Criticisms answered

Hi David

from:

https://www.wmca.org.uk/news/plans-to-regenerate-and-transform-dudley-town-centre-given-double-boost/  

"To mark the start of the tramway, the Mayor and Cllr Harley joined workers building a £4.33m wall at Castle Hill, which is the first physical structure of the project.  This is £4 m out of £449.5 m, plus inevitable cost overruns for the tram extension.  There is still time to point out that the tram blocks, it spoils the integrity of the full line from being used through the Black Country WITHOUT CHANGES between other modes.  The Black Country is a similar population to Brum but is very much overlooked; it is in the shadow and very much the poor relation of Brum.  Especially, rundown Dudley High Town where the tram is planned to go.  It's thriving Low Town is Castle Gate and that is exactly where the only feasible site for the Dudley Castle Gate railway station is and where the £4 m wall is being built.  A railway station is far more sensible than a tram stop for a piddling little shuttle tram line of 6 Kms that still leaves 50 Kms wasted!

"The wall is currently being built with money from a grant agreement funded from the WMCA with completion expected this summer.  The wall is part of the preparatory works.  Main works start next year, it now seems but, that may well change as it has done so many times.

"When it opens to passengers in 2023, the Metro extension from Wednesbury to Brierley Hill will offer people vastly improved transport links with up to 17 stops including Dudley Town Centre."  17 stops means the "bus on rails" (UK Tram Ltd) tram stops even more frequently than the bus that goes directly on the road, without tracks having to be laid first!  Keep the bus between Wednesbury and Merry Hill and use the mainline railway over all 120 Kms for commuter, regional and intercity trains.

Your email: "partly your fault about RailFuture as you were  unable to persuade them abut the 56 Kms Stourbridge Jct to Burton on Trent on the ready built, but only half used, 120 Kms Worcester to Derby principal mainline railway:
You need to learn how to persuade people, not hectoring them and calling them idiots.  I hope I have never called individuals 'idiots'; only their strange behaviour as idiocy or idiotic.  I have been an idiot when cycling or mountain walking at times but, never causing even more road and railway congestion and yet more greenhouse gases, as they have done and are still doing with destroying and wasting railway lines.  In fact, the full time professional transport experts wanting "bus on rails" trams instead of trains on mainline railways are the very ones who call me "an idiot" and behind my back, I've been told!
You have not answered my question about why so many european countries use Trams ? Are they all stupid too?  No.  However, there is no doubt that with hindsight, we now know that the money gone into highly expensive tram construction could have been used for reopening railway lines (like Snow Hill to Wolverhampton Low Level) and for electric buses with free fares for all and not just old crocks like me.  Tram line construction last decade was three times more expensive per Km than building the green field M6 Toll that opened in the previous decade (Dec 2003).  London and other places had electric buses with lead acid batteries in the early 1900s, according to 'A Most Deliberate Swindle' by Mick Hamer, pub 2017.
Trams are a half way house between trains and buses. They are expensive, but provide a clean and efficient way of moving people. Have you been on the WM Tram ?"  I love to use trams, David.  My wife and I have used them in Europe and we like them.  I use the Midland Metro, even on the latest extension to the library, and have never had to pay for the last twelve years because of my advanced years.  I don't love the very hard plastic seats that look so soft, comfortable and inviting as though you can gently sink into them.  You get a rude awakening!  I can even cycle alongside the Metro One line and have often done so since 1999 and, well before the tram works started in 1995 or '96.

BACK TO BLACK:

Manchester and many European places have successful "bus on rails" tram networks that are all brilliant.  But this does not deny my point that the many billions of pounds and euros that have been spent could have gone to give everyone free fare, electric bus rides without the disruption and expense of rail tracks, first.  And that would have been much more effective in relieving road congestion and air pollution; as well as pumping out fewer global warming greenhouse gases.  Do you agree, David?

