BAD NEWS STORY AT BROAD ST, BRUM

BAD NEWS STORY!

In big bad Brum, £15 BILLION of greenhouse gases are being spent, since 2020, to replace some bus routes and railway services with tramways.  This will worsen the climate crisis and make us even more dependent on Russian oil and gas.

Buses that remain are banned from the direct route into Brum city centre and are pushed out into narrow side roads with parked cars on either side, in some places.  This slow journey by bus can be avoided by taking the tram but, then it means waiting for the tram to arrive.  It is a change in mode that was never required before the "bus on rails" trams were given priority on the direct route into the city centre.  It puts car commuters/shoppers off from switching to public transport.

In addition, the UK's last mainline railway between Derby, Dudley and Devon is broken up to use some of the £15 billion of finite fossil fuels, to convert that railway "of national strategic significance" into three different kinds of tramways!  All this to get a multi-modal mix up of more changes and delays and to worsen shortages of oil and gas.

Five Ways underpass is no longer used by buses or bikes but only trams.  Two massive concrete crash barriers in the tunnel are meant to stop the trams from crashing into each other.  SEE PHOTO,  below.  This also makes public transport and the climate, ecological, resource, energy, cost of living crises worse.

Five Ways/Broad Street multi-modal mix up

Thanks Ingrid for all your work on our behalf.  And, to the rest of you, this:-

Is there anyone else out there really browned off by our continuingly dreadful bus service into Brum city centre on the last, slow section from Edgbaston?

• Still a diversion on narrow roads packed with parked cars.
• No buses are using the Five Ways underpass that is blocked by the two most colossal crash barriers I have ever seen.
• Broad Street is still not available for our buses.
• Not even trams are in use.  Or are they now?
• If we change for the tram, we then have a maximum wait of 15 mins for the tram to take us on the direct route into the city centre.
• So a toss up between staying on the bus or waiting for the tram - impossible to know which is quickest!

If you are unimpressed or, just love the modal mix up mish mash, please tell them what you think at:

customerservices@tfwm.org.uk

They love praise and compliments, remember.  So tell them you just love it, please!

Will Halesowen Pensioners write in support?

As was agreed, please could you write an email to customerservices@tfwm.org.uk and, to James Morris and elsewhere, for his/their support, to ask if our no 9 buses might be chosen as the few buses to be allowed to use Five Ways underpass and Broad Street, as soon as possible, now that work has finished on building the Westside tram extension to Edgbaston Village tram stop.  That direct route is so much quicker for bus users from Halesowen than having to go all round the Wrekin on the back streets diversion.

Secondly, as we agreed, could you also ask James if he would please support us in pressing for every bridge and viaduct to be strengthened for goods/freight trains as work progresses for Metro trams on the former, principal mainline railway between Stourbridge Jct and Burton on Trent, on the Derby to Devon via Dudley railway.  The additional email is customerservices@westmidlandsmetro.com

My own bold emphasis is here in this email from

From: <Customer Services> <customerservices@tfwm.org.uk>
Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2021 at 09:44
Subject: REBUTTAL REQUIRED to my statement from yesterday, please. CRM:004501016
To: Tim Weller <timweller1@gmail.com>

"You have also specifically asked for clarification on the reinstatement of heavy rail and freight services and how light rail investment supports this. Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) has acquired an approximate 7km section of the old railway corridor from Network Rail. Although Network Rail currently has no plans to bring this line back into operation, as part of our agreement we will make passive provision for freight trains to return to that section of track. This means that we will be carrying out work that could enable this to happen in the future. In its current state of disrepair and without the work we will be undertaking, the section of route we have procured cannot be used by freight trains.

​"​Our plans for Metro construction involve upgrading or replacing several structures to be suitable for use and accommodate heavy freight where possible. We have also acquired Parkhead Viaduct which needs considerable remedial work to make it safe, before carrying trams or freight trains could be considered. We are also moving a small section of track near to Round Oak to allow for both Metro and rail/freight.

​"​Please note our agreement with Network Rail will not make the full line ready for freight, so some additional work would be carried out if the reinstatement of freight trains was agreed.​"​

Quite honestly, I do wonder why, if passive provision is being made for freight trains, why passenger trains cannot be delivered on the full 56 Kms between Burton on Trent and Stourbridge Jct.

Many thanks, Tony and Tony

Tim

Buses and trams will squeeze along together in the tunnel and narrowed Broad Street

PHOTO EVIDENCE, BELOW (taken in April 2021 but crash barriers still there on Sun 14 Nov '21)

This is yet more failed and incompetent government on a grand and greedy scale with greenhouse gas (GHG) spewing machines having built the concrete barriers and now more GHG spewing machines to remove them, to allow the buses back!  What hypocrisy to declare a climate emergency and then do this!!

This is on top of another cock up with our Derby to Devon principal mainline railway, in Dudley and Sandwell, being used for Light Rail trams and a Very Light Rail test track, with the possibility of Ultra Light Rail on another section!  What a joke.

