Elected members are uninterested, uncaring and uninformed

Dear Richard, Chris and Bob

Elected members are uninterested, uncaring and uninformed

I would love you to join me in highlighting how democracy is failing and that we need to concentrate on trying to get the present people fired up, concerned and active.

We have also had new, very well staffed organisations: the WMCA, and Midlands Connect, that have arisen over the last few years.  This means the most enormous salary bill that we are all footing the bill for.  Extraordinary!

Climate ecocide and shortages of fossil fuels and other resources like critical minerals are continuing as we bow to the foolish cry for economic growth/greed to solve all our problems.  Thus, we have:

• About 100 Kms of West Midlands railway lines bulldozed and built on.
• Seven railway lines now destroyed in my own Dudley borough.
• Constant building, demolition and rebuilding with the numbers of tower cranes in double figures, I guess.
• When homes are built, they are still not being built to high energy efficient standards.  Not even passive solar heating, let alone active solar.
• Last decade, two councillors at the Cradley community forum when I tried to get them to understand that our very own Black Country Railway was being destroyed and broken up into three different rail modes, told me that that was something councillors did not cover and redirected me to talk to Transport for W Midlands!
• When I spoke to our very own dear Jules at our demo outside Wolverhampton Civic Centre, he did not know that 16 Summer Lane was the regional HQ of Transport and the WMCA (and Tram UK!).  But he was critical of what I was doing!
• Our top officials and our elected members and MPs declare climate emergencies but then do nothing, apart from business as usual to rack up all our problems.
• Since September 2001, we have had 'The Exchange' at Centenary Square being quite relaxed about their magnificent Grade 2 listed front doors being open throughout the day to let the warm air out and the cold air in.  A most colossal energy bill for them - the University of Brum, no less - and yet another example of climate ecocidal behaviour for a grim future.
• The UK's major, urban-rural-urban, 22 Kms cycle-walkway is a mudway over some of its length and unsatisfactory over its entire length when compared with the 20 miles of the Gryffe Cycle-Walkway, west of Glasgow.
• My own MP is not interested in anything, it seems and does not think anything is going wrong.  He is the epitomy of negligence, of acquiescence, of apathy and collusion with whatever the authorities want.

Never, ever by anyone, a spark of interest to check, challenge and question!

WBHE Four Options

 THE FOUR OPTIONS

1. Terminate the trams in Dudley town centre with Phase 1 complete and cancel Phase 2.  The best for climate.
2. Do Phase 2 when you have all the money - to Cottage Street.  The most expensive in terms of money and in worsening your declared climate emergency.
3. Terminate Phase 2 at Level Street, halfway between the shops and the Waterfront.  Saves building the second canal bridge and 400 m viaduct.  Saves money and greenhouse gas emissions.
4. Build Phase 2 so the trams stay on the railway line to connect with the national railway network at Stourbridge Jct and run the freight trains at night.  Saves building both canal bridges and the viaduct.  Saves money and greenhouse gas emissions.

to Mark Richards re carbon, trams and Porritt

Hi Mark

It was brilliant to read your email.  Thanks so much.

What I have been on about since the 1990s is this:

QUESTION:

When the authorities have built a principal mainline railway between Derby, Dudley and Devon or, Burton on Trent, Brierley Hill and Bristol but, in the middle, a 56 Kms length of double track railway line is there but not used, what would you do with those unused railway lines, Mark?

ANSWERS to choose from:

(a) Cycles and for walking, horse riding?

(b) 22 mph average speed trams that stop more frequently than buses?

(c) Commuter/regional/intercity passenger trains and for freight trains?

(d) Trees and shrubs?

(e) Fresh air?

The experts have chosen a, b, d and e.  What would you choose, Mark?

You wrote, "Public transport is obviously central to the CO2 reduction plans."

Does that mean building £100 billion HS2, £15 billion Metro network and £1 billion Sprint network?

Or, does it mean using that money for urgent retrofitting and modal shift to the workhorse of public transport, the bus.  Plus, car commuters rewarded with leaving their cars at home with bus-priority measures, AND the Fare-Free Public Transport that I've had for 15 years?

See you Monday.

Tim

PS bonus from my mentor and hero!