I know the trams are coming to Dudley but TfWM/WMCA are still promising the trains too.  We now, David have to encourage them to put the commuter and regional trains back on the full length to finish the 120 Kms.  It can still be intercity trains as we had for 100 years.  Certainly, regional and commuter trains with two changes for the tram to make progress along the full length of the line.  Will you help me, please?

Thanks for writing.  Please keep in contact and keep telling me where I am going wrong.  It is really good of you to show an interest.  You are almost the only one!!  But Andy Street is on board for trains to return, everywhere, except where he is told they must be trams, as in the Black Country!  We have to support him, as I am doing; publicly, too at his meetings.  But not over HS2.

All the best.  See my photos, below.

Tim 

--

MY TWO FAVOURITE PHOTOS of all time - the oversight was described by one person as 'bizarre'; another called it 'bonkers'.

Wasted 56 Kms Stourbridge Jct to Burton on Trent on the ready built, but only half used, 120 Kms Worcester to Derby principal mainline railway:

 M6 Toll banner 01.jpg

 M6 Toll 03.jpg

MISSION STATEMENT

Burton to Bristol via Brierley Hill; Derby to Devon via Dudley - by TRAIN not "bus on rails" trams as they are wanting, plus new extended cycle-walkway!

Excellent Dudley Museum

Dear friends

I came across this wonderful, well presented Dudley Museum that includes many exhibits and one dinosaur that made me jump as it unexpectedly burst into life behind me!  There was also attractive information about the Black Country UNESCO Geopark and two videos on a loop in the video room.  There was an art gallery and a Dudley heroes galley to be seen, too.

I was there for about an hour and a half, this morning but saw only one couple.  There needs to be lots of attractive signs to our brand new museum from each of the other four tourist/leisure attractions that are on either side of the Archives and Local History Centre.  Visitors to the Living Museum, the Portal and Zoological Gardens/Castle should not be missing out.  They are certainly doing so, now.  Signs are needed, I think from both the old, top town and the new, Castle Gate, low town centre.  Signs on the walking/cycling routes, please including to the canal towpath that takes walkers and cyclists to Brum.  The land train route needs to be much better signed, in my opinion and, the white railway type gate kept unlocked during the daytime.

I also noticed that the smart, top quality Station Hotel is missed out from the Accommodation brochure.  The other three hotels at Castle Gate are all included.  This is a serious omission and the owner should be rightly upset.  The useful 'Discover Dudley' brochure has the Village Hotel Club featured but, the older and more established Station Hotel, once again, is not.  Also missing is the 100 years of successful service to Dudley town - the railway station.  It was once important and, like Station Hotel, must have had visitors/passengers from London and the North, in past years.  It could do so again, of course.  Hint, hint!

Best wishes

The Black Country Ghost Train Attraction

The Black Country Ghost Train attraction

There is still time to stop Brum palming us fine Black Country people off with a piddling little shuttle tram line. This, on our own mainline railway to our neighbours' in Sandwell. Ours gets completely ruined in the process. How scandalous and stupid is that?

STATION Hotel, that smart top hotel opposite the site of the railway station, has to put up with a tram stop of all things. Giving it the trains back will help it flourish between traditional old Dudley town and new, low town at Castle Gate.

Please protest, act and insist that we get the proper thing back - TRAINS, once more on all 120 Kms between Worcester and Derby, through Dudley.

​

OR,

Beware of audacious, dishonest scam  

1. Digging up roads and wrecking any prospect of completing our 120 Kms mainline railway is done to replace diesel buses/trains with electric trams.
2. It is turning a mole hill into a mountain.
3. No mole hill exists because the tram brainwave is a solution looking for a problem.  And this has gone on since 1981 but, in this decade it has taken off - big time.
4. Road digging, moving pipes and cables and overhead power lines all makes tram extensions the world's second most expensive form of transport after HS2.  SOURCE:
   
