It's official. It's magic. If it sounds too good to be true ...

HS1 was £54 m/Km when it opened in 2007.

HS2 is, so far, £191 m/Km over its full 555 Kms, at £106 billion. 

Quite some difference!  Nearly 4 times more expensive per Km to construct today than HS1, when it opened 14 years ago.

This, below, is from the official HS2 website and my correction/rebuttal is in glorious bold blue!  My research shows that HMG/HS2 and its promoters are exaggerating so seriously with their misleading spin that they are lying.  READ ON as to why I say that and tell me what you think, please.  Am I wrong/mistaken?   Tim

How HS2 creates more rail capacity

As a brand new railway line, HS2 is the best option for taking the pressure off the existing network. It takes the pressure off the existing intercity lines by flying past all the stations travellers on the intercity trains want to stop at.  It adds extra capacity where it is needed most. To benefit London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds, ONLY.  Building HS2 frees up a massive amount of space on the existing railway by placing long distance services on their own pair of tracks. But you still have to have the same level of service for those same long distance services.  Nothing is gained!  Once HS2 is operating, services can run much closer together, meaning there can be more rush hour trains, helping to relieve overcrowding.  Only if the existing intercity trains are slowed.  And that gives the intercity stations a worst service.

Once the full network is operational we expect HS2 trains to carry over 300,000 passengers a day. HS1 to Europe has 6,000 passengers a day.  HS2 is future proofed, by making sure the network can grow with increased demand.  High Scandal 2 is a scam, a deception and nicely accelerates the runaway greenhouse effect for our ultimate downfall.

ONE HORRIBLE HISTORY OF TRULY, TERRIBLE, TRAGIC TRANSPORT:

17 November 2021

Dear Carol - and copied to my constituency office for them to start putting right my criticism, here.

I was the man in your breakout group yesterday evening who used his self-powered bike for commuting and for social work visits for the last, nearly 20 years of his career in Brum.  The car was occasionally used when it was icy or snowy in the mornings.

Five workers (includes the MP) in my constituency office have never shown any interest in any of this scandal, below!  All have looked the other way.  I would like Unison and the SWP to do very much better, please.

 Regional Transport in TfWM's much loved bite-sized chunks!

This is a much shortened version of my 'ONE HORRIBLE HISTORY OF TRULY, TERRIBLE, TRAGIC TRANSPORT', written last decade:

BUSES

Basic and should be the first choice if you cannot walk, cycle or, must rely on mobility transport.

Every bus stop must have step-free access for mobility transport from pavement to bus.  Done for trams.  Must now be done for buses.  NO EXCUSE.

Five Ways underpass and Broad St are now blocked, from 2022, to most if not all buses.  The buses remain pushed out into narrow, crowded back streets crammed with parked cars.  So no incentive for them to switch to buses.

FFPT = Fare-Free Public Transport.  The carrot to bribe active motorists to leave their infernal cars at home.  AIM: to empty the roads for real essential car users who cannot possibly walk or cycle.  Wealthy people like me have had it, unjustly, for 13 years.  But no money to give it to those who really need it - the workers.

FFPT is the carrot for the stick that is CAZ that must remain.

Use regional FFPT for all to end the discrimination against the young and middle-aged who don't get it.

HS2 = High Scandal 2 for the most expensive to construct high-speed line in the world, say high-speed train experts.

THEIR AIM: To give better railway connections - this is off the government website - to 25 stations and 30 m Brits.  Yet, it goes so fast (224 mph) it only stops at 3 stations and 2 airports plus the station you jet off from.  So how do they work out that HS2 gets you to 25 stations for nearly half the population?  A LIE.

TRAMS = Metro.  Metro One turned a mainline railway between Brum and Shrewsbury into a tramway, in 1999 between Snow Hill and Wolverhampton.

Metro Two destroys the UK's very last principal mainline railway over only 10 Kms between Derby and Devon via Dudley.

Metro Three was to go on the Grand Central, Kings Heath, Bristol mainline.  Now stopped.

For 40 years the emphasis has been on rebuilding the tram network on the railway network.  One-eyed, all your eggs in one basket, lopsided, transport provision.  Always CARS, a few trams, NEVER TRAINS; so about 100 Kms of railway lines were lost but 106 Kms remain wasted or used only for freight.

TRAINS = One principal, mainline station remains but can never be used again - in Wolverhampton city centre.  This is because of trams and roads going on the Snow Hill to Low Level mainline.

In the 1970s, Snow Hill station with 8 platforms was demolished and rebuilt with 4 platforms.

The trams, running from 1999 meant still, to this day, only 3 platforms are in use.

100 Kms of Black Country and Brum railway lines used to run homes, offices, shops and road vehicles down them - truly bizarre.  Using them for their intended purpose - TRAINS - is still unheard of!

Still no stations for Kings Heath, Moseley and Balsall Heath because Metro trams get priority.

CEMENT

Makes concrete but making cement is very high in greenhouse gas emissions.

Concrete is essential for replacing buses and trains with tramways.  What is the point, then?

Concrete is intensively used in HS2 construction.

Steel manufacture, for the rails, is also very high in greenhouse gas emissions.

