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.

 

Discussion between Cllr Chris Barnett and self

8 December 2020

Hello everyone - to try and influence you all!  Did you see 'Panorama' on Monday night?  It is urgent that we start acting - and not acting the bumbling fool, either!

You wrote:

"I appreciate the direction of your point 4.  To finish the Dudley Railway to Derby via Walsall and Lichfield that doesn't get trams and the 2 Kms test track (8.7 Kms out of 56 Kms).  I understand that current developments will prevent a direct rail connection from Stourbridge through to Derby but despite that there remains opportunity for some of the rail route to be completed.  Yes!  What would be the tangible benefits of doing that?  Less congestion on rail and road.  Lower greenhouse gas emissions - ESSENTIAL, URGENT!  Better transport to work? Yes!  Energy efficient freight handling?  Yes!  And probably needed as, thankfully, Metro trams are no longer going on the Camp Hill Line (Kings Norton, Kings Heath, Moseley, Highgate to Grand Central railway) because those freight trains MAY need to come onto ours!  I'd like to see more of what benefits would be gained from such a development." It will be a world first, multi-modal, train-tram-train railway between Worcester, Black Country and Derby - but, only if you STOP the 2 Kms VLR test track through Castle Hill tunnel to Cinder Bank roundabout.

You are right!  There does remain an opportunity for some of the rail route to be completed but you have to tell Qadar, Malcolm Holmes, Andy Street and Chief Exec Deborah Cadman.  They are fed up with me telling them, I'm sure.  All of you need to speak to each other as to how you can rescue the situation.

I wrote:

5.  Put solar panels on every E, W, S facing roof.  Every building a mini power station for their own energy use.

6.  Insulate every building for minimum heating.

You wrote:

Points 5 & 6 are definitely part of the plan.  At least in some way.  There will be financial, logistical and other issues with doing this in every possible location but it's a worthy target.  All of you, need to listen to Attenborough, Thunberg, Rowlatt and the scientists on yesterday's 'Panorama' and, the Paris Agreement.

I wrote:

7.  Bring in fuel rationing from 1973/4 and the coupons from then - just dust them off!

You wrote:

"Point 7. You got me here.  I'm pretty sure this wouldn't be popular in any way.  I do appreciate the sentiment though.  We all need to be aware of how much energy we are using and take steps to reduce that wherever possible.  Fuel rationing would unfairly discriminate against the least well-off living in energy inefficient homes.  Besides which, I'm sure that you are already aware of how controversial fuel rationing would be?"

"Plans were made for petrol rationing and coupons printed and distributed.  The national speed limit was cut by 20 mph to 50 mph to save fuel.  Then in January 1974 came the announcement of a three day working week."  Andrew Marr, 'A History of Modern Britain', p 340.  Worth reading in full!  Last month, "the Netherlands cut the daytime speed limit for traffic in the daytime to 100 kph, in an effort to tackle an emissions pollution crisis and improve air quality. ... And in October, German lawmakers overwhelmingly voted against a Greens proposal to impose speed limits."

from:

https://www.dw.com/en/germany-urged-to-tackle-climate-change-with-speed-limits/a-51541709

My new car insurance is now based on 7,000 miles for 2021.  It had been 14,000 for this year but I did only 6,000.  That is one good way of making the oil last longer, to reduce dangerous greenhouse gases; as well as cruising at between 60 and 70 on motorways to keep my fuel consumption down to well over 60 and sometimes even over 70 mpg!  I now keep to 70 mph on motorways, unless overtaking and can then, usually, get to 70 mpg.

I wrote:

8.  Bring in Fare-Free Public Transport paid for from abandoning anymore £15 BILLION Metro tram and £106 BILLION HS2 extensions.  Fareless buses, trains, trams as reward/compensation on bus priority roads.  Not just for old crocks like me but EVERYONE!

You wrote:

Point 8. Free public transport would be a huge and very brave political decision for the government nationally.  I think it would be of tremendous benefit to the least well off.  It would do something to address issues of income inequality in the poorest and retired households.  That is brilliant that you agree!  Dunkirk in France, Luxembourg and Tallinn in Estonia do it amongst about 100 towns and cities throughout the world.  Even about 50 in the USA, if I remember correctly.

Can the Climate Change working group be open to observers on Zoom?  I would like to be one, of course!

Where can we see the minutes of what is said and decided, please?

What are the dates?

Matt Rogers: How can members of the public join Zoom committee meetings for the input from the public section, please?

Decision makers can be influenced!

Many thanks, Pam.  Much appreciated.  You are quite right, of course.

This WOM business seems to have been resurrected by Maria who was on TV last week, I think!

Her address is  mcadmin@midlandsconnect.uk

She is another of the transport bosses who are all stuck fast in the grossly extravagant and irresponsible tram rut of putting this "bus on rails" on a half finished mainline "railway of national strategic significance", instead of doing the bleeding obvious!