On Mon, 8 Nov 2021 at 17:41, Tim Weller <timweller1@gmail.com> wrote:

Have just seen this in my inbox.  The majority of buses will return to Broad St and the underpass.  I'm completely wrong, I'm glad to say.  But we'll see how it all works in the new year!

 

BACKGROUND (yesterday morning I wrote this):

Mischievous misinformation that TfWM/WMCA are putting it about that some buses will return to Broad Street even though the tram stop platforms are built out into the middle of the road to meet the railway tracks.  And we have the most colossal concrete crash barriers I have ever seen, in all my life, in the Five Ways underpass.  Now to be turned into dust by yet more greenhouse gas spewing machines to allow some buses back!

I made an official complaint, as a member of Halesowen Pensioners, whose Secretary was told that buses would return.  This is a very serious matter of misleading information to members of the public.  Quite apart, from the corrupt expenditure of £75 m per Km for 2 Kms of immoral, wealth flaunting, Metro.  It hat has now given a further reason for car commuters NOT to transfer to bus/train/tram commuting.  This makes it even more urgent that TfWM/WMCA introduce Fare-Free Public Transport (FFPT) to bribe car commuters to leave their cars at home, if they really cannot work from home.

The new north-south railway in Scotland was £7 m/Km to rebuild when it opened six years ago.  The tram is ten times per Km more expensive to construct than rebuilding a railway!!

I AM WELLER AND TRULY WRONG - I'm very glad to say!

Dear Mr Weller

I write regarding your email to Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) received on 5 November 2021, concerning bus services to Five Ways and Broad Street. 

I would like to reassure you that the majority of buses which currently run via Sheepcote Street will return to Broad Street and use the Five Ways underpass, which is being prepared for use by public transport only, to access or come from Hagley Road.

It is intended that buses and Metro trams services will complement each other along Broad Street and with short dwell times at trams stops located in the roadway, buses will see minimal impact in awaiting a tram having to load and unload its passengers. 

I hope my response provides some clarity and I thank you for contacting TfWM.

Yours sincerely

Adrian Hawkins SMICS

Customer Relations Executive 

Twitter challenging Ashvir and Sophie

Please let me know what you think with the seven-fold increase in transport expenditure since Andy Street became the powerless, the figurehead, the PR representative of the Combined Authority.  And my wife and I have voted for him twice, now!

Sophie Zumbe

@SophieZumbe

·

15h

32% turnout for the mayoral elections in the West Mids. Depressingly clear indication of how disengaged most people are with local politics.

Replying to @SophieZumbe

"All politicians and the people are not questioning the scam, the fraud, the lie of trams destroying the 120 Kms Black Country Railway and, now in Broad St and at Five Ways making public transport worse for the 11 bus routes that used that quick route for decades. Will you, Sophie engage?"

MORE:

Andy says "seven-fold over the four years compared with what was previously spent." He said this, as though he is so proud of what he has done. But it was nothing to do with him. More to do with the devolution deals in the last decade to give the W Mids the most scandalously expensive transport mode to construct after the ruinous HS2 construction. And more to do with the light rail, "bus on rails" tram national promotion group that shares its HQ with Andy's office, Transport for the W Mids and the Combined Authority - another scam/corruption/improper influence!

Best wishes

Tim

Metro blunder at Five Ways and Broad Street

The Green Party 2017 Metro Mayor election manifesto also supported the grossly extravagant, greenhouse gas-emitting in abundance, Metro tram extensions to either replace buses and trains or, to add to the mix of multi-modal public transport to make for more changes and delays as you go from one to the other over three instead of two transport modes.  

The best example is what we now see for our 9 buses that cannot use the Five Ways underpass anymore and, along with the other ten bus routes, has a slow diversion on narrow roads, jammed with parked cars via the Arena, instead of the former direct route through the underpass and along Broad Street.  (Some bus routes MAY be able to return to Broad St but, priority will always be given to the tram, of course.)

Or, if you get off the bus before Five Ways, you might then have to wait up to 15 mins for the tram to enable you to continue your journey into the city centre.  This is not progress.  It does not encourage motorists to leave their cars at home and use public transport.  Or, does it?  Why are you, personally so much in favour of the £15 billion to 2040 for mainly 150 miles, 380 tram stops and 8 lines of underground and overground tram extensions, please?

Governance changes to involve councillors BEFORE going to CA

Proposed items for discussion

I would like us to talk about these matters, please at our Teams meeting on Wed 17 March at 11 am.

1. Governance - full, frank and fair discussion to involve all councillors, and at full council, to hear both/all sides of every issue before voting.  Edinburgh City Council did that over their tram last decade and the tram extension to Leith and Newhaven in 2019.
2. Greater scrutiny of construction costs of innovative transport modes like Metro and Sprint and, greater scrutiny of Metro track maintenance costs before a decision to proceed is put to the WMCA Board members.  And only after the seven councils have properly, fully considered and voted on whether or not to proceed.  Those seven decisions are then brought to the Board meeting.
3. Disadvantages of proceeding to be fully laid out as well as the advantages, eg the extremely high greenhouse gas emitting in construction, of the two biggest concrete crash barriers I have ever seen, put in the Five Ways underpass that, with the trams, means that buses can never return.  And, possibly not to Broad Street, either.
4. Aside: I love trams because they look great, glitzy and glamorous. The problem is that for all their attraction, we now have a slower and worse journey into the city centre from the west. We either have to change and wait for the tram or stay on the bus and have a longer and slower ride. This is not progress!
   