ME: The more we spend, the more we burn fossil fuels, it seems to me.  Have I got this right? SELF, 16 February 2019

PORRITT: “More or less right! … ” 

"Just one caveat: as we decarbonise our grid, we’ll obviously be burning rather less of the reserves of remaining fossil fuels, and relying more on green electrons. But the rule of thumb still holds for the time being!"  SIR JONATHON PORRITT, 17 Feb 2019

On Fri, 24 Mar 2023 at 16:39, Mark richards <markrobsearby64@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Tim, I hope you’re well, apologies for the delay in replying, it’s partly that I’ve been on a break and not looking at my emails and partly that this issue is so complex that I don’t have time to engage my head in it fully.
I appreciate your commitment to it and your ability to hold all of that detail (!!!) but I have to admit that I get a bit lost with it.
I didn’t want to be ignoring you.
I am clear that it’s madness to create all those miles of transport and not link up to Stourbridge Junction, which has direct trains to London and out to Worcester and beyond.
I also agree with you that it’s lunacy not to use existing lines for any new transport links.
The rest of the detail I’m not so familiar with, but it’s clear that you’ve studied it all.
I think that it’s going to be tough changing their plans at this stage.
It might be possible to open a dialogue with them about protecting and replanting the green spaces.
At the moment my spare time is taken by Friends of the Earth projects around climate change, retro fitting of houses (Warm Homes campaign) and plastic.
Public transport is obviously central to the CO2 reduction plans.
I looking forward to seeing you at Scrutiny on Monday.
All the best,
Mark

Sent from my iPhone

Dudley's emails and customer services

Dudley's address is dudleycouncilplus@dudley.gov.uk and their leaders' addresses: Cllr.Patrick.Harley@dudleymbc.org.uk   Kevin.OKeefe@dudley.gov.uk     Cllr.Qadar.Zada@dudleymbc.org.uk (leader of the Opposition)

 

And the three Customer Services, here:

customerservices@westmidlandsmetro.com;

customerservices@tfwm.org.uk; 

customerservices@wmca.org.uk

MISSPENDING SCANDAL ON A MASSIVE SCALE!

Hundreds of millions of our money is being wasted to

• break up (destroy) the half-finished, 120 Kms Black Country Railway "of national strategic significance" between Worcester and Derby into both tramway and a regional railway;
• to turn the whole of the nearest thing that Merry Hill Shopping Centre has to a wildlife site and public open space into a double-track railway/tram viaduct.
• This, alongside the premier 'Dudley No 1 Canal'.
• Over half a BILLION pounds to still leave 47 Kms with NOTHING but fresh air!

WRITE, SPEAK, TEXT to:

Customer Services    customerservices@tfwm.org.uk

Customer Services at WMCA     customerservices@wmca.org.uk

George Duggins     george.duggins@coventry.gov.uk

Ian Brookfield    ian.brookfield@wolverhampton.gov.uk

Ian Courts    icourts@solihull.gov.uk

Ian Ward    Ian.Ward@birmingham.gov.uk

Mike Bird    cllr.mike.bird@walsall.gov.uk

Patrick Harley    Cllr.Patrick.Harley@dudleymbc.org.uk

Rajbir Singh    Rajbir_Singh@sandwell.gov.uk

Deborah Cadman    deborah.cadman@birmingham.gov.uk

Dr Helen Paterson    Helen.Paterson@walsall.gov.uk

Kevin O'Keefe (Kerry Jones)    Kevin.OKeefe@dudley.gov.uk

Kim Bromley-Derry    Kim_BromleyDerry@sandwell.gov.uk

Martin Reeves    martin.reeves@coventry.gov.uk

Nick Page    npage@solihull.gov.uk

Tim Johnson    tim.johnson@wolverhampton.gov.uk

Midlands Connect    mcstrategy@midlandsconnect.uk

CONCRETE MANIA MUCKS UP PUBLIC TRANSPORT!

Can there be an explanation for the extraordinary bungled closure of Five Ways underpass to every single bus from now to eternity, with the two most colossal crash barriers I have ever seen.  This is no way to address climate or congestion or vehicle pollution or resource depletion!

With the closure and built destruction of the Dudley to Brum Railway (and the 7th is well on its way!), can Dudley buses be given priority to use Broad Street, if only two or three routes can use it from now on?

Concrete and brick was used for Dudley No 2 Canal restoration but made the embankment at risk of collapse!  Why was such a clanger dropped?  What will the authorities do to put right their own incompetence?

