The Sutton Park rail line for passenger traffic:-

Not expected to be opened for 20 years. Line capacity at Water Orton is the primary cause for line not opening earlier." 

MY COMMENT

If they are well able to sort out the extra capacity at Water Orton in 20 years time, why can they not do it now?  Relieving road and railway congestion is more urgent - and NOW - than giving us highly expensive, high impact, highly dubious vanity projects like HS2, Metro and Sprint.

The whole Sutton Line from Wolverhampton, Walsall to Brum should be reopened in one go to ensure profitability and to ease congestion and air pollution, now.  Together with the 120 Kms Black Country Mainline Railway "of national strategic significance" (letter to self dated 8 March from DfT, quoting Network Rail) for regional and commuter trains and never for trams or tram trains or train trams!  We won over stopping the trams going on the Camp Hill Line.  We won over trains for the Black Country Railway from Stourbridge Jct to Canal Street tram stop.

I would like many more people to join me in asking for the abandonment of Metro, Sprint and CAZ and for all those monies to go into scrapping bus fares to entice car commuters to leave their cars at home to free up road space for essential users of vehicles.  There needs to be a sea change in attitudes, as there has been over smoking in buildings.  There would still be millions of pounds left to bring in electric buses for the 'if you can't bike it, bus it brigade'.  Further:

Every nearside lane of dual carriageways should be a bus lane and traffic light priority for buses are also essential.

No more digging up of roads for tram lines.  Always, in working hours at least, jumping on the fareless electric bus to get into the city or town centres.

No guided busways, either!

No more prestigious vanity projects like Metro and Sprint.  Both are a complete waste of money, and a shocking misuse of taxpayers' money.

And, I would love the Green Party and Four Oaks Neighbourhood Forum to get fully behind me!  Please come to my public meeting:

 Public Meeting on Wed eve 28 Nov 2018

Can I come to "the W. Mids Mayor in November" meeting in Sutton?  Is it an 'Ask Andy' one? 

 My Andy Street newsheet arrived today

 Transport costs per kilometre

Best wishes and thanks again for writing.  Much appreciated.

"Revealed: £4bn plan to get city moving" Post 13 Nov

In nearly fifty years of living and working in Wider Birmingham I have seen umpteen of these magnificent transport plans that promise so much and deliver so little, if anything.

I came to Brum in the 1960s when the Victorian New Street Station had just been demolished and rebuilt to be a virtual underground station filled with poisonous diesel fumes.  In the 1970s, the Victorian Snow Hill Station went the same way - bulldozed.  Realising their error, it was quickly rebuilt but, to only half its former grand size.

In the 1980s and 90s, Midland Metro trams were all the rage but, by 2000, instead of nearly half a dozen new tram lines to replace trains and buses, we had a measly ONE and that was almost entirely built on a rail line that should never have had its trains removed!  Even then, it was never extended to New St Station.  Extraordinary!

In this year of our Lord and Master, Cllr Albert Bore - 2014, we STILL have the six miles double track rail line through Kings Norton, Kings Heath and Moseley without stations or trains.  Nose to tail rush hour congestion alongside an empty double track rail line.  Scandalous!

In addition, we have the 13 miles of the Stourbridge, Dudley, Walsall double track rail line also devoid of trains and stations.  It goes within half a mile of the Merry Hill Shopping Centre, almost next to Dudley Zoo and Castle, very near to the Black Country Living Museum, links with the West Coast Main Line and our precious, one and only tram line at Wednesbury.  Empty of trains; not even any ghost trains.  Fifty years of unparalleled negligence and, after the stupidity of the line being closed in the first place!

The one triumph was the re-opening of the cross rail line from Longbridge to Four Oaks.  Amazing!  How was it done?  Nothing like it has ever been seen since by our pie in the sky transport experts.  But, today things have changed for ever by these same visionary transport officials.  We can now rest happy in our beds knowing that things are looking up - at long last!