EVERY £1 spent (on almost everything) = greenhouse gas emissions = climate breakdown = runaway greenhouse effect = earth becoming like uninhabitable venus = THE END

CYCLING

Mobility scooters must have top priority on dedicated cycle-walkways. More active travellers on bikes must give way to them and to walkers.

It is essential they turn the nation's most unedifying but major 22 Kms Black Country Cycle-walk Mudway, between Dudley, Wombourne and Wolverhampton, into a facility that can be used throughout its length for business, commuter and leisure use.  ESPECIALLY FOR THOSE WHO CANNOT DO ACTIVE TRAVEL and rely on an all-weather, smooth surface that is free draining - for their transport.

E-SCOOTERS

Mobility scooters must have top priority.

Essential to get around on if you can't do active travel under your own steam - fossil fuel free.

WALKING

Walk if you can, to allow those who cannot walk to use their cars and other mobility vehicles.

TOWPATHS

Brum's are now fine.  The rest of them now need doing in the other 6 council areas to enable mobility scooters and buggies to use them.  With walkers and cyclists giving way to them.

COST

Scrap the £15 billion of greenhouse gases to 2040 to convert some buses and trains into underground and overground trams.

Scrap High Scam 2 construction beyond, north, of Brum.

Spend on low greenhouse gas emitting activities - as above.

Spend for a healthier, more sustainable and very minimum finite fossil fuel use future.

Best wishes

'WARMING TO CYCLING' in our ever hotter greenhouse!

Dear Keir - my response in blue to yours in black.

This sounds like a really great opportunity, and it’s good to hear that Dudley Council are supportive.

This is such an important and major 22 Kms Black Country Cycle-Walk Mudway that THREE councils are responsible for the state of the route.  Dudley's section is worse but all three councils and the West Midlands Combined Authority need to work together to raise their standards and, to get their priorities sorted.  This scandal has gone on for quite long enough.

However, unfortunately as an organisation we’re not generally in a position to lobby combined authority leaders on what specific schemes they should invest in – we think this is better left to local campaigners who are connected to the area, and have the expertise to know what investments would be most worthwhile.

There is no interest and no support from local campaigners, apart from David Cox who has told me, earlier this year that he will join me in cycling the route.  David told me that the first step is to get an NCR number for the 22 Kms.  Not even that has been done by the cycling/walking organisations or by the authorities!  Ridhi Kalaria, at Sustrans, knows all about the 22 Kms mudway since she interviewed me when I stood as a declared candidate in the election of the W Mids Combined Authority, earlier this year.  But there is no action from her, either!

David and Ridhi are meant to be promoting cycling in the UK to help us all get out of the deadly hot greenhouse we are turning planet earth into.  BUT, EVEN A SIMPLE ACT OF NEGLIGENCE, LASTING DECADES, CANNOT BE PUT RIGHT with an all-weather, wide surface on this business, commuter and leisure route alternative to the infernal car!

Adam Tranter is the Cycling Czsar for Coventry.  But no reply, interest or support from him, either!  He does have the ear of the WMCA but total silence, apathy, nothing.  Absolutely no-one is at all bothered!  So we all sink in the mud and mire of our own making as the planet goes to pot.  And only Greta Thunberg has the guts to say anything.  And Insulate Britain and XR, to act.

While the scheme you mention sounds great, Cycling UK couldn’t lobby for investment in this without also identifying all the alternative schemes potentially needing funding, and assessing these against each other, and unfortunately we just don’t have the resources to do that on a local level across the UK.

This 22 Kms existing route is of national importance.  It must have your national organisation vigorously promoting it to insist that the WMCA and the three councils finally ACT.

Stourbridge Cycling Club has not replied to even a paper copy to their clubhouse address, appealing for their interest and help for a shockingly poor facility they do know all about.  Yet, once again, nothing!  Our only national organisation, CYCLING UK, really should be taking an interest in this national disgrace that is the 22 Kms Mudway through three councils and one Combined Authority area in the heart of Britain.

I would suggest the best thing to do, if you haven’t already, is to try to get in touch with David Cox from Bike West Midlands (david.cox.1@cyclinguk.goassemble.com) or alternatively Push Bikes via their contact form to try and get their support, so that the push for this investment can come from locally, as opposed to from a national organisation with limited on-the-ground understanding of the area and routes in question.

Sorry that I can’t be of more assistance.  But you CAN make all the difference, Keir - along with Duncan Dollimore who rang me a couple of years ago about our major, nationally important mudway.  Promote it and CYCLING UK get all the credit, glory and praise for succeeding.

Best wishes

Tim      (Weller)

Borders Railway v Metro tramways

There are big differences between the Borders Railway and ours:

On the Borders Railway structures: “42 newly constructed and 95 in need of refurbishment”.

Nothing like this is required for the Black Country Main Line. All of these new structures were done for rural, depopulated southern Scotland. This was a huge amount of work but much less work is needed for OUR railway in our urban, densely populated Black Country.

For them, the line was not fully safeguarded, I have been told. Buildings had to be demolished. Ours is safeguarded and no buildings need to be demolished.

£133 m/K for the Eastside Metro extension in 2021; £7 m/K for Borders Railway in 2015. Scotland's train tracks will last but our tram tracks get replaced after 5 years. A scandal, a scam, a disgrace. Yet, no-one bats an eyelid!