5. Construction cost comparison, as here:
    Like for like comparison of infrastructure buil...
6. Was the demolition of Perry Barr flyover because of Sprint?
7. What are the full implications of ULR (Stourbridge Shuttle), the LR test track for 2.2 Kms, Metro LR all being put on a former mainline railway that, for 100 years, brought passengers from London and Oxford to Dudley Railway Station and the Black Country?
8. What are the implications for freight that might need to come off the Camp Hill line in Brum and be diverted via the 120 Kms, half-finished but already built, Worcester, Black Country, Derby mainline?
9. Why has it taken 70 years, to only now for Andy Street to be able to make headway with the railway industry over the joint running of passenger and freight trains, when this was the norm for about 100 years?
10. Is the joint running of fast regional trains over the full 120 Kms mainline railway between Worcester, Dudley, Derby, with slower tram-trains, all on one set of double tracks, seen anywhere else in the world?
11. What plans do you have for the 3 Kms Pensnett branch line from Moor Street, Brierley Hill north to A4101 High Street, Pensnett?
12. Comparison study of Fare-Free Public Transport (FFPT) that is now seen in Dunkirk, Tallinn and Luxembourg - and many more in E Europe and around the world.

 

To Cllr Kath Hartley, Ladywood, Brum

I would like to ask you about pretty basic matters, regardless of getting a healthier planet - see below.  Questions over the straight competence of your officers that advise you; let alone green competence!  I believe, basic competence is a serious issue at 16 Summer Lane, quite regardless of climate change and resource depletion.

Do you realise that, because of Metro trams still being given top priority over, even, reinstating trains on railway lines, you have delivered a slower, longer and worse public transport journey?  And, this, for eleven bus routes that for many years sped us on our way into the city centre via the Five Ways underpass and Broad Street?  Now, all those buses are pushed out to queue on the Five Ways roundabout, on a diversion via the Arena on narrow roads with many parked cars to add to the mayhem!

Or, shortly, we could instead, get off the bus opposite 54 Hagley Road, cross the road and wait up to 15 minutes for the tram to take us through the underpass and along Broad Street.  This change and delay makes thing worse, discourages car drivers from using buses and, is totally unacceptable, in my opinion.

I do think some issues are so obviously unhelpful (pointless, grossly extravagant, climate-wrecking HS2, Metro, Sprint) and should not be pursued, while others are very advisable.  I would suggest, spending only on projects immediately, that will do the most to cut deadly greenhouse gas emissions; and not duplicating or replacing buses and trains with greedy, wealth flaunting, vanity projects to impress visitors but that take and burn the most finite fossil fuels to worsen our prospects.  Unfortunately, these glitz and glam projects are the very ones that excite us most and that all of us, politicians and people, simply adore!  I love trams and brand new, flash, everything!  But, we have to show some restraint in the light of the Climate, Ecological, Nature emergency.  Hence:

ACTION - my suggestions to reduce catastrophe in transport (not just climate catastrophe):

Minimise finite fossil fuel use as much as possible.

To get competence, let alone low climate impact from transport - stop destroying railway lines.  For urban railways, can their commuter trains be returned; can the railway lines no longer be built on; or, if not for trains, can they be used as cycle-walkways?

Stop converting railway lines and bus routes into tramways for "bus on rails" trams.

Use electric buses going directly on roads, without the railway tracks.

Use the money saved from abandoning tram extensions into Fare-Free Public Transport (FFPT) for all and not just old people like me that I have enjoyed for 13 years!

Move from multi-modal transport that is multi-mixed up transport with more changes and delays, into sticking with making buses more sought after.  That means FFPT and electric buses on bus priority roads.

FFPT is essential to compensate for a slightly higher risk from Covid transmission when using public transport.

FFPT is essential to cut greenhouse gases, congestion and polluted air in cities.

FFPT is a reward for leaving the car at home.

Upgrade the major, strategic, 22 Kms Black Country Cycle-Walk Mudway so it can be used by everyone who goes human-powered and not fossil fuel-powered, including horse riders.

Oppose HS2 extensions and scrap Metro and Sprint to concentrate on the basics - the buses, our local 106 Kms of mothballed or freight-only railway lines and, cycle-walkways for commuting, business and leisure use that are not waterlogged and muddy.

DUDLEY TO BRUM - NOW, SLOWER BY PUBLIC TRANSPORT!

 Edgbaston Metro tram means that every bus user coming down Hagley Road has a slower journey into Brum city centre. Either, get off the bus to change for the tram or stay on the bus and get taken round the Wrekin on a long, slow route. The tram gets the underpass and Broad St that every bus used to have. TRAGIC FAILURE BY OUR COUNCILLORS.