Trains Back on the Tracks!: THE ABSURDITY OF WMCA TRANSPORT POLICY AND PRACTICE

---------- Forwarded message ---------

From: <steve.jasper@premetro.org>
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2021 at 10:47
Subject: Light News round up November 2021
To: <timweller1@gmail.com>

Hi Steve - my comments in blue. Thanks very much for writing. Much appreciated when I get so little interest or concern!!

Hi Tim,

Thank you for your email of the 13 November. I shall respond on behalf of this company only. PPM is a separate and unrelated entity.

I do not agree with your interpretation of the rail route which we have identified as a potential light rail corridor.

This very important railway route that is being turned into three different kinds of tram lines was, for 100 years, a successful mainline railway from Derby, through Dudley to Devon or, from Burton on Trent, through Brierley Hill to Bristol. It is called the 120 Kms Black Country Mainline Railway. The 120 Kms is the section between Worcester and Derby that is fully built, including every motorway crossing, would you believe!
This route has great local potential but bypasses the main Cities of the region and is therefore not part of the strategic passenger network.

It is part of the strategic passenger and freight network. See the letter from DfT of the 8 March 2018, below.

This currently applies to freight movements as well. Thus the route is not included in Network Rail's plans this side of 2040.

The forgotten mainline railway does bypass Birmingham but that city for decades has needed a relief or bypass railway because of its chronic train and road congestion. That relief railway, that you say "bypasses the main Cities" runs SW to NE from Worcester to Derby. It runs through three of the four towns of the Black Country with a population that is similar to Brum's. Yet, you dismiss the one million population of the Black Country as of no significance.

Network Rail and DfT both agree that it is a railway "of national strategic significance". SEE

"of national strategic significance".pdf

EXTRACT:

"I have sought clarification on the situation from Network Rail, who inform me

that this is a section of railway of national strategic significance. Investment in
the corridor would allow for continued freight growth given that the other SW-
NE route (via Bromsgrove) is already at full daytime capacity. From a

passenger perspective, safeguarding a heavy rail corridor across the Round
Oak-Bescot route is of value as this is the only corridor which could accept
freight traffic displaced by further passenger flows into central Birmingham. I
understand from Network Rail that recent discussion on the project has
therefore focused around how best to balance the interests of freight and
passenger rail traffic." 8 March 2018

Two or three years ago I had one email from Tim Martin of TfWM/WMCA that only some of the existing road and canal bridges are being replaced or strengthened for the coming of freight trains on the line "in the 2040s, at the earliest." (quote from Network Rail email repeating its intentions from the 1990s). How absurd is all that, Steve?

However, what we would achieve (as does the WM Metro) is protecting and using a valuable corridor for rail.

We are therefore future proofing for possible growth, green developments and regional economic betterment.

If patronage grows then so will the case for traditional heavy rail operations.

Once the trams are on this former, mothballed but principal mainline, you will never get the trams off to reinstate the freight, commuter, regional and inter-city service we had for 100 years. Once we are all used to the trams, you can't then take them off, can you?

For far too long there has been a belief that it is all or nothing. This has wasted valuable resources as infrastructure has rotted away.

Decision makers have been brow beaten into a do nothing position.

Far from being browbeaten into doing nothing, they have been active for 40 years in replacing the closed railway network with trams. But mainly in thinking that railway lines were meant to have homes, offices, shops and roads running down them. I exaggerate not!

I agree with heavy rail reinstatement for everything eventually, but when we end up with nothing until budgets allow, what have we all missed?

Budgets have always allowed preferential treatment for London and the SE. And, always for prestigious, highly expensive, grossly extravagant schemes like tram extensions, HS2, Crossrail, Thames Link ...

Billions of pounds for 40 years into Manchester Metrolink expansion at the expense of trains and buses. It has brought/bought a much poorer heavy rail service in Northern England, as that has declined.

How many people suffer because of the postponing of reopening’s whilst budgets are found?

Expanding budgets for the military and arms trading; for space exploration; for the wealthy to prosper and the poor to suffer; austerity to hit the poor with tax rises for them; public spending slashed from 2010 to the present to make them suffer even more.

Perhaps we should get some revenue in for 20 years as VLR and then convert as opposed to mothballing everything.

Please name one place in the world where conversion back to trains has occurred. Our Black Country Mainline has been mothballed for 50 years. 50 years of negligence, scandal and the most weird and wonderful priorities, as trams have prospered and the railway network has diminished and fallen well behind comparable countries in Europe.

Your other queries:

We currently support different options for different sections of this transport corridor. "Different options" mean more changes and delays between this absurd multi-modal transport provision.
Pre Metro Operations Ltd have no business relationship with WM Metro. I was a strong supporter of John Parry who eventually succeeded in getting the PPM on the world's shortest branch line. Since then, I have asked for it to be extended in a circular route connecting the main car park and Stourbridge shopping centre, to enable the pedestrianisation of High St and Market St
VLR is not appropriate for the whole route - Worcester to Derby. I'm VERY glad we agree on that!
The Borders Railway does not constitute a valid comparator - It is not an urban system. It is another mainline railway between Edinburgh and Carlise. A very good and fair comparison.
Your references to 16 Summer Lane are not understood. There are numerous organisation located therein. It is the HQ of WMCA/TfWM and UK Tram Ltd, the UK's national lobbying organisation for LR, VLR and ULR. Vested interests, far too cosy a relationship, an improper influence are all resulting in Dudley's 7th and very last railway being broken up, this time, into HR, LR, VLR and, possibly, even ULR!
We have no information on the costs or processes associated with any type of rail or tram track. SEE my
Like for like comparison of infrastructure buil...
We have no information on coking coal. Cumbrian coking coal, I believe, is needed to make the steel for the tram tracks that are turning roads into railways in the Black Country and Brum. £15 billion is being spent to 2040 for 150 miles of tram tracks on roads and under roads for Metro LR extensions. This is a shocking escalation of the climate emergency that is bringing about the ultimate downfall of all life on earth, IF we don't quickly mend our ways to mend an ailing and breaking planet.