Every £1 spent = more greenhouse gases = escalating climate catastrophe = ecocide. And that is not funny.

"VLR is much cheaper."

"VLR is much cheaper."

Yes, indeed.  Very much cheaper but we are now having the break up of public transport into:

• Very Heavy Rail (VHR), High Speed train on its dedicated tracks to connect only four cities and two airports - for your 1st class VIP passenger;
• regular Heavy Rail (HR) train for your 2nd class riff-raff passenger (me) on intercity, regional and commuter trains;
• Light Rail (LR) Metro tram;
• Very Light Rail (VLR) tram test track (on the Derby, Dudley, Devon mainline);
• Ultra-Light Rail (ULR) tram (Stourbridge Shuttle.  Proposed extension to connect with VLR at Brierley Hill on the Derby, Dudley, Devon railway.).
• 1st class Sprint buses.
• 2nd class Platinum buses.
• Hydrogen fossil fuel buses (so what's the point?  Only cleaner air, of course.  But, why not stick to electric buses from more and more renewables as they roll out?)

I feel this is all unnecessary expenditure of the Earth's scarce resources and of yet more totally unnecessary deadly greenhouse gas emissions.

Everything with rail in the name means more steel, more cement, more finite minerals/resources exhausted, more deadly greenhouse gases to change the chemical composition of the atmosphere.  This is all good for economic growth but not good for life support systems or for the bleak prospects in store for us humans!

Excitement for all things new and hydrogen and HS2!

Yesterday's David Middleton Sustainability Conference was excellent for its well-chaired meeting, fine speakers and discussion groups.

However, it was notable for green organisations and groups wanting anything electric, anything hydrogen and for one person I spoke to who was strongly in favour of HS2.

Electricity generation comes very largely from finite fossil fuels, as does hydrogen.  Nuclear power is another favourite for some.  Yet, that may also emit more greenhouse gas emissions in its construction than what it saves when it eventually is up and running and giving electricity.  Is that true?

Which renewable gives the least greenhouse gas emissions in its construction?

METRO BLUNDERS GALORE!

THIS IS WANT THE TOP OFFICERS HAVE TOLD ME:

You've got to have Metro through Dudley first, as the catalyst for reopening the Worcester to Burton on Trent railway.

The construction for Metro has passive provision for commuter and regional trains to be added later.  Yet, only some railway bridges are being strengthened to carry heavy railway trains at a later date!

THEIR INCOMPETENCE:

Building the Derby to Devon via  Dudley railway line and then forgetting to finish it between Stourbridge and Burton on Trent with passenger and freight trains - and the stations, too!

Dudley/Sandwell to Brum buses get pushed out of Five Ways underpass and Broad Street to have a longer and slower diversion on narrow roads with parked cars.  The "bus on rails" trams get the underpass and Broad Street, instead!

No money to correct the discrimination against "hard-working families" who don't get the regional Fare-Free Public Transport (FFPT) that old crocks like me have had for 13 years!

But, more money than sense for converting buses and trains to Metro "bus on rails" trams.  At 10 x per Km more expensive to construct, than rebuilding the 50 Kms Borders Railway through the hills of southern Scotland.

Engaging with HS2 expert, Shannon (DfT)

Dear Shannon

This is a lie: "By freeing up space on existing lines, for new local train services, passengers and freight, HS2 helps ease congestion and over-crowding."

You cannot free up space on existing lines when you will still need to serve all the many intercity stations that HS2 does not stop at!  The present intercity service will have to be maintained.

"HS2 services will also release capacity on existing lines"

This is a lie.  It is another way of saying that there will be more room for passenger and freight trains on the existing intercity line.  Yet, HS2 is a dedicated line that stops at only 4 terminus stations and two airports.  It shoots past all the intercity stations that will still want intercity trains stopping!

"By freeing up capacity on our current railways"

This is a lie.  It certainly does NOT free up capacity when it ONLY gives preferential treatment for those travelling between the four Big Cities and two of their airports.  ONLY they get less overcrowding and a more opulent, luxurious style of train travel.  Levelling up for the top bods, the public school boys and girls who run the country for their class.

Tim Weller

Briefing Room: 'The UK's Energy Crisis'

From listening to this week's 'Briefing Room' on 'The UK's Energy Crisis', we've never had a sovereign wealth fund, as Norway had from the outset and the very minimal gas storage capability of 1 to 2%.  On the mainland of Europe it was, and remains, at 20 to 30%.

The energy policy of all UK governments has been to live it up today and to hell with tomorrow. Never to prepare for the worse. Unless, it's the feint possibility of Russia bombing us when we do, THEN raise our WMD stockpile by 40% and replace Trident! We prepare for war but never prepare for inevitable gas and oil shortages. I remember Porritt talking on the radio about resource depletion and climate change in the 1980s. Like all prophets, he was ignored!

to Nick Verduyn

Dear Nick - and Liz (who may have commented on WhatsApp but then deleted it)

As I see it, the scandal is that every government has a policy of turning gas into electricity even when North Sea gas is severely depleting and LNG is having to be shipped in from overseas.  We have interconnectors to the European mainland, that means we are becoming more dependant on other nations for gas.

