Hi Mark - too much to read, here I know so don't bother! Just read the next para! Tim
Thanks very much for sending me the article, that is exactly what you had to write and is very good. Thanks so much for giving me a mention - actually, including me!
from your piece:
He said public transport spending had gone up “nearly tenfold” with £38 million (SELF: 2016/17) spent the year before the combined authority was introduced (SELF: that means 2015) compared to £363 million this year. (SELF: 2021/22?).
It seems that the start of the "nearly tenfold" explosion of transport spending coincided with the opening of the Metro extension in 2016, five years ago and the formation of the WMCA in the same year. It just shows how phenomenally expensive Metro "bus on rails" trams are! Yet, road and railway congestion and air pollution are as bad as ever, five years on! Slightly relieved by Covid, I expect. Andy should be thoroughly ashamed that throwing money at the "solution looking for a problem" has made no difference and made no sense. Actually, made things worse with railway infrastructure destroyed and buses without rails on roads replaced by the "bus on rails" trams on roads and railways. SEE BELOW
What was/is the cost of the WMCA and how many people employed? I will ask an FoI question.
As the extension opened in 2016, the start of the hundreds of millions for Metro extensions pre-dates the WMCA if they got the money for that extension before. Neither it nor Andy can claim credit for the explosion of transport spending on Metro. It had nothing to do with him because he was not in the CA. He was elected in 2017 and during the most recent election campaign he was saying that during his four year term there had been a sevenfold increase in transport spending. He was claiming the credit! Sevenfold over the last four years and tenfold over the last five years.
In only five years, at a time of low inflation, their expenditure on only transport has gone up nearly tenfold. This is shocking and disgraceful in the light of the climate, ecological, nature emergency they have declared. Ten times more greenhouse gases to accelerate the runaway greenhouse effect! This is ecocide.
Spending = fossil fuels burnt = greenhouse gases emitted = intensifying greenhouse effect = runaway greenhouse effect = turning earth into planet venus = THE END.
FOI answer:
"The total budget for the Transport Delivery Capital Programme in 2016/17 was
£39.6m. The total budgeted value of the same programme in 2020/21 was £277.2m. Full
details can be found in the WMCA Board Financial Monitoring Report (March 2021)£39.6m. The total budgeted value of the same programme in 2020/21 was £277.2m. Full
Appendix 5 pages 19-21 available on our website at:
https://governance.wmca.org.
Therefore, he can claim that the devolution deals and the setting up of the CA in 2016 was responsible for the extra money but NOT his work as the representative, spokesperson or ambassador for the Combined Authority.
Sevenfold increase in four years (tenfold in five years) is not due to inflation but the shocking, grossly extravagant, greenhouse gas emitting Metro trams - even more expensive to construct than the Maglev train projects in China, Japan and South Korea! Each electric "bus on rails" tram is 12 times more expensive than one electric coach! Construction of tram lines on roads and railways is 19 times per Km more expensive than rebuilding the Borders Railway in 2015 - £7 m/Km for the railway; £133 m/Km for the 1.7 Kms Eastside Metro extension!
Please read this that is important for your background information as to what has been going on. I think there needs to be an independent public inquiry over what I have uncovered, here:
INSTITUTIONALLY INCOMPETENT
Our transport authority, over 70 years, has been institutionally incompetent.
In the 1950s they dismantled the electric tram network that needed updating but, instead replaced it with smelly, poisonous diesel buses.
In the 1960s, they continued to close and build on the railway network that had started in the pre-war years. That decade saw Brum's principal mainline Victorian station demolished and replaced with an underground, smelly, poisonous, diesel railway station. (There were fans to draw out some of the diesel smoke.)
The 1970s, saw Brum's second principal, mainline Victorian station of 8 platforms demolished and replaced with a station of only four platforms as Centro continued to support road building and motorways and the use of private cars that clogged up roads for buses.
The 1980s saw, in 1981, the start of rebuilding the tram network on the road and railway network.
The 1990s saw the announcement of 15 Metro lines over 200 Kms by the year 2000.
Yet, the year 2000 saw only one Metro line had opened. This, on a mainline railway too, that also destroyed one and a quarter mainline stations and 4 or 5 Kms of double track railway lines!!
The year 2016, saw the extension of the tram on the railway line that closed Wolverhampton Low Level Station but, now the tram on the railway completely missed out Snow Hill Station to go straight passed it to 'Grand Central Shopping Centre and Diesel Perfumed Underground Station In The Basement Of The John Lewis Store', instead!
In 2021, there is still not one passenger or freight train returned to even a single kilometre of mothballed, 106 Kms of railway lines. And platform 4 at Snow Hill remains closed!
All this incompetence when every councillor supported the transport authority over the 70 years with the expansion of roads, motorways and buildings on about 100 Kms of railway lines.
And not a single electric bus until, perhaps, this year!
MORE INCOMPETENCE, BELOW:
On Fri, 18 Jun 2021 at 19:30, Tim Weller <timweller1@gmail.com> wrote:
Reasons for my saying, below, that the Metro trams have made public transport worse:
- Metro One, which opened in 1999, meant that the railway to Shrewsbury only has one route now, from Grand Central Shopping Centre because the mainline was converted to a tramline. Hence, three or four Kms of double-track railway line to Shrewsbury was built on and Wolverhampton's second principal manline station was turned into a conference and events centre.
- The continuous rise in passenger numbers on the railways was unstoppable from the mid 90s up to Covid, in 2020. 25 years of rising numbers, at a time when the railway industry was continuing to destroy its infrastructure by turning its railways into roads, buildings and tram lines.
- The 2021 opening of the Metro extension to Edgbaston Village tram stop has led to a slower and worse public transport journey for those passengers wanting to leave their cars at home and use it. All, except those who are in walking distance of where the tram terminates, have to now decide whether to wait up to 15 mins for a tram into the city centre. Or, to have a much slower and longer journey, on the diversion, by staying on the bus into Colmore Row.
- Eleven different bus routes that used the Five Ways underpass, must now join the traffic jam and traffic lights, in order to go round the roundabout. Previously, every bus along Hagley Road used the underpass into the city centre.
- Exactly 40 years of Metro tram expansion has led to about 100 Kms of Black Country and Brum railway lines being destroyed as congestion and pollution has steadily worsened.
- The number of Black Country railway lines destroyed by our politicians, the railway industry and transport experts is now in double figures. Two make up the 22 Kms Black Country Cycle-Walk Mudway!
- And, then they go and build climate worsening HS2 after all that lunacy and destruction!
- And, top priority is given to HS2's little sister, Metro with a £15 billion expansion programme of eight lines and 150 miles of underground and overground "bus on rails" trams.
- The 120 Kms Black Country Railway between Derby and Devon via Dudley remains ready built but unused, broken and wasted over 56 Kms - one of only two north-south lines between Brum city centre and the Welsh coast!
MANY THANKS, AGAIN!
Tim
On Thu, 17 Jun 2021 at 16:43, Mark Cardwell <mark.cardwell@trinitymirror.
Hi Tim,Here's the piece - https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/west- midlands-combined-authority- turns-20839686 Thanks very much for your help on it and sorry I couldn't go into your points in further detail.All the best,Mark--Mark CardwellLocal Democracy Reporter covering Birmingham City Council and West Midlands Combined AuthorityBirmingham Live/BBCTel: 07930 752 886Twitter: @mlrcardwell
No comments:
Post a Comment