to CANWM

Dear Julian and Bob

You are two prominent members of CANWM.  Hence you get this!

This week on TV and social media, Andy Street is boasting that he has spent seven times more on transport than the same authorities did before his election four years ago.  By the end of his new term, if elected, it will be 15 times more, he claims!  This is because of the £15 BILLION going into 150 miles and 8 lines of Metro "bus on rails" trams to 2040 to replace buses and more trains.

The scandal is that for those of us who live in Dudley and parts of Sandwell and Brum, public transport is WORSE!  Eleven, Hagley Road bus routes are re-routed on a longer, slower diversion through narrow, traffic-choked streets in the rush hours and, constantly lined with parked cars.  Not even one of the eleven bus routes will ever again be able to use the fast, direct underpass beneath Five Ways but will be caught up in the traffic queues.  With four trams an hour in Broad Street, it may be impossible for any bus to now use that direct route as they all did, previously, before Metro madness.

Do the three of you accept this simple equation? :-

Spending = finite fossil fuels exhausted = greenhouse gases emitted = accelerates the runaway greenhouse effect = THE END

If you do, (obviously, with more renewable electricity being used, this will slow the exhaustion of our fossil fuel reserves but will have less of an impact if the runaway greenhouse effect has now taken off), do you feel able to join me in writing, phoning, messaging to all and sundry about this self-inflicted ecocide?

Metro madness has also led to the destruction of the UK's last, principal, mainline railway from Burton on Trent to Bristol via Brierley Hill (aka Derby to Devon via Dudley).  In 1999, Metro One led to the destruction of the railway and one and quarter railway stations on the now lost line from Snow Hill to Shrewsbury via Wolverhampton Low-Level station.  That former, principal railway station is now a conference and events centre!

The well-meaning fools in charge have now destroyed over 100 Kms of perfectly good railway lines in the W Midlands.  No wonder they are so desperate for HS2.  However, that will still mean the existing intercity trains being needed for the passengers to get off at the stations that HS2 goes too fast to be able to stop at!

All the best

Tim

PS  My Metro Mayor deposit now goes to DEC, UNICEF, MSF - instead of HMG.