There is less gas around so prices are rising to bring inflation and suffering for the poor, especially in this coming winter.  There is no cheap gas, anywhere, it seems.  Russia dominates the gas market and decides who to sell to.  At the same time, there is no policy to reduce demand for electricity or gas.  Little insulation of the housing stock and even new homes are being built to insufficient insulation standards, too.  This will mean retrofitting today's new properties in coming years!

EVs are dependant on the fossil fuels that are becoming in short supply and which, in burning, screw up the planet's climates.  We are well and truly snookered! 

Our only hope is renewables and in our own salvation.  The government is clueless and ineffective.

Let me try this out on you!

MY CLUES FOR A CLUELESS, FLOUNDERING, WAYWARD GOVERNMENT!

1. Each person has patriotic (and selfish!) duty to minimise their use of gas and oil.
2. Lag ourselves and our buildings.
3. 18 or 19 C max for the room you sit in.
4. Don't heat other rooms.
5. Every roof in the land plastered with PV on every E, W, S roof.
6. Every home, office, factory as a mini power station, like my home is.
7. Battery storage from when the sun shines.
8. Food farms NOT solar farms and land for timber growing to minimise the use of climate disaster cement.
9. Lockdown for climate by an immediate 50% cut in leisure car mileage from what you did in 2019.  As I'm doing.
10. Fuel rationing, as part of climate lockdown, as we almost did in the last energy crisis of 73/74.
11. Immediately abandon ruinous, grossly irresponsible and luxury High Scandal 2 that is only of help for those travelling between four cities and two airports.
12. Abandon the other transport mode construction that simply complicates life for public transport users having to switch between what is becoming a host of different modes and classes of travel, dependant on your income.
13. Keep it simple with bus and train, only.
14. Continue with offshore and onshore wind farms, such is the crisis.
15. STOP the cycle of demolition, building, demolition, rebuilding.
16. STOP the destruction of urban railway lines.
17. START the upgrading of cycle-walk mudways and puddle-strewn towpaths for self-powered use by responsible shared users.
18. Very strict enforcement over cutting air pollution from wood-burning stoves.
19. Preserve remaining gas reserves for when the wind won't blow and the sun won't shine.
20. Induction electric cooking or, cooking on wood-burning stoves.
21. STOP preparing for war with massive rises in military expenditure.
22. END the military strutting on the world stage, especially in the South China Sea.  How would we like it in the N Atlantic?
23. Put the military workers preparing for war into insulating every building and making every building PV dependant.  PV and wood is all we've got!
24. Voluntary and compulsory climate lockdown before it's forced upon us, anyway.
25. Compulsory water meters installed.  Water is a scarce resource, too in a fast-warming world!

FINISH FOR GOOD, the live for today in heavenly delusion and hell for tomorrow economics.

NO MONEY FOR FFPT BUT A BOTTOMLESS PIT FOR HS2's LITTLE SISTER

IRRATIONAL, ILLOGICAL; A VERY PECULIAR PRACTICE!

"Free buses in West Midlands would cost 'massive amount of money'" is the headline.

Replacing and duplicating buses and trains with Metro "bus on rails" trams costs many more times the "massive amounts of money", in fact.  Yet, strangely, this is what you are doing and it is never a problem.  Money is never an obstacle to clogging up our roads with railway tracks, large tram stops and long, train-like "bus on rails" trams that each cost £4 m each compared with an electric bus directly on roads, minus the railway lines, costing £350,000.

It is truly weird and wonderful priorities and thinking.  Totally illogical and unreasonable thinking.  Actually irrational and not very intelligent.

In addition, it is urgent that we use more stick to force, "Oh!  You mustn't upset the precious motorists", to leave their cars at home and use even more carrot than stick to bribe them, to actually pay them even, to use public transport.  That makes it even more essential, as part of the package of measures, to entice them to use regional FFPT.

It is urgent, we reward them with FFPT when we are using the stick of congestion charging to hit the poor, beleaguered, impoverished, long-suffering, now even fuel-starved, motorist.

Resource depletion and eventual climate catastrophe also compel sensible action, at long last.  Something else in rather scarce supply!

SEE:-  https://freepublictransport.info/

THEIR MISLEADING GLOSS IS HERE!

THEIR MISLEADING GLOSS is here:  https://www.hs2.org.uk/where/      The video promises "1000s of extra seats for commuter services at over 100 stations on the UK's existing network and, free up space for more freight by rail".

MY REALITY is here:  They can't even put freight on to finish the railway they built between Worcester and Derby through the Black Country, let alone the rather necessary commuter and regional trains alongside traffic-choked main roads and motorways!

They replace one perfectly fast enough high-speed line with an even faster, dedicated high-speed line that does not stop at any of the stations the first high-speed line stops at!!  We have an overcrowded railway network because the trainspotters have never spotted that they themselves have been destroying railway lines that Beeching very properly closed but, never intended to be obliterated as our trainspotters have done.  Why don't they stop destroying railway lines, first?

MORE HERE:

Media reports indicate that the E arm to Leeds is uncertain and may be cancelled.

The monetary cost, for both arms, is over £100 billion of deadly greenhouse gases from unfortunately finite fossil fuels, we must conserve URGENTLY.

External costs are ecocidal and are never taken into account (probably for that uncomfortable reason).

