"MP Fabricant backs cycleway on disused rail route"

Dear Editor

I smiled with delight at the headline, "MP backs cycleway on disused rail route".  At last, a sensible MP wanting the major, 20 Kms Black Country Cycle-Walkway upgraded with an all weather surface and signs to allow many more walkers, commuter cyclists and horse riders to use it.  However, as I continued reading I found that our darling Michael Fabricant MP was actually supporting the half completed 120 Kms Black Country Railway "of national strategic significance" being turned into a cycle-walkway (quote, from letter to self, dated 8 March 2018, from Network Rail and the DfT)!  As I was sitting almost next to him at a Conservative Party meeting in Edgbaston, I tried to speak to him but, I was given the brush off.  The man should have listened and learnt a thing or two! 

Our other VIP is Cllr Roger Lawrence, Transport Boss of all he surveys in the Midlands.  For all his time, as first councillor then Leader of Wolverhampton City Council this man has also wanted trams on only 6.7 Kms of the half completed 120 Kms railway "of national strategic significance".  His idea is to block the commuter and regional trains for ever.  Like deluded Michael, this guy actually says he has to have trams first, for £343 m, in order to get the 120 Kms finished with commuter and regional trains.  This is unheard of anywhere else in the world!  Both men suffer delusions in wanting trams to get trains.  Both men like to pay once for trams, then twice for trains on the same line.  Both men have more money than sense.  Roger's policy is either dishonest, is thoroughly mixed up or, is as incompetent as well-meaning Michael MP!

 "of national strategic significance".pdf

Transport Boss Roger, in the summer when I asked him to graciously accept a sheet of paper from me, told me to "Stuff it up your arse" and walked on by!  His mind is closed, he is so arrogant, that for a second time, he is wasting £343 million of taxpayers' money to fund his bizarre, his weird and wonderful obsession with trams on main line railways and roads to replace trains and buses.  All he needs to do is to give us all free bus travel - not just for the old and decrepit, like me - and, electric buses like Nottingham.  He must put trains on train lines when he has already provided every bridge and tunnel for the phantom trains to cross two motorways and three major dual carriageways as we all stew and quietly steam on our traffic choked roads.

PHOTOS for a little light relief.  Exactly, where mistaken, uninformed Michael MP wants his cycle-walkway, instead of regional and national trains!  Does he actually cycle, himself, as I do?  Does he get stuck in traffic jams, as I do?

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Two of our top politicians, from both major parties, are wanting the UK's only main line but easily reinstated in full, 120 Kms Black Country Railway, "of national strategic significance", to be turned into a piddling little tram line, a test track, a trail of trees and a cycle-walkway!  No wonder our politicians are so poorly regarded.  They are just not up to the job.  Roger should definitely and gracefully retire.  Soon to be followed by clueless Michael You've Got The Wrong Railway Line Fabricant!

Tim Weller  (full contact details, below)

28 transport tragedies for 37 years - so far!

WHY TRANSPORT LEAD, CLLR ROGER LAWRENCE SHOULD EITHER TURN OVER A NEW LEAF OR, RETIRE

1. In 1981, our transport chiefs began their fascination with Midland Metro trams on railway lines and roads, instead of protecting our closed railways for future use and then re-opening them for passenger and freight trains.
   
   
2. Cllrs Richard Worrall, Angus Adams and, now Roger Lawrence are the transport chiefs over decades who have let us down, misspent our taxes and had the most weird and wonderful set of priorities.
   
   
3. These men put everything but trains down Dudley to Wolverhampton, Dudley to Birmingham, Dudley to Netherton, Old Hill, Halesowen to Longbridge and, Birmingham to Wolverhampton railway lines.
   
   
4. One e-mailer to me wrote, “ … people who could be regarded as complicit in questionable decisions.”  He meant our fully trained professionals in Network Rail (NR), Transport for W Mids (TfWM) and Midland Metro Alliance (MMA) who need to be questioned, challenged and watched like hawks because of their disastrous decisions over many years.
   
   
5. I think Beeching was right to close the lines he did as we deserted trains and went out and bought cars.  It was the railway industry, our transport chiefs, the unions and the many groups of railway enthusiasts who failed to ensure that they were mothballed in case they were ever needed in the future.  They are certainly needed now but the railway industry, the unions and the railway enthusiasts all allowed them to be lost for every kind of built development imaginable, to roads and, to slow, frequent stopping, extremely expensive “bus on rails” trams!
   
   
6. Wikipedia has: Ian Hislop comments that history has been somewhat unkind to "Britain's most hated civil servant", by forgetting that he proposed a much better bus service that ministers never delivered.
   
