YES, if you write about and promote the 120 Kms Worcester to Derby Black Country Railway
between London and Edinburgh. It makes for an improved Brum to Manchester rail connection if you will only promote freight at night and commuter, regional, intercity trains during the day.
Every crossing for every motorway, road, canal is already built but, some of the track has been nicked by metal thieves as you can see in these photos:
Ready for trains since Dec 2003 when M6 Toll was opened:
This map from national railway promotion organisation, Railfuture:
Little if anything has changed in 21 years:
It is a scandal and negligence that blindingly obvious measures are being overlooked. The Black Country Railway could help if it was used - NOW - as the world's first train-tram-train railway. If my advice had been acted on, trains and stations and not trams and tram stops would have been done on the whole route. The Dudley Tram is coming to the 6 Kms between Wednesbury and Flood Street, Dudley by, supposedly, Christmas of this year (much delayed already). This leaves 50 Kms still available for freight at night and commuter trains during the day, thanks to "passive provision is being built in" to the tram network according to Laura Shoaf, Chief Executive of the WMCA. Only yesterday to me, Laura stated that "passive provision" was being built in for the return of trains in the future.
"Light rail provision provides the basis for restoring heavy rail services at the appropriate time" - Tom Magrath, Passenger Services Director of Centro, in correspondence dated September 2000. For the first time in transport history, trams have to be constructed on a principal mainline railway "of national strategic significance" in order to reinstate the national and regional trains that had been so successful for 100 years!
This is the most astonishing negligence, idiocy and incompetence for over forty years - twice the length of the Post Office Scandal.
No comments:
Post a Comment