Concrete is used for the double-track tram viaduct to smother the whole of the Dudley No 1 Canal embankment, the only public open space at Merry Hill.  What are the alternatives?

Concrete is highly greenhouse gas intensive.  Please do NOT use it fill the waterlogging, or the great puddles on the 22 Kms Black Country Cycle-Walk Mudway!

Dishonourable and Dysfunctional Dudley MBC refuses to put right its own incompetence

TWO CANALS TAINTED BY DUDLEY'S LESS THAN MAGIC TOUCH!

Just as it took over 40 years to force HMG to discharge a £400 m "legitimate" debt to Iran, after only 25 years, Dudley MBC still has absolutely no intention to put right its own unbelievable failings in spending a quarter of a million pounds of public money in overseeing the work of Barhale Construction Services in executing the most perfectly incompetent and useless canal restoration in the history of the UK.

This was Dudley No 2 Canal, aka the Lapal Canal, in 1997 when a 400 metre section of the canal was supposedly 'restored' but never fully filled with water for fear of collapse of the canal embankment.

Dudley Council is also involved in completely destroying the one and only public open space at Merry Hill Shopping Centre with a 400 metre concrete viaduct right on top of the steep canal embankment, when it could go on steel stilts directly above the water of the canal.  And, probably, at less cost.

This is in addition to six Dudley railway lines completely obliterated and a seventh, a railway "of national strategic significance", well on its way to the unfortunate rail graveyard in the sky!

Earlier this year, a very modest improvement to fewer than ten stiles on public rights of way by putting steps on them cost over £9,000, I have been told.

Dishonourable and Dysfunctional Dudley MBC refuses to put right its own incompetence

Dudley stiles needing steps

to Antony, Heidi, Kevin, Roy, Iain, Tim, bcc: Ed, bcc: Eileen

Dear friends

Thank you for the much better stiles that now have steps - all over the place - and can be got over.  A wonderful improvement.  BRILLIANT!

However, there are still many more to do - ESPECIALLY, PLEASE:

HLS0093  where it meets Illey Lane at Illey Mill.  This one is really awkward but is useful because it gives access to the full footpath network and is near a well-used car park in a layby on Illey Lane.

and

HLS0078 where it meets Illey Lane and is on the Monarch's Way.  Here, there is space to squeeze through next to the stile, so not so urgent.

But this is urgent:

Also 62 where it meets 63 and 66.  A high stile with no step.

I am using them more these days. I'm getting older and it's getting more difficult to climb stiles.  PLEASE HELP and all the many other walkers!

The footbridge at the W end of 66 needs some repairs to the floor, please.

Far worse is the footbridge on 89 that is so dangerous it needs replacing.

GP's are now prescribing walking for the active, carbon-free travel that it is.  Dudley must help its council taxpayers to stay fit in this way, please.

The Council Budget

Dear Steve Clark

You have declared a climate emergency but nothing has changed.  There has been no difference whatsoever, except a worsened prognosis for humanity. Declaring a climate emergency and doing nothing about it is hypocritical.  Making things even worse by continuing with carry on regardless, business as usual is doubly hypocritical and extremely foolish.

SCRAP over half a billion pounds on destroying the UK's last, principal mainline railway from Derby to Devon via DUDLEY - our town and the largest by population without a railway station.  But the railway and station were so successful for 100 years!

INSULATE every building in Dudley.

PUT PV Solar on every S, E, W, even north roof.

CUT spending on prestigious, over-indulgent projects that boost greenhouse gases - like Metro.

SPEND on cutting greenhouse gases in the medium to long term, even though in the short term they add to the runaway greenhouse effect.

ENCOURAGE AND BOOST ACTIVE TRAVEL by transforming the 22 Kms Black Country Cycle-Walk Mudway for responsible shared use by all self-powered travellers  - walkers, mobility scooters, cyclists, horse riders.