   
7. The politicians and transport experts got diverted from increasing the popularity of buses to building seven tram networks in the UK.
   
   
8. All the experts were happily building steam locomotives up to the 1960s as part of our supposedly modern railway.  This was the second decade of railway closures and the sale of our railways to any old Tom, Dick or Harriet instead of their protection for future use by trains.
   
   
9. My e-mailer wrote, “Routes such as Dudley to Wolverhampton were not just closed to traffic but the tracks were removed.”  Yes. Dudley, Sandwell and Wolverhampton councillors were all happily giving planning permission for houses, roads and a trading estate to obliterate this important railway line!  How foolish is that? “The same was the case for Birmingham to Wolverhampton via West Bromwich”, my e-mailer wrote. This was the valuable Snow Hill to Wolverhampton Low Level line that could be giving additional trains into Shropshire and North Wales, one former railway worker has told me (see 8).  Instead, Metro line One took it over. This meant that platform four at Snow Hill is still not used, to this day for trains, Low Level station is now a conference and events venue and 2 Kms of the line in Wolverhampton was destroyed. This was because the tram line went on the road for 2 Kms to St George’s Square and the useful direct link to Low Level railway station was lost forever!
   
   
10. The former railway worker texted to me about the 1999 Metro One, “What a waste opening the wolves - bham line to a tram.  This has prevented through services from snow hill to Wales or the north from ever returning.”
    
    
11. If the trains had been allowed back, we would still have commuter and regional trains using the line that the tram now uses and, grand Low Level station would still be in use as a much needed station rather than a conference and events centre.
    
    
12. It would still be a  station if only our darling politicians had thought of that great wheeze of railway trains on railway lines! This summer, main work starts on the even more important 120 Km Black Country Railway "of national strategic significance" being transformed into a ‘bring your own cushion for the tram’ tramline over all of 6.7 Kms, a test track, a trail of trees, Himalayan Balsam and undergrowth
    
    
13. Trams will, one day connect St George’s Sq to the bus station and the last remaining railway station but at a cost of £33m.  All it needed were the trains back between Snow Hill and Wolverhampton Low Level and it would have been at a fraction of the cost of the trams.  This was another blunder by PTA/Centro and by Roger Lawrence, plus predecessors.
    
    
14. Four businesses closed on Bilston Road in 2017 when Metro One tracks were renewed after only 18 years.  This would never have happened if the trains and stations had been allowed back.
    
    
15. More businesses are likely to close in Dudley high town with the tram being an extra attraction for Dudley townsfolk to take the tram to Merry Hill to do their shopping.
    
    
16. The former successful for 100 years mainline station at Dudley Castle Gate (low town) that is thriving is being destroyed forever by a suite of buildings for the VLR innovation centre and test track.
    
    
17. I would like the whole 120 Kms railway “of national strategic significance” (Network Rail and DfT letter to me dated, 8 March 2018) from Worcester, the Black Country and on to Derby, to be called the Black Country Railway.
    
    
18. My e-mailer wrote, “Some opinion is that in an 'unhelpful' environment and with limited funding, various campaigners and the efforts of individuals within organisations and organisations such as Centro, British Rail, some local authorities, some enhancements and reopenings were achieved.”  From what I have seen, the heritage railway groups have achieved much more than the professional railway ‘experts’ and councillors. From my research, only 6 Kms out of 112 Kms of double track railway line in freight or officially mothballed have been re-opened. In addition, there was the Walsall to Rugeley re-opening.
    
    
19. Our trio of former, including the incumbent Roger, transport chiefs are wholly responsible.  They need to work with the professionals but also to stop obvious blunders like the many we have seen and are still seeing.
    
    
20. The only official, ‘Out of Use’, Black Country Railway, “of national strategic significance”, is now precluded from returning to railway use for ever by Dudley Castle Hill mainline station that is about to be built on, by the Metro tram line and, a test track through Castle Hill tunnel between the two short sections of tramway.  Thus my feeling that we, ever so clever, Brexit Brits are incompetent and negligent!
    
    
21. I attended a Community Forum in Dudley borough last month.  Before, I spoke and without one councillor knowing who I was or why I came, he told the meeting that when on the Centro Passenger Transport Authority years ago, he was told that “heavy rail trains would still be able to return” once the Black Country Railway, “of national strategic significance”, had been turned into a tram line.  I told him that this was a lie. Freight trains might be able to use it at night but certainly not the former passenger service between Worcester and Derby via the Black Country that we saw for 100 years until fifty years ago.
    
