WMCA involvement in Lebanese/Palestinian slaughter

Dear friends

W Midlands businesses are selling/giving/subsidising drones and weapons of war to our partner, friend and ally, Israel to murder/kill/maim up to 50,000 children, women and men in the area of the unHoly Land since the 7.10.23 atrocity.

Israel, part of our Wicked, Wild West, is out of control.  And we are letting them get on with it.

What is the WMCA doing to stop it?

Why are you not issuing a statement/press release condemning our murderous behaviour and distancing yourselves from it?

What grants and moral support do you give to the despicable, disgusting W Midlands arms trade?

Or, are you guiltily silent?

Stolen Transport describes ...

 ... how so well-intentioned public transport modes like 'Hi (there) Speedy 2 fast-to-stop at stations and isolated from HS1', Metro "bus on rails" trams and the Sprint bus that "thinks it's a tram", all take money, time and officers away from addressing the leaky, energy wasteful homes of the people at the bottom of the heap.  It's those above them who unintentionally forget them and concentrate on the flash, high-prestige projects they benefit from.

Lowest incomes continue to lose out as those at the top sort out their grandiose, luxury but climate-intensifying HS2, Metro and Sprint.

This double phenomenon takes us away, even further, from reducing our ultimately deadly greenhouse gas emissions.

MP essentials

Dear Sarah and TfWM Customer Services team - please correct me if I'm wrong in any detail, here:

1950s - first tram network destroyed in favour of diesel buses.

1981 - rebuilding the tram network of 200 Kms was born, inspired by Cllr Phil Bateman who continues as a respected Wolves councillor to this day.

YET ...

Over 43 years, with £100s millions being spent, only 23 Kms were achieved by this year and a further 700 m, over seven slow years of work on the ground, to connect the tram to the bus station and railway station that would never have been necessary if the TRAINS had been reinstated.

In 43 years​, ​I believe, no wasted but existing railway lines in the region have had their trains back​, apart from the short tunnel between Snow Hill Station and Moor St Station. Yet, £100s millions ​h​ave disappeared down the plug hole on ​23 Kms of trams​, 19 Kms of which are on the first mainline railway destroyed between Snow Hill and Wolverhampton!!

The second mainline railway is even more important - running between London and Edinburgh.  It is now broken up into heavy rail, Light Rail Metro trams, a 2 Kms Very Light Rail test track and its HQ building, a 20 Kms cycle-walkway being worked on, and fresh air!

All this while congestion/pollution worsens on nearby motorways and main roads - even crossed by the forgotten, principal, mainline railway.  Bridges and underpasses built for TRAINS that they then forgot all about!

All with public money that is needed for the NHS/social care, concrete crumbling schools, water supply problems and ancient Victorian prisons crammed to bursting point!

All this waste of our taxes when Highly Speedy 2 fast to stop at stations, needs £66 BILLION, at least, to finish it off at Euston!

to Timothy Huxtable, Chair of TDOS at WMCA

Dear Timothy

Thanks very much for your thoughts on the matter.  Much appreciated.  Some questions to try and pin you down!:

THE PROBLEM

Car use rising as oil reserves reduce and the Climate Emergency continues apace.

Car users want free/cheap parking and more roads but, there is never a cry for regional Fare-Free public transport for all to benefit non-car users who do the least to ratchet up Climate breakdown and resource shortages.

The decision-makers are car users and so, without realising it, are unconsciously biased towards their own mode of transport rather than biased in favour of low incomes without a car and needing buses.

