This photo is the essence of what has gone so wrong for decades. The Black Country Railway near Brownhills:
You are so right about Dudley town traders being disadvantaged and overlooked at the expense of Merry Hill SC which took away so much business from Dudley. In the 1980s only Professor Chris Baines of Wolverhampton was rightly railing against Merry Hill SC for the destruction of Nature and farmland.
Will the tram to Merry Hill from Wolverhampton and Brum via Wednesbury mean more people going to Dudley or, more travelling straight to Merry Hill and missing out on the tram stops in Dudley town? What do you think, Mark?
Certainly, the land either side of Level Street, where the steel works stood, did need redeveloping and that area only should have gone for the shopping centre and offices - all centred on the canal marina and Brierley Hill/Round Oak railway station for the reopened passenger and freight railway ...
between Oxford, Worcester, Dudley Castle Hill, Walsall and onto Lichfield and Derby.
Officers and members of Dudley MBC must have been far too taken in by Don and Roy Richardson. It seems they gave them a free hand and allowed them to do what we have seen for the last 45 years: Dudley's decline and that enormous area of Merry Hill and the Waterfront all given over for retail, entertainment, offices - and, some homes built as an afterthought. I did write asking for residential development too, which duly came!
The farm should have been subsidised by Don and Roy and kept in cereal production to feed the people as a model Black Country farm. Even as a tourist attraction for children visiting the animals, as happens now as farms have diversified. It could have been an example of how businessmen understood about the importance of farming in tune with nature and people, while still having the old steel works site for mixed use development, including homes and the principal mainline railway through Brierley Hill and Dudley town used for freight AND passengers. This would have relieved road traffic congestion, too.
That idiocy and the neglect of the Dudley Castle Hill area for railway reinstatement has been wholly the responsibility of Dudley councillors and the professionals who advised them. Yet, everyone of us (but not you because you are too young) must be to blame for not speaking out at the time. Since before 1990 I have been vociferous about the destruction of the Black Country Railway for trams but I did not write about Merry Hill's impact as Chris Baines did. Have you ever spoken to him about it, Mark?
Well-meaning but hopeless Cllr Fred Hunt in the mid 90s, solemnly told me that WBHE tram, aka the Dudley Tram, would be up and running by the year 2000.. In that year, the first mainline railway had been destroyed for trams when it opened in 1999 between Snow Hill platform 4 to St Georges Sq - and not even the railway station at Wolverhampton, let alone the bus station. What idiocy! All they had to do was to put the trains and stations back. But that was completely beyond them! Everyone of them mesmerised by Metro! As a result, these six railway lines are now lost for ever.
The monorail was brilliant and well used by my family and me. But it fell short of the Black Country Railway by 400 metres and, almost, as soon as it was up and running they closed it! Do you know why Mark? Why did Centro (now TfWM) not insist it be connected to the railway and for that to be reopened, too? It seems clear to me now: Because they only wanted their Metro tramway. The monorail would hinder the WBHE tram going through the Waterfront and Merry Hill SC to terminate at Cottage Street, Brierley Hill. Two trams competing for the same space. Two trams but only one land! However, the authorities will never tell me the truth! There must be written evidence at 16 Summer Lane. Could you try FOI, Mark please?
In the year 2000, Tom Magrath, Passenger Services Director wrote to me, "Light rail (trams) provision provides the basis for restoring heavy rail (trains) services at the appropriate time." SEE:
FOR THE FUTURE
There are still about 100 Kms of freight only or, existing but unused railway lines, in the West Midlands. SEE:
Your pieces on transport have been great, Mark. Thanks for writing them. I have given you more ammunition, here, perhaps!
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