Extend the Stourbridge Shuttle but NOT on the Black Country Railway!

I do want to see the Stourbridge Shuttle extended via the half used 350 space car park on Stourbridge Road; then along Coventry St and High St, back to the bus station.  Phil Tonks seems to like this idea from his reply to my email.  John Parry said he would not oppose it.  I should hope not!

John Parry's PPM is not suitable for a 120 Kms mainline railway of national importance.  It is the UK's only mothballed, easily reinstated, half finished, everything is there as regards every bridge, tunnel and viaduct bypass railway "of national strategic significance".  Nor is a Metro tram or a tram train (still a tram) suitable for a mainline railway of the likes of ours that runs between Worcester and Derby via Dudley Castle Hill/Castle Gate.  A tram and tram train are both suitable for the 20 Kms between Sheffield Cathedral and Rotherham Parkgate.  Both the tram and the tram train stop at every tram stop on those 20 Kms.  It is ludicrous to spoil our mainline railway that runs parallel to or close to M5/M6 by putting trams and tram trains that must stop, on average, every 650 metres through the urban Black Country.

Trams are called "bus on rails" by the national tram promotion group that has its HQ at Transport HQ at 16 Summer Lane.  Hence, the trams for over £1.5 BILLION now replacing buses and trains in Brum and the Black Country.

Connect Stourbridge Jct and Brierley Hill with a commuter TRAIN not tram of any kind, please.  You all want the tram from Brierley Hill to Wednesbury that you will get, it seems.  Main work starts in the third quarter of this year.  However, connect Wednesbury and Burton on Trent with commuter and regional TRAINS.  After Metro goes on a total of 6.7 Kms, this still leaves a total of 49.3 Kms AND Railfuture's nine railway stations for the settlements that are desperate for their railway line back to relieve motorway and main road congestion.

You will then have a train-tram-train mainline railway "of national strategic significance", at best.  This will be a world first, I understand.  It is not something the UK should be proud of or, noted for around the world.  Such a bizarre use of an important, national, mainline railway will mean something else for the UK to be seen as a laughing stock around the world!

I am available to see Qadar (perhaps Patrick, too?) at anytime and any date over the next three weeks, except morning 20 June to 1200 hrs; from 1100 hrs on Mon 24 June to 1300 hrs and Friday morning 28 June - WMCA AGM in Brum.  And I can't do Monday morning 1 July in the third week.

Best wishes

The tram train on the Black Country Rail Line

Here are my points for being apprehensive over ultra light rail going on the Black Country Line:

1. It gives you all an excuse for further delay to get down to increasing rail capacity, especially when it is so important to take the pressure off New Street Station.
2. Once ultra light rail is in place, it will be very difficult not to extend it in bite sized chunks, as was the intention with Metro.  The bite sized chunks business never materialised for Metro, so that is a bad omen for very light rail.
3. Once ultra light rail is in place, it will be difficult to then rip it up and replace it with heavy rail.  Better to put back the everyday, well tried and tested, heavy rail trains, with stations.
4. Heavy rail can be put back quicker than an innovative tram train that still needs much development.
5. Nick Mallinson confirmed that what his WMG is developing is unheard of on the mainland of Europe that is generally considered to have an excellent rail service from Spain and Italy to Scandanavia.
6. Ultra light rail would be ideal for urban areas that have no heavy rail tracks already in place.  Best to use existing heavy rail tracks for heavy rail trains.
7. Nick wants one track as a test track and the other one for a shuttle service for the tram train.  From John Parry's experience in taking very many years to put his already tried and tested PPM on the Stourbridge branch line, it is bound to take a similar number of years to get permission for the tram train to be able to be safe for a public service.
8. John Parry had his own circular test track for many years at his business address in Cradley.  Should Nick not be using that?
9. In other words, it will take years for the tram train to be safe and sufficiently reliable for a public paying shuttle service between Castle Hill and Dudley Port.
10. There are two possible better locations for an innovative vehicle to be tried and tested.  One might be the open space that once took the Dudley to Wolverhampton rail line before it was built on, further on.  There is space there for them to test the tram train between Station Drive and on to the rear of the Black Country Museum and directly to the Dudley Canal Trust.  The other might be the old line, branching off the Black Country Line, from Silver End in Brierley Hill, through Brockmoor to Pensnett.