1. As Chair of TDOS do you have any say in recommending to your Committee that they might like to vote to stay in line with Manchester and keep the £2 single fare cap?
2. You wrote, "the local centres need to be connected by a form of public transport that works for passengers and is value for money". Do you see the bus as the cornerstone of public transport that could be much cheaper and work better for everyone?
3. Is your Committee able to recommend less money going from Capital (Metro expansion, for example) and more to Revenue to follow Manchester's example to keep fares as low as possible?
4. Eventually, regional Fare-Free Public Transport as I have had for nearly 17 years because of my age?
5. Do you think we should get the two main public transport modes as least as good as the average on the mainland of Europe?
6. Does having a multitude of rail modes (HS, HR, LR, VLR, ULR) detract in any way from getting bus and train as popular as they were before the advent of mass car ownership?
7. Could cutting down on car commuting with a similar rise in bus use be a useful measure of success?
8. How do you think this should be done?
9. Financial inducements from Capital expenditure to Revenue and charging motorists (the car commuters) who fail to register as essential vehicle users to avoid the road use charge?
10. Has CAZ been a success in any way?
11. Has CAZ reduced car use by a percentage or two, do we know?  Or, even more than that?
12. Will you press for the Dudley Tram to stay on the mainline railway to connect it with the national railway network at Stourbridge Jct?
13. By your agnosticism, why are you supporting the TfWM line that the tram must go into Merry Hill SC to give the owners an entirely free asset that makes them even wealthier?
14. Could a free electric bus from the Canal Street Hart's Hill tram stop be a more useful option to get tram passengers into Brierley Hill High Street and to Merry Hill?
15. Or even, reinstate the 1990s monorail?!  Why was it never connected to the railway that could have been re-opened then with commuter, regional and intercity TRAINS?

Best wishes

Those with too much ...

Those with too much, might perhaps give to those with far too little.  Plus safe and legal routes to reduce the numbers of them seeking refuge with US LOT who caused their flight in the first place!

In 2016, can the rich nations and individuals who have so much wealth that much is wasted, give some of it to those with nothing (except war/environmental decline and disasters) so that people will not have to flee to the countries with everything (except war/env degradation)?  Israel in relation to Palestine, even?

Israel's genocide and an end to the arms sales that enables its campaign of terror and horror would certainly help!

No Limits to Health

FOR CYCLISTS, WALKERS, RUNNERS, HORSE RIDERS AND (definitely) THE LESS MOBILE

I attended your excellent event yesterday at Halesowen Library, about the early 20th century, black cycling hero, Marshall 'Major' Taylor.  THANK YOU for putting it on!

Would you support the upgrading, in Dudley borough, of their much neglected mudway section of the UK's major, 20 Kms Black Country Active Travel Route that was built decades ago and is so popular in South Staffordshire and Wolverhampton?

I believe it is the UK's longest, urban-rural-urban, business/commuter/leisure, cycle-walkway.

It runs from the canal towpath at Merry Hill Shopping Centre to the canal towpath at NW Wolverhampton and is part of a circular route via the Brum to Wolves Canal towpath and the flooded, pot-holed, towpath in the Netherton Tunnel.

PARTIAL MAP that does need upgrading, too - I know!  Only the Dudley section is a mudway and is dire, dismal, disappointing:-

 Disgraceful Dudley BC Cycle-Walk Mudway 01.pdf

There are two car parks on the route, on either side of Wombourne, too!  SEE:-

 Disgraceful Dudley BC Cycle-Walk Mudway 02.pdf

SAVE MERRY HILL SHOPPING CENTRE AND IMPROVE CONNECTIVITY FOR STOURBRIDGE!

"SAVE MERRY HILL SHOPPING CENTRE AND IMPROVE CONNECTIVITY FOR STOURBRIDGE!

"It is so important that we get a business case written for the alternative, cheaper option to keep Metro trams away from the extensive destruction planned at Merry Hill.

"Please ask for the business case to be written for either the Stourbridge Shuttle on the railway line or, for the trams from Dudley town to connect with the national railway network at Stourbridge Jct.  An electric bus could connect the tram or the Shuttle with Brierley Hill High Street and the shopping centre.  The tram straight through from Wednesbury, via Dudley to Stourbridge Jct would mean no change, no delay from tram to Shuttle in Dudley town and, therefore, be a quicker public transport journey.

"The important thing is to save Merry Hill's nature, landscaping, public open space and the housing land."

Even select, copy, paste what I have written to save time.  Invitation always stands to come on my Trail of Treasure Treats to see 'Secret Merry Hill'.  Any day; any time.

 Visit highlights

THANKS!