YET, on dedicated tracks, it is isolated from the rest of the railway network and because it goes so fast it can only stop at very few stations - outside of London at two stations (Crewe, Toton), two airports (Brum, Manchester) and three terminus stations (Brum, Manchester, Leeds).

A useless, vanity project of selfish prestige and self-aggrandisement.

HS2 scam, scandal, disgrace

HS2 only increases capacity and reduces pre-pandemic overcrowding for those deserting the plane and travelling to one of 4 city high-speed stations or 2 airports, only. A quite scandalous misuse of precious resources and the conquering of nature, of which we are part, for only 5 possible destinations, from one of the six!

Replying to B Johnson's boasting bile on Twitter

 BE A PROPER PATRIOT, MAN AND SAY AMEN TO THIS https://twitter.com/BorisJo.../status/1438910777117880324...

Tuesday, 21 September 2021

Replying to B Johnson's boasting bile on Twitter

The UK is simply the best, the greatest, superior to all others, is unrivalled in every field. We stand head and shoulders above all others. We just cannot help our excellence and brilliance in every field of endeavour throughout the world. Wondrous Boris Johnson & his Cabinet.

Disintegrated Transport and Foolish Transport

Dear Ian

You top people never consulted with the public.  You denied yourselves a vote in every one of the seven council chambers before

• destroying urban railway lines;
• converting some closed railway lines to tramways, as light rail;
• running homes, shops, offices down them instead of, so 19th century, railway trains;
• in Dudley, turning 2 Kms into a Very Light Rail test track on the UK's last but still existing principal, mainline railway;
• turning two more nibble sized sections on Derby, Dudley, Devon principal mainline into a light rail tramway;
• permanently closed a major vehicle and bus underpass for a tramway at Brum Five Ways;
• permanently closed Broad Street to buses and bikes - for trams, only;
• turned roads and railways into HR, LR, VLR and now, possibly, ULR (ultra-light rail) on part of the 120 Kms Black Country Railway!

This is Disintegrated Transport and Foolish Transport! 

On Sun, 19 Sept 2021 at 10:22, Ian Shires <shiresi2012@gmail.com> wrote:

There is nothing wrong with the concept of an integrated public transport system. The issue is how it's promoted and consulted upon and that is a product of the current Local Government system which has evolved out of the 2000 Act and left us with a top down process that.lacks true devolution and transparency leading to an ill informed general public.​  Very ill-informed councillors and MPs, in fact who don't seem to care. (Tim Weller).​

On Sat, 18 Sept 2021 at 09:04, Tim Weller <timweller1@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks, David.  You are right!  This is is absurd, scandalous and immoral spending for "bus on rails" trams, First Class Sprint buses, Second Class Platinum buses all on Hagley Road, with cars, trucks, vans and lorries!  The authorities are escalating us to catastrophe with greenhouse gases led ecocide.

Never any consultation or the slightest whisper of even giving a nod towards following the correct democratic procedure for councillors to discuss, debate and vote on all this wasteful, stupid expenditure of taxpayers' money.

Derby to Devon via Dudley principal mainline railway continues to get destroyed with two further nibble sized sections being converted to "bus on rails" tramway!  Incompetent idiocy is no exaggeration.

Tim Weller

On Fri, 17 Sept 2021 at 21:25, David G wrote:

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/four-new-tram-routes-birmingham-21592574

Yet they are already planning a Sprint bus down hagley Road? Will they have both?

No consultation about any of these plans that I am aware of? Undemocratic!!

David

LEFT UNITY MUST GET NOTICED

 Dear friends and comrades

Thank you for this string of emails that I have read.  I am so sorry to hear about Bob W-F's experiences at NC on Sunday and that he was/is so upset.  I also have found, as Bob W wrote, "I find our meetings interesting, educational and uplifting. Nobody is curtailed."  I completely agree.  Please may that continue with ourselves!

I am sorry to read that Mike got not a single reply from anyone to our resolution of August re the climate emergency and our positive, helpful, constructive ways forward to help deal with the crisis.  THANK YOU, MIKE for sending out the resolution.

My own view is that we should still persist, with resolutions like the one we discussed on Saturday.  Then vote on it and ask Mike to send it out to all the organisations, people and reporters he covered last month.  I want Left Unity to get mentioned in the  media and to be invited to comment.  Very occasionally, like this morning, I get phoned by a reporter to comment after an email I sent to him last Friday.  I always speak and write solely in my own name.  I would love one of you others to be named as speaking or writing, officially on behalf of our party.  Left Unity must get more media attention from senior members of the party like the rest of you are.

Would the rest of you authorise Mike to send out something on our behalf from Saturday's meeting and agreement that was unanimous, over trans rights?

If we persist every month, the media might, eventually, sit up and take notice of us - with a bit of luck!  They'll see and acknowledge we are active, responsible, sensible and well able to make a mark in the West Midlands; in building a more sustainable, eco-socialist and inclusive society where the marginalised, the left out, the forgotten of our society are put front, back and centre.

