NARROW MINDED TRADE UNIONS HAVE HELPED DESTROY RAILWAYS WITH THEIR TUNNEL VISION

I do support the Corbyn Project and do so like the man himself, although I am so disappointed by the trade unions in fully supporting the destruction of so many (about 100 Kms) of urban railway lines in the Black Country and Brum.  Especially the Burton on Trent to Bristol via Brierley Hill Mainline Railway, of course!  All the trade unions just love HS2 and tram projects for the work they give to their members and potential new ones.  Any deeper problems, as I have uncovered, just wash over them in blissful ignorance and complacency.    Tim

PS

By the way, I am now asking certain friends, if they feel able, to forward my reasons for saying HS2 and trams are highly over-stated, in fact, fraudulent claims, to their MP and their three councillors.  AIM: In the interests of reading the other side of the argument and in getting an alternative point of view.

TIM, AT 73 YEARS, ASKS OF TfWM!

 Ask TfWM:

• No more Metro trams - 150 miles are planned to 2040 to get a multi-mixed up public transport.
• Trains on train lines, instead.  No more railways made into roads and roads turned into railways.
• Free electric buses on bus priority roads instead of "bus on rails" trams.

In more detail:

1. Please ask on my behalf that commuter and regional trains must go back on the 47 Kms of our Black Country Railway "of national strategic significance" between Derby and Devon via Dudley.
2. 47 Kms is still available after Metro "bus on rails" trams go on 6.7 Kms out of the available 56 Kms between Stourbridge Jct and Burton on Trent.
3. Please ask for no more expenditure on wastefully extending what is officially called "bus on rails" trams.
4. Instead, ask for electric buses to go directly on bus priority roads, without the railway tracks!
5. PLEASE say to TfWM that this particular OAP wants his regional Fare-Free Public Transport (FFPT) to be given to the younger generations, too.  This, to end the disgraceful discrimination against the middle-aged and the young.
6. A Something for Others campaign - a wonderful legacy to leave our descendants and, we get to rest peacefully in our graves!!
7. Six simple sentences, above to suggest easy ways of lessening the climate emergency.

Midlands Connect Team - RAILS TO RECOVERY but not for the Black Country Railway

Dear Midlands Connect Team

Thanks so much for this clarification.  However, I am still befuddled!

Why, after 25 years of rising passenger numbers on our railways, is there still no consideration being given to 'RAILS TO RECOVERY: UPGRADING OF THE DERBY - DUDLEY - DEVON RAILWAY'?  In particular, the wasted section of 56 Kms, still available, ready built but, unused between Burton on Trent and Stourbridge Junction?

Why is the railway industry, with the full support of the unions, Midlands Connect and DfT/HMG, turning our railways into tram lines in yet more of the Black Country?

We could have had a much-improved service, years ago, between Shrewsbury, Brum and London if you had all chosen TRAINS instead of trams for the Snow Hill Sta to Wolverhampton railway line.  Platform 4 has been unused since 2016 when the tram extension connected Grand Central and bypassed Snow Hill Sta.  As you must know, there is a tunnel connecting Snow Hill and Moor Street on the London line!

It is all very perplexing for my small brain - actually, nonsensical!

 Terminological inexactitude

Thanks so much for writing.  Please write again and attempt to explain what does seem completely indefensible, illogical and a very serious oversight for 25 years.

Best wishes

To 36 Dudley Conservative councillors

Dear friends

Well done on your great victory in England and, to a lesser extent, in Wales.

You can now win another major victory by stopping the destruction of the UK's very last, easily reinstated, half finished, principal mainline railway from Worcester, through our Black Country and on to Derby.  This is because there is still time to save the forgotten, unused, wasted 56 Kms between Stourbridge Jct and Burton on Trent.  This week I read:

"Preliminary works on an extension from Wednesbury to Brierley Hill, serving Dudley, are due to begin next year, whilst final activities are set to take place next year on the Wolverhampton city centre extension serving both the bus and railway station." 

from https://www.wmca.org.uk/news/birmingham-city-centre-tram-extension-opens-to-passengers-ahead-of-schedule

Please get to it - Patrick and Co and win the praise and glory for stopping the two tram schemes, first and then getting, asap the commuter, regional and intercity trains back on the full 120 Kms (74 miles), with Railfuture's nine stations with ours rebuilt at Dudley Castle Gate.  See:

 Railfuture's full map.pdf

With best wishes

Tim

"Preliminary works on an extension from Wednesbury to Brierley Hill, serving Dudley, are due to begin next year"

Dear James, Sam and Gary

Well done on your own victory and that of your party in England and Wales.

