Democracy requires open discussion between the people and the politicians

Dear Ed and Bob

I’ve just been on the top deck of a bus to take a look at the proposed Metro extension from Edgbaston Village tram stop to Quinton on the south side of Hagley Road pavement/footway.  Two major buildings will be demolished, many front gardens, open space and thousands of shrubs and trees felled and car parking lost. This will worsen the climate emergency, resource depletion, and ecological decline of life on earth.

Without any democratic accountability - no discussion, debate or vote, TfWM is pushing ahead with Metro extensions.  However, before they do anymore work on it, the January 2020 £15 BILLION Metro expansion programme must go out to consultation; the councillors must discuss, then debate in open forum, whether or not this is a good idea.

I would like to suggest that our regional Greener Together public forum should discuss the matter, including what should be done about the WBHE to Merry Hill, Brierley Hill and the unused sections of the ready built, 56 Kms principal mainline railway between Burton on Trent and Stourbridge.

Can this be done, please Ed - and Bob?

Democracy requires open discussion between the people and the politicians. Edinburgh City Council has followed democracy in this way, twice, before going ahead with their tramways.

Best wishes

£3.5 m for each tram - must be more, now!

 Hi David

Each tram is £2.5 m with the overhead wires; £3.5 m for the trams using onboard batteries!  Those figures go back two or three years, too.  They are made in Spain, I believe.

The steel tram lines have to be replaced every 15 to 20 years.  When that had to be done for Metro One, four or five businesses on the A41 at Priestfield did so little business that they had to close for good, I understand.

The £15 billion to 2040 for the 150 miles of trams, the 8 lines and 380 tram stops would include the cost of the trams but, as with HS2 costs rising massively, the £15 billion is underpriced, I would guess and depends on how much is underground.

Last decade, at least four or five years ago, Sprint diesel buses running to and from Quinton were to be £12 m, if I remember correctly.  At that time, diesel double-decker buses were £250,000 each, I believe.  That was to be the first Sprint line.  Now, the first one is Walsall to Solihull via Brum city centre at, possibly £300m, including the electric buses.  Let me know if you find something out before me, please.

This newspaper report, below was 3 years ago when there was no mention of electric Sprint.  They were all very flash, diesel buses.

 Plans for a £279 million Sprint network have be...

 

I do love trams.  They glide along the rails and are so smooth and swish and really smart.  But, when we are facing the reality of finite fossil fuels and the uncomfortable reality of climate breakdown/instability/danger, I'm prepared to lose out on my love for trams in order to postpone ecocide.  Trams replacing only some buses and some trains are too high a price to pay, I think.  Leeds and Bristol are also wanting a tram network, I've read from UK Tram Ltd (HQ at TfWM/WMCA HQ!)

Why it must always be trams and never trains

Why Centro has always wanted a network of tram lines rather than the more obvious, simpler, cheaper, easier to achieve Beeching reversals!

1. Originally, only a network of tram lines throughout the W Midlands was thought to be able to reduce road congestion in Birmingham.
2. Now SPRINT buses - the tram that thinks its a bus - is thought to entice car commuters out of their cars.
3. Hence, we are still going to get Metro trams along Broad Street and part of Hagley Road, along with limited stop, super-smart SPRINT buses also to run the full length of Hagley Road as far as Quinton, only.  These two along with the usual buses and vehicles of all kinds.  Yet more congestion!
4. The ITA/Centro have always considered the 200 Km of 15 Metro lines by 2000 was always their pet project from 1981.  For 34 years our local councillors have been trying to empire build with trams but are now in their fourth decade of failure.
5. First Railtrack, then its predecessor Network Fail (whoops, I mean Negligent Rail), have been uninterested in making more work for themselves by reversing the Beeching urban closures (only rural Beeching closures, as in southern Scotland this year).  They can't even do electrification without having to be stopped (suspended) by the Sec of State, from June to September, as happened this year.
6. Once you get the Establishment moving in the tram rut of road and rail running trams as the answer for congestion, instead of trains being returned, it is quite impossible to get them out of that rut.  It needs a strong minded, free thinking political Master in power, as we have and have had in London.
7. The people have not been sufficiently interested to question this conventional transport wisdom.  Everyone expects the transport planners and councillors to get on with it - but, they don't get on with it.  Hence, wrong decisions are made and never reversed or even achieved - apart from Metro One, only and, on a rail line too!