Questions for Dudley and Sandwell leaders

Questions for Patrick Harley, CEO Kevin O’Keefe and Sandwell's leader and CEO David Stevens

Are you wanting to save the Castle Gate railway station site to leave your options open for the return of commuter and intercity trains to Dudley from London, Bristol and the North?

Are you happy to be the only Black Country borough (and the largest town in the UK) without a railway station and direct links to north, south, east and west via your very own Dudley line?

Do you realise you could still have Metro trams via Dudley from Wednesbury but, have the extension from Wednesbury to Brierley Hill on roads (not on our mainline railway) as happens on the mainland of Europe?

Since the authorities want heavy rail trains back on this heavy rail line by first having investment in LRRT, “as the basis for restoring heavy rail services at the appropriate time” (letter from Tom Magrath, Passenger Services Director dated September 2000), why do you not want heavy rail straight off and missing out the “bus on rails” trams having to be done first?

Why are you still, after 50 years, continuing to destroy train lines and refusing to make use of them fully to help, if only yourself, to get around more easily?

Once the trams are in place and the people have got used to them, how on earth can you then, 10, 20, or 30 years later, close them, dismantle the operations and then put the passenger and freight trains back?  It will never happen.

Even if you replace trams with tram trains, you must recognise that they are still trams and must still stop at every tram stop, on average every 650 metres, that the ordinary trams stopped at.

Do you understand that in putting buildings on the only practical and possible site for Dudley Castle Gate/Hill railway station - one of the most important stations on the 120 Km line - you are stopping the line, once reopened, to be fully effective and giving the tocs the most profits.  You are penalising the people of Dudley who will be unable to use their own line.

When you have a rare opportunity to help yourself get to and from work more easily on less congested roads and less crowded trains, why do you not take it?

Tim Weller   26 February 2020

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