    Like for like comparison of infrastructure buil...
5. Even more expensive than nearly every Maglev train project in Japan, South Korea and China!
6. All you need are electric, fareless buses on 100% bus lanes, with traffic light priority to speed buses and inconvenience car commuters but help those who must use vehicles. 
7. Democracy is denied to drive through, autocratically, that road digging, railway wrecking project.
8. It appears that not one political party, even the Green Party, has ever discussed and then voted on the wisdom of spending over £1.5 BILLION for the 32 Kms and five schemes in the Black Country and Brum.
9. Every political party wants trams.  Everyone includes them in their manifestos.  But with no democratic legitimacy.
10. Not one council in membership of the Combined Authority has ever voted to approve this massive expenditure.
11. The HQ of the Combined Authority shares the building with the HQ of the national tram promotion group.  Vested interests.  Improper influence.  Complicity, collusion, corruption.  That explains it all in upstanding, Boris's Brexit Britain!
12. Maintaining the first very expensive tram on a railway line meant every tram was replaced after only 17 years and the track after 18 years.  And, four business in Bilston went bust over the many months of work!

Not Facebook but face to face on Mon 4 Feb 2019

Rough Sleepers and very rough justice  RAISE THE ISSUE ONLINE!

I know that Ernest and Clare are organising an official HGJG meeting for Feb.  This is an additional one for those who are as concerned as I am about injustice, idiocy and ignorance right on our doorstep.

Please come to my home, 28 Hunnington Cres  Halesowen B63 3DJ (3 storey town house with red car) at 7.30 pm on Monday 4 Feb - a week today.  The idea is for us to ask questions on Dudley Council's online forum two days later.  My ideas are below.  Let's discuss all our concerns and, perhaps, get some positive, practical and sensible action from our elected councillors.

"Online forums

If you are unable to join us at a community forum meeting you can still take part through our online forums which take place on the council's Dudley Borough Facebook page and @DudleyMBC Twitter feed, from 6-7pm ahead of each round of community forum meetings. Questions and issues raised via Facebook and Twitter are forwarded onto the relevant council service to be dealt with."  https://www.dudley.gov.uk/council-community/community-council/

For me, Ernest, you are one showing real leadership over what is going so wrong in our borough.  Rough sleepers are the iceberg because they are so visible on our streets.  I think they are symptomatic of inadequate housing provision, of overcrowding and desperate poverty that, regrettably means that voluntary food banks are essential to stop some from starving.  This, in an extremely wealthy nation - in the top five - out of over 190 nations in the UN.  THIS IS A SCANDAL.

Our nation is so obscenely rich, we are now seeing the spending of the grossly immoral £1.38 BILLION to replace only some buses and to destroy any hope of commuter and regional trains from returning, one day, to our own railway "of national and strategic significance" to relieve chronic road and railway congestion in the Black Country and Brum.

QUESTIONS FOR DUDLEY COUNCIL'S 6 FEB ONLINE FORUM - from the comfort of your living room

How about saving the facade of Dudley Hippodrome and building apartments, behind, for first time buyers, and tenants? Or, supported housing for rough sleepers?

What about a new Dudley Central Mosque to replace the shabby, shameful one when the flash, glitzy and glamorous and gloriously expensive trams come swishing by?

Ever thought of putting commuter and regional trains on your wasted railway at new town centre, Castle Gate?  A station there to get passengers to Walsall and beyond and, to Brum by TRAIN!

Is it really just and moral to spend over £343 m to build a most impressive looking electric tram through rundown Dudley town centre when buses are already doing the job just as well and there are many low income Dudley residents who might appreciate free bus use, as disabled and elderly people like me have had for over ten years? Or, the money used for the NHS? Or, free NHS car parks?

In addition, over £2.5 m for each new tram at ten times the price of a new double decker bus.