    
22. This light rail scheme is a throwback to the 1980s when the Black Country Railway was unwanted, out of use, disused, dismantled, unloved and it was thought that it would never be needed, ever again.  Hence, put the tram on it that was all the rage at the time. Kind of anachronistic, now that we are four decades on.​ We are seeing a renaissance in railway travel.
    
    
23. Never again, fast passenger train services from Derby to Devon via Dudley or Burton to Bristol via Brierley Hill.
    
    
24. One professional railway ‘expert’ explained to me that Network Rail does not like running passenger trains on freight lines.  Yet, the Victorian and Edwardian railway men did so for decades. Why not the so smart, tech savvy, Elizabethans?
    
    
25. Is Cllr Roger standing up to Network Rail and insisting on passenger trains and stations for our urban lines not yet obliterated?  I don’t think so. He gave planning permission for homes, roads and trading estates on the railway lines, after all.
    
    
26. My e-mailer wrote, “The passenger train operator for the West Midlands is supposed to be introducing a train service from Birmingham to Stourbridge and then to Brierley Hill. This will require a new station at Brierley Hill.”  Thus, we all pile out of the train to get on the tram into Brum when the train could take us the whole way without changing.  And, when extended to Walsall, it will require from Worcester, a change from train to tram at Canal St tram stop, near Brierley Hill and back to the train at Walsall station for progress to Derby!
    
    
27. Wikipedia has: “Passenger services were terminated between Walsall and Wolverhampton in 2008 on cost and efficiency grounds.”  Shortly after they were introduced! Yet, now, trains are to be re-introduced with two new stations when there is a good Platinum bus service between the two places.  The trains need to go all the way to Brum via the Sutton freight only line. But, finishing the Black Country Railway is much more desperately needed to reduce road and railway congestion.
    
    
28. On the unused, wasted, 56 Kms, tens of millions of pounds have been spent on two motorway crossings and three tunnels to cross three dual carriageways - for the 120 Kms Black Country Railway "of national strategic significance".  But this is the same unused, wasted, middle section that is to be turned into a 6.7 Kms tramline, a test track, rusting lines and a jungle of undergrowth. What a waste of tens of millions of pounds!
    
    

All of this is such complete nonsense that Cllr Roger needs to step down, with Keith Harrison using the ‘Express and Star’ as a way to help him to give way.  PLEASE!

timweller1@gmail.com     16 May 2018

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26 transport tragedies for 37 years - so far!