DEMOCRACY BRINGS: Rotten Rule from Right Wing Conservative and Labour Councils and Governments

1. Fully support the UK's 8 tax havens for the super-rich to maintain their greed and selfishness.
2. For 40 years, this year, have unanimously supported the reinstatement of their earlier obliteration of the tram network by putting it on the railway network that they also destroyed with the trams and, with the bizarre conviction, that cars, vans, lorries, homes, offices and shops must run down the railway lines but never ever trains.
3. Since 2009 have fully supported the move for frequent flyers to have the option of flying through the air on land, as well as the air, by the gift of High Scam 2 that only stops at the Four Big Cities and two of their airports.  Some High Scam trains may also stop at Crewe, Toton, Chesterfield and Sheffield.
4. Fully supported their friends who, in the 90s and 00s, fought against allowing Dudley Muslims from upgrading their Central Mosque from an externally shabby Grade 2 listed primary school building into a purpose-built mosque that would also have been available for the rest of the non-Muslim community.
5. This is now the fifth decade of every MP and every councillor of every party, except the one-term Green Party councillor, who have all wanted and fully supported NOT the reinstatement of Dudley Castle Hill railway station to finish the already built, 120  Kms (74 miles) principal, mainline Black Country Railway but, wait for it, a piddling little tram stop, of all things!!
6. Yet, many want city status for Dudley borough.  A city for the largest town in the UK without a railway station!
7. Following the very bad example of Wyre Forest DC in wasting resources and adding to the runaway greenhouse effect, Dudley MBC is also moving their 1980s (?) and popular leisure centre all of one kilometre from the edge of town to the centre of town!
8. These right-wing politicians and planners think this is the best way to regenerate Dudley town centre - with tram stops and a brand new leisure centre - rather than highly energy efficient, small to moderate-sized homes that are very cheap to heat, have PV solar and allow the countryside to be used for farming to feed us all.
9. Trams to have more Dudley shoppers shopping at Merry Hill instead of in their own shops.
10. One billion pounds of greenhouse gases is being built, not to insulate every building in the borough but to bring glitzy, glamorous, over-indulgent, super-flash, wealth flaunting everything else.  Super immature, super-dopey and misguided.
11. No cycle-walkway on even one side of Duncan Edwards Way.  Only a tramway next to the important, wasted railway line!
12. The 22 Kms Black Country Cycle-Walk Mudway remains just that!

Dudley's Seven Smashed railway lines!

1. Dudley to Wolverhampton
2. Dudley to Brum
3. Dudley to Halesowen
4. Brierley Hill to Gornalwood via Pensnett (Black Country Cycle-Walk Mudway)
5. Brierley Hill to Himley via Brockmoor and Bromley.
6. Wall Heath to Gospel End via Baggeridge Country Park.
7. Derby, Dudley, Devon principal mainline via Walsall and Worcester.

Eccentric game changer - changing a mainline railway into a tramway!

Mayor of the West Midlands and chair of the WMCA Andy Street, said:

The Wednesbury to Brierley Hill Metro extension will be a game-changer for the Black Country as it will help to boost public transport whilst providing much-needed links to the existing rail and bus networks.

There are already links to the bus network with large bus stations at Dudley and at Merry Hill on the route of the tramway.  And, a forgotten link to the nearby, half-used railway!

The existing bus route is to be duplicated by a tramway that also uses the Derby to Devon via Dudley principal mainline railway that gets destroyed in the process!!

All for half a billion pounds (£500 m) for only 10 Kms!!

Scotland rebuilt a railway of 50 Kms for only £350 m in September 2015.

The foolish authorities even built a link between the nearby mainline railway at the Waterfront and the bus station at Merry Hill.  But, they forgot to extend it, only 400 metres further, from the Waterfront car park, to the principal mainline railway between Worcester and Derby - and, to finish the railway with passenger trains, too!

“An elevated monorail was officially opened at the Merry Hill Centre on June 1st 1991, costing £22,000,000 to build." 

"The monorail was broken up in 1996 and sold to a shopping centre in Queensland, Australia."  (Google search)

METRO BLUNDERS GALORE!

THIS IS WANT THE TOP OFFICERS HAVE TOLD ME:

You've got to have Metro through Dudley first, as the catalyst for reopening the Worcester to Burton on Trent railway.

The construction for Metro has passive provision for commuter and regional trains to be added later.  Yet, only some railway bridges are being strengthened to carry heavy railway trains at a later date!

THEIR INCOMPETENCE:

Building the Derby to Devon via  Dudley railway line and then forgetting to finish it between Stourbridge and Burton on Trent with passenger and freight trains - and the stations, too!

Dudley/Sandwell to Brum buses get pushed out of Five Ways underpass and Broad Street to have a longer and slower diversion on narrow roads with parked cars.  The "bus on rails" trams get the underpass and Broad Street, instead!

No money to correct the discrimination against "hard-working families" who don't get the regional Fare-Free Public Transport (FFPT) that old crocks like me have had for 13 years!