Tim

Roger Harrabin is right

JOHNSON FLYING TO UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY MEETING

Harrabin report on 19 September 2021 on Radio 4, 2200 hrs 'News'

"The stakes in New York are almost indescribably high because nations are falling way behind on emission cuts.  Scientists say to avoid the worst impacts of global heating, annual carbon emissions must be almost halved by 2030.  The latest UN analysis shows current international policies are actually projected to rise over that period leading to a temperature increase of around 3 C above pre-industrial times.  To put that in context, with a temperature rise of just one degree C at present the world has suffered deadly heat, wildfires and floods.

"Mr Johnson will attempt to persuade the current number one polluter, China to quicken its timetable for reducing emissions, even though its the rich nations with their historic emissions that bear most responsibility for climate change, so far.  Mr Johnson must also form policies to ensure carbon cuts in the UK.  Britain is the leader on target setting on climate change but a recent report showed it produced fewer than a quarter of the policies needed to deliver on its own goals.  Meanwhile, Mr Johnson is planning policies that will increase emissions, such as HS2 and the £27 billion programme of new roads and, cuts in taxes on aviation."

Left Unity resolution to WMCA to combat climate crisis

 

Here is the submission from Birmingham and West Midlands Left Unity to the WMCA on what it should be doing to combat climate change. "As internationalists and socialists who are concerned for the future of humanity and, in fact, all of nature, we note: 1) Abnormally and record high temperatures in western N America, with wildfires out of control, and more recently as seen in Turkey, Greece, Italy and Spain. 2) Disturbed weather patterns and extreme weather events since Wednesday have killed over a hundred in western Europe, with a similar number missing. 3) Extreme weather and further eco damage will continue to have a detrimental impact upon specific groups experiencing health and other socially related issues. 4) Since 1988, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has consistently warned of such events from the burning of finite fossil fuels that is changing dangerously, the chemical composition of the atmosphere that allows life on earth. 5) Therefore, we appeal to the WMCA to act as though they are taking the climate emergency seriously by now moving to a rapid reduction of fossil fuel use that includes minimising fossil fuel travel and spending and, in every other way minimising our impact on ailing life support systems.  This should be done by: a) Replacing waste incineration with organic digestion. b) Introducing Fare Free Public Transport. c) Introducing rapid and massive home and building insulation. d) Scrapping new road building schemes.  e) Scrapping HS2.  f) Ending aviation expansion. g) Fostering alternative and diverse modes of travel, including walking, cycling, and scootering, rather than having an over-reliance on carbon-thirsty private transport. h) Supporting the expansion of electric charging points to aid reduction of fossil fuel use. i) Supporting divestment from fossil fuels by the WMCA. j) Public transport needs to be frequent, ubiquitous, and accessible, as well as free at the point of use. 6) We approve of the 60 mph speed limit ("for air quality") on the M5 in Oldbury and West Bromwich and we wish this to be extended to cover all of the motorway and road network in our region that is currently 70 mph."

On the way to FFPT

Residents in the West Midlands who have just gained a new job could benefit from free bus, tram and rail travel to work.

Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) has teamed up with local transport operators to offer two four-week tickets free, then a third four-week ticket at a 50 per cent discount from the standard price on selected bus, tram and network travel passes through the Workwise scheme.

The scheme is aimed at giving newly employed people a helping hand into work and you can read more here.

DESPICABLE, IMMORAL METRO EXTENSIONS

Each "bus on rails" tram is £4 m, compared with an electric bus straight on the roads (without the railway tracks) being £350,000 each. Construction was £75 m/Km for Westside extension; £133 m/Km for Eastside extension. Compare that with Borders Railway in southern Scotland rebuilt and opened 6 yrs ago this month for £7 m/Km over 50 Kms. WMCA/TfWM are into selfish, greedy, self aggrandisement while the poor suffer and even go hungry. Despicable, immoral behaviour by our politicians and officers. PLEASE PROTEST to Ian.Ward@birmingham.gov.uk; MayorsOffice@wmca.org.uk; andy.street@wmca.org.uk

Multi-modal transport is a mix up mish mash!

Dear friends - and our Transport representative, Trevor Eames    PLEASE RESPOND with your own thoughts/ideas/opinions!

I would love us all to campaign for a more sustainable, safer and fairer world for our children and grandchildren.

SUMMARY

Public transport continues to be divided up, broken up, into Heavy Rail trains, Light Rail trams, Very Light Rail trams and Ultra-Light Rail Stourbridge Shuttle trams.  In addition, 2nd Class buses and First Class Sprint buses.  It all means more confusion, waiting around and, as a result, a slower and complicated journey for those thinking of others and leaving the car at home.

MORE DETAIL

HS2 will, of course, reduce overcrowding for those travelling between the Big Four cities (London, Brum, Manchester, Leeds). However, the intercity stations, between the Big Four terminus city stations, that HS2 is too fast to stop at, must continue.  That means the intercity trains will continue to have priority on the intercity lines.  So nothing is gained.  If there is not enough seating on the intercity trains, put more carriages on!  And, in any case, the HS2 trains are planned to join the intercity lines up to Glasgow and Edinburgh, north of Manchester and Leeds.

First Class for the Big Four.  Second Class for all the other intercity stations missed out but, they must still have a second class service.

