Reasons for replacing buses with "bus on rails" trams

TO ENCOURAGE TRAVEL AT A TIME OF COVID-19

AND TO BE LIKE EUROPE AT A TIME OF BREXIT!

TO ADD TO THE MULTI-MODAL MIX UP THAT IS PUBLIC TRANSPORT.

The headline benefits of this route are...

• Modal shift to Metro, resulting in journey time savings and reduced congestion along with the associated environmental benefits, such as improved air quality and reduction in noise
• Regeneration benefits including the interface with Enterprise zone, and the major developments in East Birmingham, North Solihull and the UK Central Hub
• Improving access to jobs, education and services along the East Birmingham, North Solihull corridor
• Improving connectivity to other public transport modes as part of an integrated transport network

The route is the transport element of a regeneration plan for the area. An important driver being the linking of the two HS2 termini with the Black Country by West Midlands Metro (as well as everywhere in between) and encouraging more of the general public to choose green transport options for their day-to-day travel.

When the route is open, it will increase employment opportunities across the region allowing people in this area to easily travel throughout the West Midlands. Similarly, the construction of the route would provide a number of job opportunities with the Midland Metro Alliance as we are dedicated to building the tramway with local resources and labour, ensuring the region truly benefits from the growth of the Metro network.

IN OTHER WORDS, WHATEVER THE BUS DOES THE SUPER-PRESTIGIOUS, FLASH METRO TRAM DOES, TOO.  The tram looks green and modern; the buses do not.

Faith Leaders on Covid from happening again

Covid emerged in Dec 2019 as a surprise.  Yet, our leaders failed to prepare in case it came to W Europe.  How can our faith and political leaders now prepare for the climate emergency that we have known about since 1988 when the IPCC was formed and we heard the major speeches from Margaret Thatcher and President George Bush Snr in that year?

What exactly was the reason for the virus jumping from animals to humans and how can we reduce that happening again?  Tim Weller

Now, the highest number of deaths from Covid in Europe - how true to type for Greater Than Ever Brexit Britain

Now, the highest number of deaths from Covid-19 in Europe - how true to type for Greater Than Ever Brexit Britain

December 2019 to March 2020 to prepare for the vicious virus, the authorities - local, regional and national - twiddled their thumbs. They failed to prepare for the worst while hoping for the best. Not a single thing, it seems. No contact tracing, no extra supplies of PPE, test kits and extra ventilators. But, plenty more austerity for the NHS and social care that had started in 2010.

From 1988, with the formation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, to the present to prepare for the Really Big Crisis - NOTHING. Simply, business as usual. Evermore and everlasting finite fossil fool politicians and their officers. More deadly, catastrophic greenhouse gases. We are sleepwalking into a nightmare of our own prevarication and complacency.

Wrong decision, wrong priorities from a nation that should know better

MORE MONEY SPENT MEANS MORE GREENHOUSE GASES, WORSE CLIMATE CATASTROPHE, EXTINCTION BROUGHT FORWARD - otherwise, we are doing very nicely, thank you!

1. Ten years of Tory austerity has allowed the country to have our High Status Symbol 2 train for £106 billion by 2040 and billions already spent in its first eleven years, from its start in 2009 under Gordon Brown and a Labour transport secretary.
2. Ten years of cut backs for the NHS, social care, education and, housing for the less wealthy, to allow for extravagance for the rich - and Crossrail 1 for £18 billion to help out London.
3. Ten years of government austerity has allowed the construction of tram lines as the second most expensive transport mode after High Status 2.  Even more expensive than most maglev train projects in China, Japan and South Korea.
4. Ten years of austerity and four election wins for the party that brought in austerity to bring the crises in health, housing and benefits - much less money for all three but plenty to give us £7 billion for two massive aircraft carriers AND real rises above inflation for the armed forces to support their actions in the Middle East.
5. Over £100 billion to replace our independent nuclear deterrent over the next two decades so that we can continue to sail the high seas as the monarch of all we survey.
6. Ten years of cut backs for local authorities throughout the UK but great largesse for regional devolution and a new layer of bureaucracy to run regional government.  Mrs Thatcher did away with the West Midlands Country Council in the 1980s.  The New Conservative Party has brought it back, at the most enormous expense, as the West Midlands Combined Authority.  All paid for by cut backs in core services that the less wealthy, MOSTLY rely on.
7. Ten years of many billions for brand new high status, high speed train lines for London and England and, £15 billion to 2040 for mainly slick, swish, smart looking trams for the Black Country and Brum.  Trams both underground and overground to replace dull, boring buses and overcrowded commuter trains.
8. Since December, the people's government knew all about the deadly coronavirus that, with globalisation and popular air travel, was bound to spread.  Yet, they slept at the wheel and made no plans to increase supplies of tests, PPE and ventilators in case they would be needed for the UK.  No action in January or even February.  Nothing until 16 March with Johnson's TV talk to the nation.
9. Crises with Covid-19 and the climate, both worsened because of austerity in health and social care and wrong priorities to get flash, prestigious projects to impress and to make people exclaim, 'Wow' at all the vanity projects at the expense of basic, core services.
10. Crises in health, social care, housing and education but no shortages to get trams replacing even intercity railway lines or to get High Status 2 while 24 railway schemes remain closed or unfinished or in need of improvement, modernisation.