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