Dear Richard - and copied to two Labour Party MPs, one of them mine own and, a Labour councillor
My own conclusion is that the seven local councils and the WMCA are seriously overstretched and have bitten off far more than they can chew. You have said something similar, as here. How very true this is. So put a stop to it - please!:-
FROM: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c978l19l6rro.amp
But Mr Parker said that even before he was elected there were problems arising.
"I could see that the previous mayor's grand promises for additional transport connectivity in the region weren't being delivered," he said.
"That's why since being elected, I have made it my business to understand what is happening with the delivery of capital and transport projects."
He said he had instigated an in-depth independent review of all transport projects, adding promises had previously been made about projects, without the necessary resources to sustain them.
In a statement @RichParkerLab said: “I am now very concerned about a number of significant issues that have been brought to my attention regarding the funding, delivery and delay of major transport projects in the region."
END of quotes
Yesterday's WMCA Board meeting revealed yet more delays, more over spending and plain shortage of funds. No wonder when the seven local authorities in the region are in no way up to the job to deliver so many massive and major transport schemes that should have been delivered, in their entirety, by Network Rail and the DfT. Only those national bodies have the experience and expertise to deliver commuter, regional and intercity trains on the UK's major London to Edinburgh railway that had 120 Kms built but, without the rather vital trains between Stourbridge Jct and Burton on Trent.
Every crossing for every motorway, road and canal was built but the trains and stations were missing, forgotten. So nearly all of the missing 120 Kms/74 miles on this railway "of national strategic significance" is being turned into a tramway, a 2 Km test track for Very Light Rail and a cycle-walkway between Walsall and Lichfield, the cycle-walkway for tens of millions of pounds in price and in weight of greenhouse gas emissions!
The seven councils and WMCA are juggling far too many balls in the air and dropping all of them. Your next trick is to come up with yet more super expense with bus franchising when you are already scrabbling around to find more money for your existing multitude of projects and clever schemes.
Spend the money on rewards for car commuters who leave their cars at home to free up road space for essential vehicle users. As here:
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