What's gone so wrong and how to put it right

Dear Ros

I was excused the weekly Grandma/Grandad duties with my Linda taking care of the youngsters on her own, yesterday and today.  Hence, I got to the FoE meeting yesterday.

I'm asking if you might ask our members if they would like to select, copy, paste this (or simply forward) and send it to:

customerservices@wmca.org.uk, 

customerservices@westmidlandsmetro.com

customerservices@tfwm.org.uk

STOURBRIDGE RAILWAY REMAINS FORGOTTEN, as roads clog with traffic

• The railway runs from Worcester to Derby via Stourbridge and Dudley town for 120 Kms.
• 56 Kms is ready built but is unused or partly used for 56 Kms between Stourbridge and Burton on Trent.
• Freight trains run from Port Talbot to Round Oak Steel, next to the Waterfront, next to Merry Hill.
• Elsewhere, passenger trains and freight trains run on the same track.  Why not our forgotten railway?
• Not even the Metro trams from Dudley town will use that railway into Stourbridge Jct station.
• INSTEAD, the trams will divert off it into Merry Hill when they should remain on the railway into OUR town.
• The wealthy Merry Hill owners are given a £1 billion asset tramway to make them even richer!
• That is the spectacular scandal of taxpayer generosity to the rich.
• This is the stupidity of wasting a total of some 100 Kms of railway in the West Midlands while we all get stuck in traffic jams and the Climate emergency worsens - by 40 years of Metro idiocy.

ACTION suggested to get out of the 44-year-old disastrous tram rut paralysis:

1. If work cannot be stopped from taking the tram off the railway onto the Dudley No 1 Canal embankment at Merry Hill, stop it destroying even more nature to accelerate Climate catastrophe.  Therefore, ...
2. Terminate the Dudley Tram at the Merry Hill tram stop not at Cottage Street, Brierley Hill.
3. In fact, far more sensible to keep the tram on the railway from Cinder Bank roundabout to connect it with the national railway network at Stourbridge Jct.
4. The freight trains will have to run at night.
5. The billions planned for more tram extensions must go to give everyone the totally Fare-Free Public Transport that I have had for the last 17 years.

Two of these trees remain after four were felled for the Merry Hill tram stop:

 6 glorious white trees.jpg

Their foolish plan shows the scale of the destruction and idiocy:

 WBHE plan for Merry Hill.jpeg

This map shows what is still left for railway TRAINS, not trams to be reinstated:

 Railfuture's full map.pdf

Positive, practical, sensible Climate compliant action here:

 Bus and businesses at the centre of a virtuous circle

Some fun at the expense of the bigwigs, here:

 Trumpland Transport in the West Midlands since 1981

Many thanks