You can now win another great victory by stopping the destruction of the UK's very last, easily reinstated, half finished, principal mainline railway from Worcester, through our Black Country and on to Derby.  This is because there is still time to save the forgotten, unused, wasted 56 Kms between Stourbridge Jct and Burton on Trent.  This week I read:

"Preliminary works on an extension from Wednesbury to Brierley Hill, serving Dudley, are due to begin next year, whilst final activities are set to take place next year on the Wolverhampton city centre extension serving both the bus and railway station."

from https://www.wmca.org.uk/news/birmingham-city-centre-tram-extension-opens-to-passengers-ahead-of-schedule

Please get to it - James, Sam and Gary and win the praise and glory for stopping the trams, first and then getting, asap the commuter, regional and intercity trains back on the full 120 Kms (74 miles), with Railfuture's nine stations.  See:

 Railfuture's full map.pdf

With best wishes

Tim

"Get Brexit done" does NOT postpone extinction.  Simply, another turn of the screw with more fossil fuel burning.  Brexit is the wrong issue that worsens the right issue - immediately cutting fossil fuel use with rationing for all.

W Mids Metro means a slower and longer journey for bus users and other road users.

It means more train overcrowding.

More clogged streets and more changes on the Worcester to Black Country to Derby principal mainline railway.

£1.5 BILLION of Metro trams for five extensions to 2026 does NOT build a more sustainable society.

Metro tram billions add to austerity, to poverty and greenhouse gases to turn planet earth into uninhabitable venus.

It is completely the wrong priority - even for transport spending!

A Johnson/Trump liaison simply builds a millionaire fools paradise for their people at the expense of the rest of us and our descendants.

Will this be the slowest and most challenging principal mainline railway in the world?

We could end up getting a commuter/regional train from Worcester; change to VLR tram at Stourbridge Jct; change to LR Metro tram at Canal Street tram stop in Brierley Hill; change to human powered pushbike from Walsall to Lichfield on the new extended cycle-walkway; and, then a proper train once more to complete the journey to Burton on Trent and Derby; but, only by first going by train, in the wrong direction, to Nuneaton!!

Letter: 'Trains and trams together' July 2019 Railnews

Michael Denholm is not comparing like with like.  The Wednesbury to Brierley Hill Metro tram extension will have 17 tram stops at every 630 metres on average, with six to ten trams an hour on only 6.7 Kms out of the 56 Kms that are available for passenger trains from Stourbridge to Burton on Trent.  The empty 56 Kms is the desperately needed middle section on the 120 Kms Black Country Mainline Railway "of national strategic significance", says Network Rail and DfT. Trams are costing £449 million for the full 10.7 Kms of road and railway running trams.  Yet, Network Rail is parting with it knowing that Birmingham stations urgently need a mainline railway to bypass them to relieve "one of the worst railway congestion bottlenecks in the UK" (BBC 'Midlands Today' reporter Peter Plisner)

The Taxpayers' Alliance, now on my side, says reinstating trains would cost £120 m, with three new stations between Stourbridge and Lichfield because every crossing for two motorways and every main road is already built for commuter, regional and intercity trains.  Why spend nearly half a billion pounds to stop the 56 Kms from being finished with fast trains on the full 120 Kms between Worcester, the Black Country and Derby?

Our wasted, empty 56 Kms has new settlements in south Staffordshire and runs through the densely populated and traffic choked Black Country boroughs with their 1 m population and about 100 Kms of railway lines destroyed for roads and buildings over the last 50 years.  The Metro tram has resulted in only three out of four platforms at Snow Hill now being used; is responsible for converting the impressive Wolverhampton Low Level principal station into an events and conference centre; and, for obliterating three or four Kms of double track railway line on either side of this former principal and busy station.

The UK tram promotion group has its HQ in the same building as Transport for West Midlands and the W Mids Combined Authority.  Hence, for nearly four decades, the money has gone into trams instead of stopping the destruction of our railway network and in returning the fast trains to the UK's only, easily reinstated, mothballed, mainline railway "of national strategic significance".

From this damning evidence, every layman must agree that West Midlands Metro, since 1981 is responsible for the biggest and longest running scandal in UK finance/transport history.  Yet, the slow "bus on rails" trams have the full and active support of every section of the railway industry, including the unions, Railfuture and every railway periodical, including 'Railnews'!