TO MY MP, ALEX BALLINGER AND TO STOURBRIDGE MP, CAT ECCLES who is the MP for the area covered by the tram tragedy/scandal/national disgrace - at Merry Hill SC and of the railway "of national strategic significance" destroyed by the authorities.
Dear MPs, Please ask urgent Parliamentary questions for the DfT, National Audit Office and HM Treasury to answer - re this:-
Sunday, 15 December 2024
SHOCKING DATA re Midland Metro costs from CNNCT Ltd - consultants
Confirms my own research in Like for like comparison of infrastructure building costs
"In total, 79 Light Rail projects from across the world have been researched when gathering data."
" ... data suggest that the Midland Metro extensions represent some of the highest costs per kilometre ever seen, anywhere in the World for tram schemes."
"Midland Metro Alliance projects report an average of over £100 million per route kilometre as shown in the results: -
Dataset Average Cost per Route Km (£M) for 47 LR projects, here:
Infrastructure Only Schemes 27.93 (Infrastructure costs only, extensions to existing tram projects for example.)
All Inclusive Schemes 84.91 (All-In – Total project costs including the Tram Lines, Vehicles, Depots etc.)
Midland Metro Alliance Schemes 116.01 (Infrastructure costs only, extensions to existing tram projects for example.)
• Regardless of how the money has been spent, Midland Metro Alliance projects should be comprehensively reviewed by an independent regulated body, to understand exactly why these costs are reportedly three times the global average." (my emphasis)
From: Tim Weller <timweller1@gmail.com>
Date: Saturday, 14 December 2024 at 21:14
To: Mathew Taylor <mt@cnnctconsultancy.com>
Subject: This may be of interest. YES. BRILLIANT WORK. VERY WELL DONE!
Hi Mat
Thanks so much for this report that I have started to read. May I ask how you came to hear about me? How did you find my email address? Who made you aware? Thank God for them! I have now added your email address to my 2,200 contacts.
Do I have your permission to circulate your report to relevant councillors, MPs and others?
For very many years I have been horrified by costs reported in the press and in publicly available WMCA reports. Hence, what I have collated over the years is here:
Like for like comparison of infrastructure building costs
Something else:
Saturday, 30 November 2024
Scandalous costs of the Dudley Tram is here
Thank you for writing. Much appreciated. Another request, please, to help save my 30 years of planting, watering and tending Nature with the knowledge of the different landowners and management companies over the years. Photos, below.
While I'm writing, this if you feel able to say something, please to customerservices@tfwm.org.
With all the interest in tree planting and nature, the scandalous £261.4 m for 1 Km of Metro trams must STAY on the former mainline railway down to Stourbridge Jct.
If TfWM must put the trams on the Dudley No 1 Canal embankment to destroy my 30 year old guerrilla garden, it MUST go on top of the embankment, next to the towpath, to reduce the impact on the trees, etc in the garden.
PHOTO:
Behind mostly my trees/planting is the rusty, metal sheet piling, as is seen on the left in this photo:
Overview contrast.jpgYou can stop the tramway going slap bang through the middle of my fine guerrilla garden - PLEASE! See:
On the above plan, my planting is on the north side of High Plateau that was levelled for housing above the metal sheet piling in the 1990s when the canal was straightened. This was when I started the vertical garden to cover the ugly, rusty sheet piling.
EVIDENCE:
" ... on the delivery of the Metro extension Phase 2b totalling £261.4m.
Phase 1: Wednesbury to Flood St., Dudley
Phase 2a: Flood St, Dudley to Waterfront Business Park
Phase 2b: Waterfront to Merry Hill Shopping Centre
Phase 2c: Merry Hill Shopping Centre to Brierley Hill Town Centre
(FROM para 12.4 on page 8)
"Since rewriting and submitting the FBC and the SAF appraisal in May 2024 it is noted in this report the total projected cost of Phase 2a, 2b of the WBHE project remains at £654.9m." END OF QUOTE from para 12.12 on page 8.
£655 m for 4 Kms (£164m/Km) is SCANDALOUS - and, to destroy a former, principal mainline railway (that should have been brought back into use by the year 2000 CE, 24 years ago)!
For another £261.4 million for only a maximum ONE KILOMETRE (1 Km) of the route from Waterfront to Merry Hill, is SCANDALOUS! And it is deepening the catastrophic Climate emergency instead of urgent mitigation and adaptation, that is still not seen (apart from my house that is a warm home).
Another extract:
"SAF Change Request CR 123 12.6 In May 2024 a formal Change Request (Ref: CR123) was submitted for appraisal through the Single Assurance Framework (SAF) seeking:
• Additional WMCA funding of £36m (CRSTS over-programming) Indicates bad budgeting and overspending.
• Confirmation of additional request for £212.5m funding from Government Indicates bad budgeting and overspending.
• Time extension of 5 years for WBHE (2023 to 2028) Indicates delays, time wasting, inability to get a professional job done, incompetence.
• Reduction of track length by 0.6km for WBHE (omission of Phase 2c)" Now, 10.1 Kms for the exorbitant expenditure to wreck so much and to do so much idiocy.
I want an injunction ...
... to stop the official policy of converting bus and train services into TRAMWAYS by the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) and West Yorkshire Combined Authority. 200 years ago, UK tramways were being replaced by railways. Present policy is backward, stupid, and is similar to our ancestors allowing the superb road network, bequeathed by the Roman Empire, to fall into wrack and ruin.
REASONS:
This enormous expenditure, since the 1980s in the case of the West Midlands, has accelerated the Climate Emergency, officially acknowledged by the WMCA by their declaration in 2019.
£ spent = lb weight in greenhouse gas emissions, as a very rough rule of thumb because of our addiction to finite fossil fuels.
Construction of W Midlands tramways is the second biggest expenditure per Km of any transport project after HS2 as the biggest.
That money should be going to help the lowest incomes with food and energy bills.
That money should be going to insulate/upgrade the homes of the poorest.
That money should be going for Fare-Free Public Transport and to make buses and trains as least as good as the average on the mainland of Europe.
Best wishes and thanks for sending me the report. I can be outspoken for I have nothing to lose, at my age. Are you in Truro?
Tim 0791 380 4363
On Sat, 14 Dec 2024 at 17:10, Mathew Taylor <mt@cnnctconsultancy.com> wrote:
HI Tim,
I have been made aware of recent correspondence from you regarding the Midland Metro and thought the attached may be of interest.
The attached is hugely unpopular by WMCA, MMA and many more, but I have had no official rebuttal or challenge.
Anyway, hope it is of interest.
Thanks,
Mat Taylor
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