense. And every penny we spend tightens the screw on future devastating consequences for all life on earth from human climate change.
I was trying to be clever in making use of Donald Tusk's statement about "I have been wondering what the special place in hell looks like for those who promoted Brexit without even a sketch of a plan how to carry it safely". I was comparing it with all those in Transport HQ, since 1981, giving top priority to trams rather than reinstating trains and stations. In addition, our councillors and officers are not at all bothered about their colleagues, in our district councils, giving planning permission for roads, but mainly buildings, obliterating 100 Kms of urban railway lines in the Black Country and Brum. However, there is still 106 Kms that survive as freight only and mothballed, double track lines. All this destruction of transport infrastructure and refusal to countenance the return of commuter and regional trains on the 106 Kms, as railway passenger numbers have more than doubled since the mid 1990s with overcrowding on our commuter trains and longer traffic jams on our roads. Only trams are allowed. Installing trams and tram stops is working out at about ten times more expensive per Km than simply rebuilding the stations and putting the commuter/regional trains back!!
We cannot afford to go on wasting, or misusing, perfectly good railway infrastructure, in my opinion.
Do you want our railway lines for trams or trains, Kevin? You once said, so correctly, "We have to pay twice to get the trains back!"
Do read these writings of mine to understand what has been going so wrong:
TUSK'S QUOTE:
"We will not gamble with peace or put a sell by date on reconciliation. (Self: The Troubles in N Ireland may restart with any difficulty between or, distancing of, N Ireland from the Republic) This is why we insist on the backstop. I have been wondering what the special place in hell looks like for those who promoted Brexit without even a sketch of a plan how to carry it (out) safely. The EU 27 is not making any new offer. Let me recall that the December European Council decided that the withdrawal agreement is not open for renegotiation." The European Council President, Donald Tusk.
All the best
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