Dudley Tram terminates at Level Street?

Hi Cathy

I'm away hill walking in Scotland (but not today with atrocious weather) and will not be at your excellent Transport Scrutiny Committee on Thursday.  I see that I have Mike Waters down in my diary for your meeting.  Is he, in fact, speaking at your committee and what on, please?  You were brilliant at getting Anne Shaw (and it reflects very well on Anne, too) to come to your last meeting and I'm sorry I'll miss Mike.

Now that they will not keep the tram on the Dudley Mainline Railway down to Stourbridge via Brierley Hill, could you ask if the tram could terminate at a new Level Street tram stop, please?  It would be on Level Street between the Waterfront offices in one direction and Merry Hill in the other direction.  Easy walking and no further than where the Merry Hill tram stop is due to go, anyway.  No diversion from the existing planned route is needed and the suggested tram stop would be on the north side of the Level St roundabout.  Plan here:

 WBHE plan for Merry Hill.jpeg

There is a good bus connection between Brierley Hill and Dudley town centres, so the tram terminating at Cottage Street is hardly essential.

Would you feel able to ask your members if any of them support my wish that the housing land taken by the Dudley Tram is saved, along with the 400 metre canal embankment that is the only public open space and, my guerrilla garden - please?  There was one councillor who did speak up and agree with me at the meeting before the last one.

Remember, that I would guess £100m would be saved by not building the 400 m concrete and steel viaduct and the second canal bridge for the double track, standard gauge, tram line.  Under this new suggestion, the first canal bridge would be needed if the tram really cannot stay on the railway all the way to Brierley Hill and Stourbridge.  The present freight trains from Port Talbot would need to operate at night for the trams in the daytime.  This is done elsewhere, of course, to maximise efficiency.

Today's Network Rail never likes freight and passenger trains on the same lines.  Yet, it was common practice for the first 100 years of the railways.

The red line of the Metro route is marked here:

https://metroalliance.co.uk/projects/wednesbury-to-brierley-hill-extension/

Thanks so much for what you doing to help in getting the best and most sensible solution, Cathy.