But, more money than sense for converting buses and trains to Metro "bus on rails" trams.  At 10 x per Km more expensive to construct, than rebuilding the 50 Kms Borders Railway through the hills of southern Scotland.

This is absurd, nonsensical from top public schoolboys!

 I know I am in a very small minority in pointing this out.  However, do I have a point?

All you politicians are fully in support of destroying the UK's very last and, one of only two, north-south mainline railways between Brum city centre and the Welsh coast.  This is the principal, Derby to Devon via Dudley and Worcester Railway.  This destruction on 16 Kms is costing over half a billion pounds (for light rail, very light rail and, ultra-light rail on this major, heavy rail route!).

At the same time, you are all united in wanting HS2 to give a very small minority of people the choice of either train or plane when travelling between the Big Four, English cities and, two of their airports.  Some of the trains may stop at Crewe and Toton but nowhere else because it goes so fast!!  This is costing us all over £100 billion in both cost and, in fast-rising, deadly greenhouse gases to bring horror and catastrophe, we are told.

Please give me your rebuttal, your reasons for why I am wrong and you are right.

70 years of obliterating railway lines; HS2 buries nature

Another transport/financial scandal is the destruction of the 56 Kms Black Country Railway section of the Derby to Devon via Dudley principal mainline railway. 9 Kms is being given over to the Light Rail, West Midlands Metro (over half a billion pounds) and to a Very Light Rail test track (over £30 m)! 47 Kms will remain unused for passenger trains and a short section used for freight. Another short section might get the Ultra Light Rail shuttle tram. This is on top of six railway lines already destroyed in Dudley borough, alone over the last fifty years! MORE INFO: timweller1@gmail.com test track (over £30 m)!

STATEMENT for Future Council Scrutiny Committee, Dudley MBC on 15.7.21

Scathing, outspoken criticism at Dudley's Future Council Scrutiny Committee on 15 July 2021

Tim Weller, in the public forum, read out this excoriating criticism of councillors, officers and of the Metro Mayor yesterday evening:

STATEMENT for Future Council Scrutiny Committee, Dudley MBC on 15.7.21

Your predecessors, sixty years ago completely destroyed the tram network.  Only 20 years later, by 1981, they were planning to rebuild it but, on the railway network that you were also closing and thinking it would never again be needed.  So about 100 Kms of railway lines were also completely destroyed and used for everything but the kitchen sink.  Because you thought that hotels, homes, cars and offices were meant to run down railway lines.

Metro started in 1981.  Not then or, in any single year since, has there been any debate and vote as to whether converting the bus and part of the urban railway network into a tram network was a sensible thing to do.

Two or three years ago, Midland Connect and the Black Country Chamber of Commerce got into the papers about their campaign to have the 87 Kms and 8 lane Western Orbital Motorway built through Worcestershire and Staffordshire.  But no discussion, debate and vote in even their own organisations!  No consultations even with councillors, let alone the general public.  Still to this day.

Metro and Motorway get foisted on us with no consultation, let alone debate and vote in any of the seven constituent councils of the WMCA.

Scotland does things democratically, fairly and correctly.  Edinburgh City Council had meetings to discuss whether or not to go ahead with their tram.  Then, a debate and vote.  On both occasions, Edinburgh Conservative Group was strongly opposed on grounds of cost.  The Green Party and the LibDems joined the SNP to get the tram construction through instead of arguing for Fare-Free Public Transport that is always much better value for money to entice motorists out of their cars.

They knew that in 2015 when they reopened the 50 Kms Borders Railway from Edinburgh to Tweedbank, it cost £7 m/Km to rebuild.

The Conservative Group leader, at the time, wrote to me:

"The first section was completed at a cost (as you indicate) of £55.43m/km (that opened in 2016).  The proposed cost of the extension is £87.01m per km before overruns and before the ‘lessons learned’ enquiry by Lord Hardie has reported."  Cameron Rose  Conservative Councillor,  Southside & Newington ward 4 March 2019

You Conservatives are in control in Dudley, in Walsall, in Solihull and you have a Conservative CA Mayor, Andy Street who is even more irresponsibly extravagant and financially foolish and wealth flaunting, with his vanity project to impress and attract foreign tourists. This, by spending £15 BILLION to 2040, at £750 m every year to get 150 miles of underground and overground "bus on rails" trams on railway tracks on roads to replace and duplicate electric buses directly on roads without the railway lines. This, imposed on you with no consultation even, let alone a single debate and vote in any of the seven council chambers!