One disgraceful looking Dudley Central Mosque, a casino, an unusual looking JW Kingdom Hall, a martial arts centre and one wasted Hippodrome are all on Castle Hill dual carriageway. That line of interesting looking buildings is relieved by a smart and most presentable Station Hotel. Yet, the reinstatement of the station, opposite the hotel to relieve congestion and poisonous air and to slow human climate change is not even wanted by our leaders. They only want a piddling little shuttle tram stop to shuttle passengers on our former, half finished, mainline railway to our neighbour's mainline railway at Dudley Port that is in Sandwell!

Tim Weller   Independent candidate for W Mids Metro Mayor 2020 to instil some urgency into how changes in transport policy can reduce the impact of human climate change and postpone Attenborough's "collapse of civilisations" and "extinction of much of the natural world" warning.

Are our taxes being wasted on the Hippodrome and Metro?

Dear Sarah, Helen and FoI team.  Could Sean, at 16 Summer Lane, also help with the answers to the financial questions, please?

"Curtain up on many more years of misery"  Halesowen Chronicle dated 29 March 2018

Could you please give me the answers to these questions?

1. For how much money did Dudley MBC buy the Hippodrome Theatre?
2. When did the council buy it?
3. What company or organisation or individual did you buy it from?
4. Why did you buy it?  What was the original intention and plan?
5. What were Cllr Patrick's "exciting plans" for the Hippo that would end "years of misery"?
6. Was it to create a leisure and tourism hub to rival that of the four at the foot of Castle Hill?
7. How many years or months after the purchase was the decision made to demolish it?
8. Why was it not sold to the private company who wanted to buy it for £8 m?
9. Please name the private company.

Metro trams will revive Dudley town centre with investors pouring in to make their wealth

1. For how long has Cavendish every window smashed House been empty?
2. What are the plans?
3. When will the plans for the site start to come to fruition?
4. For how long has the other huge office block in Flood Street been empty?
5. Are there any plans for it?
6. Am I right in thinking that the flash, glitzy, "all that glisters is not gold", Metro tram will run down both Flood Street and past Cavendish House?
7. When did the last investor move in to Dudley town centre on hearing the good news that trams were finally going to arrive, after 37 years of trying?
8. Is it true that, from a newspaper report in 2016, Dudley was the fifth worst town centre of its size for empty shops - more than 20%?
9. What is the most recent figure?
10. Is there evidence to suggest that it is very largely only local people who shop in Dudley town?
11. What research has been done to find out what proportion of Dudley town's people shop at Merry Hill Shopping Centre?
12. Has there been any market research done to find out how many Dudley folk will jump on the tram for shopping at Merry Hill?
13. When did Beatties department store move out?
14. When does a town centre officially become a ghost town?
15. Do the two huge, largely empty car parks that the trams will run past indicate that Dudley top town is, in fact, now a ghost town?
16. What is the latest figure for the cost of building "bus on rails" trams to pour into Dudley town centre at the rate of six to ten trams an hour?
17. In 2016, it jumped from £310 m to £343 million, plus cost overruns from unforeseen difficulties.
18. Of the new figure, how much are council taxpayers in the West Midlands paying?
19. How much of the second devolution deal will be going to pay for Dudley's extravagant and inappropriate 11 Kms WBHE?
20. Can over £31 m/Km to block, for ever, any hope of finally finishing the 120 Kms Black Country Railway be regarded as prudent, sensible expenditure?
21. Does Helen Martin now regard Dudley low town at Castle Gate as being regenerated and high town as a 'rundown centre'?

Dudley Central Mosque

1. To promote good community relations, does your council give any time or, even any thought, to the Muslim's community long standing wish for a purpose built mosque in or next to Dudley town centre?
2. Has it occurred to you that the smart, flashy tram will run straight past the present unfortunate building that is the mosque?
3. What are the present plans for the Hall Street site that was denied to the Muslims?

With thanks for your help in these matters.  Like two years ago, I will refer the matter to the Local Government Ombudsman if there is no complete and full response by the end of this month.

Best wishes

Tim Weller