BUSES PUSHED OUT onto narrow roads with parked cars and diversions  

I have now checked out Broad Street.  It really is utterly impossible for buses to use that road ever again. Pavements are widened and, at tram stops, the road is narrowed further.  There are two bus shelters opposite Centenary Square but no others until you get to the 'Hagley Rd/Francis Rd bus stop on our, W side of Five Ways.  The intention is to take the tram onto Bearwood, along Hagley Road.  However, this simply means multi-modal mix up with more changes and delays.  And, at the most colossal expense in cost and in weight of greenhouse gases at a time of climate and ecological emergencies that WMCA has declared.  The money should be going for electric buses and Fare Free Public Transport for the young and middle aged, to end that discrimination against them.

Eleven bus routes travel down Hagley Road and they will all get tied up and delayed by the trams.  Far better to have electric buses directly on roads without the railway tracks needed for the "bus on rails" trams on roads and railways!

Since I moved to Halesowen in 1976, the authorities have been turning railways into roads, homes and trading estates.  Since, 1981, with the introduction of Midland Metro, they have partly rebuilt the tram network they destroyed in the 1950s with trams on two mainline railways, instead of commuter and regional TRAINS. First, railways into roads and then roads into railways, as tramways!!

The railway trains are a poor relation to the swish, smart, showpiece, super extravagant trams that keep getting involved in accidents with cars!  And tracks that need replacing after only five years, at a cost of £5 million of deadly greenhouse gases!

Tim

MORE CLASS RIDDEN SOCIETY: The unpalatable truth about HS2 - intercity stations lose out!

HS2 goes so fast it flies through the air, like a plane and gives the wealthy sods the choice of either plane or train.  BOYCOTT IT!  It will reduce overcrowding for those travelling between the Big Four cities but it means:-

First Class for the Big Four.  Second Class for all other intercity stations.

This is absurd, nonsensical from top public schoolboys!

 I know I am in a very small minority in pointing this out.  However, do I have a point?

All you politicians are fully in support of destroying the UK's very last and, one of only two, north-south mainline railways between Brum city centre and the Welsh coast.  This is the principal, Derby to Devon via Dudley and Worcester Railway.  This destruction on 16 Kms is costing over half a billion pounds (for light rail, very light rail and, ultra-light rail on this major, heavy rail route!).

At the same time, you are all united in wanting HS2 to give a very small minority of people the choice of either train or plane when travelling between the Big Four, English cities and, two of their airports.  Some of the trains may stop at Crewe and Toton but nowhere else because it goes so fast!!  This is costing us all over £100 billion in both cost and, in fast-rising, deadly greenhouse gases to bring horror and catastrophe, we are told.

Please give me your rebuttal, your reasons for why I am wrong and you are right.

Levelling up or socialism or basic Gospel teaching!

 Dear Peter and Geo

Thank you for organising the excellent and helpful Zoom meeting yesterday.  It has prompted these thoughts.  Could this be forwarded to the others who attended, please so I get their comments?

I would like to emphasise the importance of insulation and minimising the spaces that need heating in the first place, viz:

1. Insulating or lagging ourselves with layers of clothing when we sit in a smaller rather than larger room.
2. That room at a maximum of 20 C with other parts of the house not even heated at all, ideally.
3. We know heat rises.  Therefore, consider sleeping on the ground floor and living on the first floor.
4. Press for small to medium-sized homes for new housing estates with PV on every W, E, S facing slope for the building beneath..
5. Encourage small to medium-sized families.
6. Press for laws where the wealth of the nation is more evenly distributed, to discourage the rich from walking off with more than their fair share of resources and most responsibility for the climate/ecological emergency.  Called levelling up or socialism or basic Gospel teaching!
7. Accept that even medium income households are taking more than their fair share of resources and that we all need to tread more lightly on the planet by making do with less, instead of ever more stuff.
8. My own home, a 3-storey townhouse, is ideal where my wife and I live on the first floor with one L-shaped dining/living room that means minimum heating is required.  Our total energy bills are not much more than £1 a day.
9. It is mid-terrace, with a small area of land at the front and back.  PV means it is a mini power station, with about 75% exported to the Grid.  Giving instead of taking!
10. This kind of more simple living is essential if we are to postpone or, ideally reverse the sixth mass extinction episode that we humans are causing to ourselves.

I would like to ask that these Zoom meetings are excellent and should continue.  However, breakout rooms do mean that people will talk about their own ideas, that one person can then feedback for the final few minutes.  One hour is too short, I think but an extra 30 minutes for breakout and final conclusions and summary is ideal.

Best wishes

Tim

The LIE that it increases capacity.

Chris Packham could not have spoken a truer word. It makes all our problems worse, intensifies the climate emergency and shouts the lie that it will reduce overcrowding, increasing capacity when it rockets past every intercity station, duplicating plane travel. That is the lie.

https://www.facebook.com/ChrisGPackham/videos/4075923782529709/

It cannot help in lessening the destruction of nature when it is such a heavy-footed and greenhouse gases intensive way of making all our problems worse and speeding us to THE END. HIGH SPEED TO FOUR TERMINUSES.  Humans are on track to terminate themselves faster!!

THIS CAN'T BE RIGHT, CAN IT?

Dear Mike - and Opposition Leader, Sean

I know I am in a very small minority in pointing this out.  However, do I have a point?