Other addresses are here:​

 May 2018 A5 flyer - double sided

​

Please flood them with e-mails just saying, perhaps, those five words: 'WESTERN BYPASS RAILWAY BEFORE tramway or motorway'.  Or, whatever you want to say but, say 'Yes' to something better, so as not to appear negative.  Thanks!

Pam's "decision makers" can be moved/changed.  We can change what seems inevitable eg:

1. In the 1990s, we stopped both the 16 Kms KBH and the 87 Kms WOM in their tracks!  That was a huge victory.
2. 2015 decision to put trains not trams, after all, on the 9 Kms Camp Hill railway in Brum.
3. 2016 decision for train operating companies to bid for the new franchise by putting forward a proposed passenger service on the half used 120 Kms Black Country Railway.
4. 2017 decision to put trains on our main line railway from Stourbridge Junction to Canal Street tram stop at Hart's Hill.  This was a step in the right direction but needs to go all the way to Burton on Trent, of course.
5. A paper decision in a letter to me on 8 September 2000 to get the freight and passenger trains back but, the very costly "bus on rails" trams must be done first - you pay twice to get what you say you really want all along - a proper railway passenger service!
6. The decision to put the Very Light Rail test track on the railway from Dudley Castle Hill to Dudley Port was reversed in 2015 or 2016.  It now goes in the opposite direction.  However, still, on a nationally important railway!!
7. 8 March 2018 letter, Network Fail and the DfT finally conceded that our railway is "of national strategic significance".
8. More recorded here:​
   
    10 quotes: Bring the ghost of Queen Victoria ba...
   ​

MANY THANKS TO YOU ALL.  PEOPLE POWER; PEOPLE PRESSURE; PEOPLE PREVAIL!

Tim

GOOD NEWS

GOOD NEWS

Twelve months ago, in the  December 2015 Strategic Transport Plan, the plan for "buses on rails" on the 9 Km Camp Hill line was reversed and now it is down for passenger trains and stations to be, eventually, reinstated.

From September 2016, the DfT is wanting the tocs, that are up for franchise renewal or commission, to see if Worcester, Black Country, Derby man line could be progressed and delivered in the future." (W Mids Stakeholder Briefing Document, Sept 2016, paras​ 5.49 and 50)
In October 2016, Chris Grayling talked of "a looming capacity crisis on our railway network."  Completing the 120 Km strategic railway between Worcester and Derby would be a huge help to him, if you could please mention it to him when you next meet him, Stephen.
In November 2016, a TfWM/WMCA report spoke of "the expansion of the West Midlands Rail franchise."  (See quote 1, below.) But, it meant only passenger trains on Brum's double track railway lines, not ours in the Black Country!

EVIDENCE:

106 Kms = 56 Km Stourbridge to Burton - still nothing after 50 years

            +39 Km Camp Hill and Sutton lines - now all down for trains and nothing for "buses on rails" even after 35 years of being very trying.

            +11 Km Walsall to Wolverhampton - still nothing after one failed attempt (it went off half cock) at a passenger train service last decade.  They chose the wrong line. It should have been Stourbridge to Burton but, that was down for "buses on rails" on 20 Km, to be achieved in tiny, nibble sized chunks.

Meantime, over the last 50 years, London and the SE got

• new underground and overground lines
• Eurotunnel
• HS1
• Cross Rail 1 - and, Crossrail 2 to go ahead.
• Docklands Light Railway - superb, driverless, automatic trams swinging in, out and through buildings and linked at both ends to the London Underground.
• Thames Link

The Black Country and Brum got:

• "buses on rails" as second best, on a train line, after Terry Davis MP of Hodge Hill stopped Midland Metro going through his constituency of Hodge Hill in the 1980s or 90s.
• Wolverhampton Low Level railway station demolished and 2 Kms of double track railway line lost.
• Only one railway re-opening of 6 Km between Moor Street and Smethwick Galton Bridge
• The Brum, north-south, Cross City line was upgraded, with two or three new stations, I believe (University, Five Ways - any others?)
• Brum is still bereft of its desperately needed additional tunnels and platforms at New Street.  But, a £3/4 billion, magnificent, 'all that glisters is not gold' shopping centre and diesel perfumed railway station tagged along as an afterthought in the basement of the John Lewis store.
• A 1990 (circa) monorail at Merry Hill Shopping Centre that soon closed when it fell short by 400 metres of the Worcester, Black Country, Derby nationally important railway line that was never reinstated then or, still to this day.  This must be the absolute exemplification of both stupidity and incompetence! Or, was it meant to be one ever so funny joke by the authorities and I have missed the humour of it all?

The rest of the UK got:

• 6 trams systems - Blackpool, Manchester Metrolink, Sheffield Supertram, Croydon Tramlink, Nottingham NET and Edinburgh (Edinburgh cost for 14 Km and 15 tram stops is over one billion pounds over the 30 years of loan repayments and, the bus is quicker and cheaper, anyway - in 2016!)
• UPDATE: In April 2018, 6 out of the 7 have extensions planned or being built.  Not Croydon.