Talking shop customers 'reign', of sorts but don't rule!

Dear Richard

Not one MP I have spoken to or I have written to, has ever expressed any interest in the scandals involving the destruction of one monorail and about 100 Kms of railway lines.  One principal mainline, one insider told me, was even officially safeguarded, viz the 120 Kms Black Country Railway.

Since the 1980s and the appearance of the Kidderminster, Blakedown, Hagley motorway standard bypass, when I started raising my concerns, only three elected councillors have been concerned and supported me - Cllr Cathy Bayton, Cllr Chris Barnett and, this month, the newly elected, Cllr Andrew Tromans.  They are from Dudley MBC.  In more recent weeks, the now deposed, former leader, Cllr Ian Ward had begun to engage.  But not one other Brummie councillor or MP has shown any interest in all those decades!

Since our WMCC meetings started only John Nightingale has written back and been interested; Bill, too agreed over trams; and Jules, also began to understand the points I was making about the all style over substance, the wealth flaunting, the totally unnecessary Metro trams.  Bob thought the tram extensions should be paused and Chris did verbally express opposition to Metro from time to time.  But nothing from your good self, Richard.  And many hundreds of millions of pounds in price and in weight of deadly greenhouse gases have been expended since 1981 when Metro started - "the solution looking for a problem!"

As regards the public, none of my family are interested (my wife did answer and submit her answers to my silly quiz and got one wrong!!) and only train driver Dave Parsons and, Mark Cooper of Wolverhampton have been on my side.

Over decades, nearly ever councillor committee meeting I have attended have been simply talking shops.  Votes and decision making are almost non-existent.  Everything is left to the officers, the professionals, the 'experts' and the elected members are well paid rubber stamps!

Apathy, acquiescence and "But Tim, I let it all wash over me in blissful ignorance" are almost universal!

I don't know what the answer is - apart from political education from secondary education onwards.

Tim

Singapore and John Nightingale

Thanks for responding.  I heard about Singapore's transport from a TV documentary many years ago about how strict they were about limiting cars and dealing with traffic congestion.  I would like our transport officers to get acquainted with how they do things there and report back at a future quarterly forum.

Certainly, there seems to be no multi-modal, multi-mixed-up transport of different modes as they are giving to us, according to one email I had from Andy Street, ie HR, LR, VLR, ULR, Sprint and regular buses!!

For me (for you too, John?) this is a moral issue, as here:

Scandalous misspending

£7m/Km for rebuilding the Borders Railway in 2015; £21m/Km for M6 Toll in 2003; £75m/Km for Westside Metro; £133m/Km for Eastside Metro; over £200m/Km for HS2. All this scandal as so many are in even more dire poverty and cannot pay their bills.

FROM: Getting Around Singapore: Guide to Public Transportation (tripsavvy.com)

"Singapore's Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) was launched in 1987 and has grown continuously to cover most parts of Singapore"

SELF:

Our MRT was launched in 1981 and is one line from Wolverhampton to Brum with the extension to Edgbaston Village tram stop opening next month, I've read.  The first line, opened in 1999, destroyed a mainline railway from Snow Hill to Wolves Low Level that would have improved services to Shrewsbury if the line had been used for commuter/regional trains instead of trams.  The first extension pushed buses out of Bull Street and Corporation Street to the edge of the city centre.  The second extension to Edgbaston has stopped buses using Five Ways underpass and Broad Street.  This has meant all eleven bus routes are greatly inconvenienced by narrow side roads jammed with parked cars and a longer route to Colmore Row.  Or, you change from bus to tram at Edgbaston Village for the tram and have a wait for up to 15 mins before the tram leaves.  This is not an improvement or efficiency!

In Singapore, "Avoid traveling from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. on public transport whenever possible."  Not as good as I thought, then!

Can Footsteps please speak out and help me, John?

to John Nightingale

It's really nice to hear from you and you make such good points, especially over London and the south east getting much more spent on them for transport, per head, than other regions and countries of the UK.  The billions now going on trams for us will help to redress the balance!  But, it's an immoral priority for public spending, in my opinion, when the poor will be in ever greater difficulties as energy prices rise this year and in subsequent years.

I do genuinely like Andy Street who is a left wing Conservative.  He has given me a number of opportunities to speak to him in person, including at his 'Ask Andy' public meetings since 2017 when I first met him.  I voted for him in 2017 and 2021, too!  However, lovely man as he is, he doesn't get it.  He maintains that multi-modal transport of trams, buses and trains are essential to get people out of their cars and onto public transport.  But all the experts have been saying that about Brum ever since I first arrived in the city in 1967 but, by 1960, they had destroyed the complete tram network and had started to do the same with the urban railway network that was no longer in use!

The other problem is the impossibility to reverse the 40 years old tram project.  No one in authority has the guts to question the conventional transport wisdom.  It's been grinding on forever, everyone is transfixed and paralysed with the whole thing.  And, anyway, it gives work to so many.  The engineers love the challenge of building it, too.

The public love the new trams, their prestige and the shocking over indulgence involved.  I love trams, too!  But, it is all vanity and makes public transport slower with more changes and clogs up the roads.  As a cyclist I have to be wary not to get my wheel dropping into the track rut.  Another hazard to look out for!

Always lovely to hear from you.

from John Nightingale re perplexing transport confusion

15 Feb 2022

My answers in blue below your questions:

Thanks Tim. The information is very helpful. Some further questions:

1) Has the metro section between Wednesbury and Brierley Hill (some 12 miles) already been built?  It is being built to be opened in the autumn of 2024.  The 56 Kms safeguarded trackbed between Burton on Trent and Stourbridge is double track and is built for all crossings of motorways, roads, canals, railways.  Metro goes on two short sections, totalling 6.7 Kms, with 4 Kms road running through Dudley town.  The tram is on a principal mainline railway.  What a waste!