All you politicians are fully in support of destroying the UK's very last and, one of only two, north-south mainline railways between Brum city centre and the Welsh coast.  This is the principal, Derby to Devon via Dudley and Worcester Railway.  This destruction on 16 Kms is costing over half a billion pounds (for light rail, very light rail and, ultra-light rail on this major, heavy rail route!).

At the same time, you are all united in wanting HS2 to give a very small minority of people the choice of either train or plane when travelling between the Big Four, English cities and, two of their airports.  Some of the trains may stop at Crewe and Toton but nowhere else because it goes so fast!!  This is costing us all over £100 billion in both cost and, in fast-rising, deadly greenhouse gases to bring horror and catastrophe, we are told.

Please give me your rebuttal, your reasons for why I am wrong and you are right.

Best wishes

Tim

IS THIS A JOKE? They can't be serious, can they?

MY JOKE OF THE DAY/WEEK/MONTH/YEAR/DECADE ... ('cos I'm not a great comedian, as you know)

Over half a billion pounds to destroy our principal, mainline railway for 1 million people that would completely finish off, forever Derby to Devon via Dudley. Instead, building High Scandal 2 to bypass every intercity station apart from two airports and 4 terminus stations. WHAT A JOKE!

(Some trains may stop at Crewe and Toton - where the hell is Toton?)

How the official lie is put

"Building HS2 frees up a massive amount of space on the existing railway by placing long distance services on their own pair of tracks. Once HS2 is operating, services can run much closer together, meaning there can be more rush hour trains, helping to relieve overcrowding.

"Once the full network is operational we expect HS2 trains to carry over 300,000 passengers a day."

from   https://www.hs2.org.uk/why/capacity/

What do you do about the many intercity stations, HS2 is too fast to stop at?

Have you thought of that?

THE ULTIMATE ABSURDITY!

Still destroying our principal, mainline railway for 1 million to use - no more left after this. Instead, building High Scandal 2 to bypass every intercity station apart from two airports and 4 terminus stations. WHAT A JOKE!

(Some trains may stop at Crewe and Toton)

High Scandal 2 takes off to miss all the important towns and cities!

I MUST BE WRONG, AREN'T I?

Is my research correct, here?

 

Am I right in thinking that High Scandal 2, outside of London, only stops at two airports and the three terminus stations - Brum, Manchester and Leeds? Or, will it stop near to East Midlands Airport, too, as E Mids Hub station? Does it stop at Crewe?

 

What is the point of spending over £100 billion of greenhouse gases to escalate climate catastrophe, in order to give plane flyers the choice of High Scandal 2 train or plane?

 

How can passengers be moved to the High Scandal 2 line when it goes so fast it cannot stop at the existing intercity station they might want to get off at?! You will still need the intercity trains, won't you? So what is the point of High Scandal 2?  

 

Meanwhile, the UK's last principal mainline, half used, 120 Kms Black Country Railway gets broken up as part of the Disintegrated Rail Plan into heavy rail, light rail, very light rail and, ultra-light rail on the section in the 1 million population of the Black Country! This means more changes, more delays as you wait around for the next connection and, more complications.

 

" The government's long-awaited Integrated Rail Plan may be published as part of chancellor Rishi Sunak's autumn Spending Review."  from   https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/integrated-rail-plan-could-be-published-with-autumn-spending-review-09-08-2021/    

 

Tim Weller 0791 380 4363

THE MOST EXPENSIVE LIE, EVER!

THE MOST EXPENSIVE LIE, EVER!

The railway industry has fully co-operated with the destruction of between one-third and one-half of the total railway lines that there were built in the UK.

Our politicians and transport experts were fully in support of the closure of Wolverhampton's second principal mainline railway station and for turning most of the double-track railway line into a slow, shuttle tramline, linked to another principal mainline railway station that was demolished and then rebuilt to half of its former size, with only four platforms left (Snow Hill).

For 50 years, one of only two principal, mainline railways between Brum and the Welsh coast has been left wasted and unused between Burton on Trent and Stourbridge, despite many tens of millions of pounds having been spent on tunnels and bridges for the mainline railway to cross every motorway, road and canal.

Since 1981, the politicians and transport experts have given their top priority to putting trams back on railway lines instead of commuter and regional passenger trains and freight.  And, with breaking up the once integrated bus network into a disintegrated bus and tram network for more changes, delays and a slower public transport journey.  A CASE IN POINT:- Five Ways underpass and Broad Street closed for every bus, forever!!

Their top priority now is to extend the tram network to the HS2 line (and, well-provided for Solihull) even though they are all fully aware that the trams are replacing buses and, that this work is extremely expensive at between ten and fifteen times the cost per Km of rebuilding the Borders Railway through only half of the Southern Uplands of Scotland in 2015 and that never reconnected with Carlisle from Edinburgh.

One new electric bus is £350,000 but one new tram is costing £4 million!

HS2 is costing at least £106 BILLION to allow passengers to travel between only four cities and two airports.  There may be two stops for some HS2 trains at Crewe and Toton.  YET, every intercity train must continue to run to maintain the existing service for the many towns and cities that HS2 is too fast to stop at.  What a waste!  What ecocide in escalating greenhouse gases to turn earth into venus!  (see Wikipedia for the runaway greenhouse effect on uninhabitable venus)

It is a LIE to say that HS2 is needed so that "capacity (is) freed up on the rail network"

Best wishes    Tim