This is the biggest financial and transport scandal in the history of the UK. And you all sit there and let it wash over you!

What is worse, you have been lied to with the immortal words, "Light rail investment provides the basis for restoring heavy rail services at the appropriate time" on the UK's very last principal, mainline railway from Derby to Devon via Dudley. And that appropriate time never comes, of course.

SOURCE: Tom Magrath, Passenger Services Director, Centro in a letter to me, dated 18 September 2000.

And, you have been lied to by the Interim Chief Exec of the WMCA, Laura Shoaf who said on 'Midlands Today', to reporter Peter Plisner, that "passive provision" would be built in to the Dudley tram line to allow for the return of passenger and freight trains. Even a child knows that trams, trains and goods trains all on one set of double tracks is an utter impossibility. Laura Shoaf is so desperate for trams, she is prepared to lie as Tom Magrath did 21 years ago.

Dudley borough's 7 railway lines lost BUT, THE 7th REMAINS PARTLY IN USE!!!

1. Dudley to Wolverhampton - trading estates and homes built on it. 
2. Dudley to Brum - road built on 1 Kms.
3. Dudley to Halesowen - more offices, shops and homes built.
4. Moor Street to Brierley Hill to Baggeridge Country Park.
5. Brierley Hill to Pensnett to Gornalwood - part of the 22 Kms Black Country Cycle-Walk Mudway.
6. Gornalwood via Himley to NW Wolverhampton - part of the 22 Kms Black Country Cycle-Walk Mudway
7. Two nibble sized chunks of the Derby to Devon via Dudley principal, mainline railway get "bus on rails" trams instead of the previous 100 years of local and regional trains.

BUT, on this same Derby, Dudley to Devon railway, Stourbridge Jct to Brierley Hill section remains with goods trains using it.  And, even better, on the same line, everything is built over 40 Kms except the trains and stations between Wednesbury and Derby!

Twitter to David Shukman, Roger Harrabin, Sandra Green

HMG is institutionally complacent & incompetent, like my own W Mids Combined/Climate Worsening Authority that celebrates its five years in power by destroying the UK's very last principal, mainline railway from Derby to Devon via Dudley - 1 of only 2 between Brum and Welsh coast!

Sandra, Please support Fare-Free Public Transport for ALL, not just old crocks like me. I've had it for 13 years. It only needs extending to your age group with the money being wasted on "bus on rails" trams on roads and railways when electric buses directly on roads is needed.

£227 m for 1.7 Kms = £133 m/Km. Is that really right? Therefore, nineteen times more expensive per Km than the REBUILT Borders Railway in Sept 2015! This is a shocking waste of finite resources that nicely accelerates the runaway greenhouse effect to make earth like venus.

WMCA formed on 17 June 2016 - 5th anniversary

Thanks so much, Mark for phoning.

Please be bold in asking these pertinent questions and use my name whenever you like.  Blame me!  You could take the approach of being sceptical, even unbelieving over what I have told you and, all the time, being on their side.  Really, you need to be neutral, of course!   Tim

THE UK's LAST MAINLINE RAILWAY - Derby to Devon via Dudley - wasted, unused between Stourbridge Jct and Burton on Trent

1. How is it that you still maintain that "light rail investment provides the basis for restoring heavy rail services at the appropriate time"?  (letter to Tim Weller, dated 18 September 2000, from Tom Magrath, Passenger Services Director, Centro)
2. More recently, how is it that your Laura Shoaf, MD, TfWM, told BBC reporter Peter Plisner on 'Midlands Today' that "passive provision" would still enable freight and passenger trains to return to the double tracks being given to trams on two nibble sized sections, totalling 7 Kms, to spoil a 120 Kms mainline railway?
3. What, exactly, is the "passive provision" that is being built in to the Metro line at the very time we speak?
4. How can "passive provision" be built-in when the only feasible site for a rebuilt Dudley Castle Hill Railway Station has been given to the National Very Light Rail Innovation Centre?
5. Tim Weller says that it is hardly surprising that you are spending £15 billion of public money to 2040 for mainly underground and overground Metro trams, over 150 miles and 8 lines, when you share the same building with the national tram promotion group.  Is he right?  Is there improper influence?  Are you finding it difficult to maintain a professional distance between yourselves and a lobby group?​