2) If so, could railway lines be put alongside the Metro lines, or is that technically impossible?  It would cost too much to demolish and rebuild bridges, tunnels and buildings for a double-track tram and, alongside it, a double-track commuter and regional/national train service between the unused 56 Kms between Derby, Dudley and Devon.

3) could you link me to evidence about the relative cost of railway lines and metro?

 Like for like comparison of infrastructure buil...

4) Are you aware of many people wanting to travel on a line between Burton and Kidderminster?  They already do via Brum but Grand Central Diesel Perfumed Underground Station is congested with queueing trains pre-Covid.  The 120 Kms Black Country Railway goes through a heavily congested, densely populated, urban conurbation where we are meant to be using walking, cycling, buses, trains and trams - NOT cars!  The Dudley tram to Merry Hill still leaves 49.3 Kms wasted with nothing but fresh air.  The best it can be is a train-tram-train railway.  But that is better than more congested roads and rising greenhouse gases and making both worse.  Certainly better than High Scam 2 Fast To Stop!

Am I right, John?  Or, is it me who is totally out of my mind?

Tim

17 February 2022

Thanks Tim. This is very illuminating. 

Unfortunately we are where we are and I daresay it would be very costly to undo what of the tram service has already been done.

What do you think is the best way forward in the present situation?

I ask this out of genuine interest but I must also be honest and say that I am tied up with so many causes at the moment that I think it unlikely that I can do much campaigning in this one.

All the best,

18 Feb 2022

Many thanks, John.

I quite understand your busy schedule.

Such is the phenomenal cost of Metro - well over half a billion pounds for only 10.7 Kms to destroy any hope of a fast, no changing, train service from Derby, to Dudley and onto Worcester - that it is still much cheaper and more sensible to cancel WBHE and pay the cancellation fees.  There would definitely still be money left over to reintroduce the commuter, regional trains and nine stations over the full 120 Kms!

Can you get me to explain to Footsteps?  I would like to be an active member with my Christian allegiance.  Or, could you mention the scandal, yourself, please?  This is the biggest and longest-running (from 1950s) scandal in UK finance/transport history!

All this, at a time of climate emergency, too when cutting GHG emissions is basic, fundamental, urgent.  NOT boosting them!

from John N

24 Feb 2022

Dear Tim,

Thanks for this detailed email and for your passion and concern.

I have been thinking about your email and discussed some of its contents yesterday with a friend who used to work in the Department for Transport and had responsibilities in relation to Crossrail in the early stages of its development.

I am unclear as to which bodies have responsibility for decision-making in this case. Granted that WMCA has a responsibility, but are there not national bodies which have to consent, fund or even initiate such projects? It seems to me that getting a change (if desirable) is a complicated business which requires a skilled group to deal with systemically. Is there a Green Transport Group in the Green party which could help?

The data you produce would need to be put together into a dossier and maybe supplemented with other studies eg on the cost of the electrification of the reopened line (or would it run on diesel?) and evidence for the demand potential for the new line. Could universities help with this? I'd have gone for this if I were 60 years younger but now have not got the time in the light of other priorities.

Footsteps is chary about advocating particular solutions. We concentrate on values and the education of our member bodies. General principles yes, and policies such as using forms of transport with lower emissions but that's about it.

I would certainly support pressing WMCA and its constituent councils to go for lower carbon transport and to investigate the merits of different schemes, yours included, but that's as far as I want to go.

Best wishes,

John

25 February 2022

Very many thanks, John.  Lovely to hear from you and I quite understand.

This destruction of our trams and 19th-century urban railway lines has gone on for 70 years and is continuing apace!  The councillors are ultimately responsible and I have tried to get them interested for many years - actually for decades - but they don't care (I'm a very successful failure!).  They rubber-stamp what the top officers in TfWM/WMCA want.

 One horrible history of truly terrible transport

Best wishes

25 February 2022 from John N

Thanks Tim for your gracious reply and illuminating article. Certainly the history you describe reveals bad individual decisions and little sense of an overall policy.

For me the question remains. What body are bodies are responsible for policy and implementation? This involves the process of research, outlining policy options, deciding between them, obtaining finance and implementing them. I'm still unclear. Obviously WMCA up to a point, but surely not alone not least because of the financial angle.

Since the 1980s I have had intermittent experience of transport in London. I used to commute by train from Milton Keynes during the week, take my Bickerton folding bike on the train and cycle from Euston to Church House Westminster. My work also involved me in quite a lot of trips around the capital.

Between then and now my experience of travelling in London has greatly improved. Buses are quicker; there are fewer traffic jams. Cycling has become a pleasure. Train connections across the river have multiplied. Hurrah! How and why has this happened while in the West Midlands, with a few exceptions, things have stagnated?

No doubt money is a factor. Central govt I guess has spent more money per head in London than here. 

But there seems to have been a greater ability to analyse options and take decisions in and for London. I imagine that having a Mayor, a Transport for London Authority and ready access to the Dept for Transport have all been all factors.

If I may be scriptural, I see you as a voice crying in the wilderness! That has the merit of disturbing complacency and indicating other options. But we need some sort of transport authority with popular participation to take us forward. And as the researches of  "Climate Outreach" (qv) indicate it is vital that the segment of the population that are environmental enthusiasts (in which I include myself) have got to find arguments that carry weight with other segments lest we alienate them and paint ourselves into a corner.

Andy Street is no fool and, if only for reasons of self-interest, may be open to improvements. I would be interested to be a participant in a small way, time permitting, in any future discussions.

All the best,

John