CHRONIC, CHRONOLOGICAL RAILWAY DISASTERS

1950s - closed and dismantled the tram network that was all on roads and NOT railways.

60s - demolished and rebuilt Brum's mainline station and put it under ground.

Began closing over 100 Kms of passenger railway lines in the West Midlands.

70s - demolished Brum's second most important station, realised their little slip-up and rebuilt it to half its former size.  8 platforms went down to 4.

Destruction of railway lines continued apace.

80s - started four decades of largely fruitless and massive expenditure to get a tram network back.  The first three lines were to be on mainly disused railway lines.

90s - one line opened in 1999 on the mainline from Snow Hill to Shrewsbury via Wolverhampton Low Level.

Cllr Fred Hunt, Leader of Dudley Council told me in the mid-90s that his Dudley Tram would be up and running by the year 2000.

00s - More millions squandered to get a tram network back as the railway lines were used for everything but the kitchen sink, including for trams.

10s - 50th anniversary of the destruction of our urban railway network.  And failure to reopen 106 Kms of mothballed or freight only railway lines.

In 2019, work began in earnest on the WBHE aka the Dudley Tram.

Metro and HS2 have been the excuses for not reversing the Beeching urban cuts.

Did the Inspector approve it for trams, only if a third track was put in for freight?

Please confirm that this was the condition for WBHE being approved for trams.  A third track in a heavily built-up conurbation where not even all the bridges are being strengthened for heavy rail freight, let alone widened for a third track, according to Tim Martin, Head of Governance at WMCA.

See you in Aug or Sept, 2024 at the opening of the WBHE - only three more years to wait.  Will I live that long?  I hope not.  It was predicted, by Cllr Fred Hunt, Leader of Dudley Council in a conversation with me in the mid 90s, that it would be opened in the year 2000!​

 6 scandals on the 40th anniversary of the W Mid...

​The current leader is campaigning for city status for Dudley that is the largest town by population without a railway station!​  But he only wants, what he calls, a shuttle tramway to the mainline at Dudley Port in Sandwell and a tram stop where the railway station once stood - for 100 years - at Castle Hill.  All this makes for more jollities than Boris Johnson's Jolly Japes!!

TRAM NETWORK REBUILT ON RAILWAY NETWORK ALONG WITH BUILDINGS AND ROADS

Thanks, Don.  It certainly wasn't very clear but the first-ever conversion of a mothballed mainline railway, already built but only half-used, to tramline, VLR test track and extended cycle-walkway is going full speed ahead into the iceberg!

Here is my complete, essential, slimmed-down history of transport; all you need to know:

TRAM NETWORK REBUILT ON RAILWAY NETWORK ALONG WITH BUILDINGS AND ROADS - and now a test track and possible cycle-walkway!

1950s:  saw the complete obliteration of the W Midlands tram network.

1960s:  saw the closure of about one-third of our urban railway network and the demolition of the high vaulted roofed New Street Station.  It was put underground to bring even worse air pollution.

1970s:  the demolition and rebuilding to half its former size of Snow Hill Station.  Only four platforms left; later only three in use, as is the case now.

1980s: the decision was made not to stop running homes, shops, offices and roads down the closed railway lines but to turn them into a tram network of 200 Kms and 15 lines by the year 2000.

1990s:  the money was found to convert the second Brum to Wolverhampton Railway into part tramline and the remainder obliterated under concrete, brick and tarmac.  Wolverhampton's second mainline station closed for good.

2000s:  That station converted into a conference and events centre with the double-track railway line turned into a garden and roads.

2010s:  Buses pushed out to the edge of Brum shopping centre to make way for the grossly extravagant, prestigious tram as it makes its stately glide past the empty shops to 'Grand Central Shopping Centre And Diesel Perfumed Underground Railway Station Tagged Along As An Afterthought In The Basement Of The Closed John Lewis Store'

2020s:  Solemn declaration, to me by 1990s Dudley Council Leader, Fred Hunt that Dudley's mainline railway converted to tramline would be open by the year 2000, saw work begin - only after 20 years when it should have been opened!! 

2030 or 40s:  Is finally finished as the world's first, unique TRAIN-TRAM-TRAIN MAINLINE RAILWAY between Worcester, Black Country and Derby??

The need for the full 120 Kms railway rather than 10 Kms of trams

I have been arguing for working as near as possible to where you live since 1978 when I started working as a social worker in Sandwell at Haden Hill, one mile up the road.  I pointed this out when they moved me to Smethwick in 1982.  I was then contributing to more road congestion!

1. The tram is being provided to get the railway service reinstated.  You told me, "So they are paying twice to get what they really want, the trains".  (Or, words to that effect.)  Do you remember telling me that in church a few years ago, Kev?  You were spot on!  I could not have put it better.
2. If the authorities are spending half a billion pounds (£500 m) to improve the bus service by putting "bus on rails" trams on the road and railway over 10.7 Kms, would this indicate that they are confident it will be very well used and is badly needed?  I think the project/scheme is deeply immoral.
3. Apparently, it was much needed to reduce road congestion in the 1980s and 90s.  Therefore, why was the promise of Cllr Fred Hunt, Leader of Dudley Council in telling me, in the mid 90s, that it would be up and running by the year 2000, not fulfilled?
4. Yet, if they spent less than £200 m they would be able to put the commuter, regional and intercity trains back, plus nine stations on the whole missing 56 Kms of the middle section between Worcester and Derby. And, it would do an equally good job as the £500 m "bus on rails" tram in connecting Dudley with Merry Hill but also, that the tram does not do, connecting Stourbridge with Merry Hill.
5. There would have to be an electric bus service from Dudley Castle Hill railway station, where the four big tourist attractions are, to take passengers up to the rundown town centre that is Dudley.
6. Birmingham does not want passengers to miss out their city by some passenger trains bypassing Brum and going via our four Black Country boroughs.
7. Yet, Grand Central that Worcester to Derby trains stop at, is one of the worst railway congestion bottlenecks in the UK, according to Peter Plisner on 'Midlands Today'.
8. Do you think that some passengers between Derby and Devon might like to come via Dudley, as they did for 100 years until the 1960s?
9. Did you know that railway passenger numbers have more than doubled since the mid-90s?
10. Did you know that the transport experts have turned our urban railway lines into homes, shops, offices and roads since the 1960s?  About 100 Kms in the W Mids.
11. Do you think that this might be the reason for road congestion on the M5 and M6?
12. Might this be the reason for HS2?  That is, to increase capacity on our railway network that is overcrowded and, "a very Victorian railway"  (Sir David Higgins, Chief Exec, Network Rail on 'Today' 8 Jan 2013)