 Railfuture's full map.pdf

​​

 WBHE map

​

 Metro map with my notes.pdf

​

ACTIVE TRAVEL aka fossil-fuel-free travel or human-powered travel

1. When the Ordnance Survey has it down on their Explorer map as a "traffic-free cycle route" on two disused railway lines over 22 Kms, why is it that the Dudley section is particularly unacceptable and very slow going because of the mud and waterlogging in wet weather?
2. When will the WMCA be giving this major business, commuter and leisure route for mainly cyclists to use, a National Cycle Route number?
3. When will it be upgraded for responsible shared use between walkers, cyclists and horse riders?
4. Why has it never had any recognition and is even missed off on the Starley map, as a significant, even important, off-road route for those taking the climate emergency seriously?
   
    Disgraceful Dudley section of BC Cycle-Walkway ...
   
   
    Disgraceful Dudley section of BC Cycle-Walkway ...
   
   

SOURCES:

Report from self, dated 22 September 2015

"In a letter dated 18.9.2000, from Tom Magrath, Passenger Services Director:

"light rail investment provides the basis for restoring heavy rail services at the appropriate time."

To tell me that light rail Metro was needed to be put on the Black Country Line in order to be able to restore heavy rail services at a later date on that line is complete nonsense.  That idiocy is now repeated with the insistence that Very Light Rail must go on that inter-city line but that it will not stop express and local trains returning at a later date (conversation with David Golding, Principal Strategic Planner, Network Rail at ITA meeting on 16.7.2015)  No wonder, I am thinking that there is something very corrupt, very wrong at the heart of the West Midlands Combined Authority, Network Rail, ITA, Centro - and, for decades, too.  They all want express and local trains returning but want Light Rail and/or Very Light Rail, first to help get the everyday trains back!

to Kevin O'Keefe re stiles and steps

On Fri, 28 May 2021 at 09:09, Tim Weller <timweller1@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Kevin

I am very concerned that nearly all my correspondence by text and e-mail with Dudley MBC is totally ignored.  I will be making an official complaint in due course, unless officers and members are prepared to take my positive, constructive and helpful suggestions seriously and, future contacts are politely, professionally and competently responded to.

Over the 45 years I have lived in the borough, I have seen at least six of your railway lines destroyed/not used by councillors and the officers who advise them.  The latest is the principal, mainline railway from Burton on Trent to Bristol via Brierley Hill or/aka, the Derby to Devon via Dudley railway, although nearly 50 Kms remain for commuter, regional and freight trains to return.  It will simply have to be the world's first train-tram-train mainline when you get round to doing something and finally finishing it!

I am now asking that just as you have, quite knowingly, been destroying your transport infrastructure and thus boosting, very nicely, greenhouse gases to worsen our prospects during the course of this century, you turn over a new leaf.  Do try and avoid wasting money and finite resources to make the climate, ecological, nature emergencies even worse.  I am referring to the increasing difficulty of old men like me to have access or, the right to roam, on our rights of way.  Many old walkers, as I am, are having difficulty in climbing stiles

I have been told that £9,500 worth of new wooden stiles are in stock but are not being used to replace rickety and dangerous ones in Dudley's very important southern green belt.  I am asking that you do not, please, replace stiles that are sound and safe.  The problem, I think, is more the lack of footsteps.  Many OAPs like me really do have difficulty.  One woman told me that her husband has to push her from behind to get over the very well-used but solid, secure stile at grid reference SO 97984 82268.  Map, below.  Please do NOT remove the boulder if this is one of the stiles you want to replace!  Unless, of course, your solution in cutting/installing steps will make things even easier for the less athletic to get over it.  In my opinion, this stile is solid and safe.  Perhaps, one step on the field or west or upper side of the stile and two or three on the steep slope where the boulder is.  Can a solution to the problem incorporate the solid rock step?

In addition, although I know farmers and landowners in our bleak, barren, backward Black Country have no wish to make things easier or welcoming for even caring walkers, it is still worth asking if they would agree to the well-used and popular, elsewhere, self-closing metal gates - instead of stiles.  Somehow, if we can by talking, we may be able to educate them and bring them into the 21st century rather than being stuck in the Dark Ages!

I would like an encouraging, courteous and professional response, please, if that is not too much to ask!

Best wishes