WHY TRANSPORT LEAD, CLLR ROGER LAWRENCE SHOULD EITHER TURN OVER A NEW LEAF OR, RETIRE

1. In 1981, our transport chiefs began their fascination with Midland Metro trams on railway lines and roads, instead of protecting our closed railways for future use and then re-opening them for passenger and freight trains.
2. Cllrs Richard Worrall, Angus Adams and, now Roger Lawrence are the transport chiefs over decades who have let us down, misspent our taxes and had the most weird and wonderful set of priorities.
3. These men put everything but trains down Dudley to Wolverhampton, Dudley to Birmingham, Dudley to Netherton, Old Hill, Halesowen to Longbridge and, Birmingham to Wolverhampton railway lines.
4. One e-mailer to me wrote, “ … people who could be regarded as complicit in questionable decisions.”  He meant our fully trained professionals in Network Rail (NR), Transport for W Mids (TfWM) and Midland Metro Alliance (MMA) who need to be questioned, challenged and watched like hawks because of their disastrous decisions over many years.
5. I think Beeching was right to close the lines he did as we deserted trains and went out and bought cars.  It was the railway industry, our transport chiefs, the unions and the many groups of railway enthusiasts who failed to ensure that they were mothballed in case they were ever needed in the future.  They are certainly needed now but the railway industry, the unions and the railway enthusiasts all allowed them to be lost for every kind of built development imaginable, to roads and, to slow, frequent stopping, extremely expensive “bus on rails” trams!
6. Wikipedia has: Ian Hislop comments that history has been somewhat unkind to "Britain's most hated civil servant", by forgetting that he proposed a much better bus service that ministers never delivered.
7. The politicians and transport experts got diverted from increasing the popularity of buses to building seven tram networks in the UK.
8. All the experts were happily building steam locomotives up to the 1960s as part of our supposedly modern railway.  This was the first decade of railway closures and the sale of our railways to any old Tom, Dick or Harriet instead of their protection for future use by trains.
9. My e-mailer wrote, “Routes such as Dudley to Wolverhampton were not just closed to traffic but the tracks were removed.”  Yes. Dudley, Sandwell and Wolverhampton councillors were all happily giving planning permission for houses, roads and a trading estate to obliterate this important railway line!  How foolish is that? “The same was the case for Birmingham to Wolverhampton via West Bromwich”, my e-mailer wrote. This was the valuable Snow Hill to Wolverhampton Low Level line that could be giving additional trains into Shropshire and North Wales, one former railway worker has told me (see 8).  Instead, Metro line One took it over. This meant that platform four at Snow Hill is still not used, to this day for trains, Low Level station is now a conference and events venue and 2 Kms of the line in Wolverhampton was destroyed. This was because the tram line went on the road for 2 Kms to St George’s Square and the useful direct link to Low Level railway station was lost forever!
10. The former railway worker texted to me about the 1999 Metro One, “What a waste opening the wolves - bham line to a tram.  This has prevented through services from snow hill to Wales or the north from ever returning.”
11. If the trains had been allowed back, we would still have commuter and regional trains using the line that the tram now uses and, grand Low Level station would still be in use as a much needed station rather than a conference and events centre.
12. It would still be a  station if only our darling politicians had thought of that great wheeze of railway trains on railway lines! This summer, main work starts on the even more important 120 Km Black Country Railway "of national strategic significance" being transformed into a ‘bring your own cushion for the tram’ tramline over all of 6.7 Kms, a test track, a trail of trees, Himalayan Balsam and undergrowth
13. Trams will, one day connect St George’s Sq to the bus station and the last remaining railway station but at a cost of £33m.  All it needed were the trains back between Snow Hill and Wolverhampton Low Level and it would have been at a fraction of the cost of the trams.  This was another blunder by PTA/Centro and by Roger Lawrence, plus predecessors.
14. Four businesses closed on Bilston Road in 2017 when Metro One tracks were renewed after only 18 years.  This would never have happened if the trains and stations had been allowed back.
15. I would like the whole 120 Kms railway “of national strategic significance” (Network Rail and DfT letter to me dated, 8 March 2018) from Worcester, the Black Country and on to Derby, to be called the Black Country Railway.
16. My e-mailer wrote, “Some opinion is that in an 'unhelpful' environment and with limited funding, various campaigners and the efforts of individuals within organisations and organisations such as Centro, British Rail, some local authorities, some enhancements and reopenings were achieved.”  From what I have seen, the heritage railway groups have achieved much more than the professional railway ‘experts’ and councillors. From my research, only 6 Kms out of 112 Kms of double track railway line in freight or officially mothballed have been re-opened. In addition, there was the Walsall to Rugeley re-opening.
17. Our trio of former, including the incumbent Roger, transport chiefs are wholly responsible.  They need to work with the professionals but also to stop obvious blunders like the many we have seen and are still seeing.
18. The only official, ‘Out of Use’, Black Country Railway, “of national strategic significance”, is now precluded from returning to railway use for ever by Dudley Castle Hill mainline station that is about to be built on, by the Metro tram line and, a test track through Castle Hill tunnel between the two short sections of tramway.  Thus my feeling that we, ever so clever, Brexit Brits are incompetent and negligent!
19. I attended a Community Forum in Dudley borough last month.  Before, I spoke and without one councillor knowing who I was or why I came, he told the meeting that when on the Centro Passenger Transport Authority years ago, he was told that “heavy rail trains would still be able to return” once the Black Country Railway, “of national strategic significance”, had been turned into a tram line.  I told him that this was a lie. Freight trains might be able to use it at night but certainly not the former passenger service between Worcester and Derby via the Black Country that we saw for 100 years until fifty years ago.
20. This light rail scheme is a throwback to the 1980s when the Black Country Railway was unwanted, out of use, disused, dismantled, unloved and it was thought that it would never be needed, ever again.  Hence, put the tram on it that was all the rage at the time. Kind of anachronistic, now that we are four decades on.​ We are seeing a renaissance in railway travel.
21. Never again, fast passenger train services from Derby to Devon via Dudley or Burton to Bristol via Brierley Hill.
22. One professional railway ‘expert’ explained to me that Network Rail does not like running passenger trains on freight lines.  Yet, the Victorian and Edwardian railway men did so for decades. Why not the so smart, tech savvy, Elizabethans?
23. Is Cllr Roger standing up to Network Rail and insisting on passenger trains and stations for our urban lines not yet obliterated?  I don’t think so. He gave planning permission for homes, roads and trading estates on the railway lines, after all.
24. My e-mailer wrote, “The passenger train operator for the West Midlands is supposed to be introducing a train service from Birmingham to Stourbridge and then to Brierley Hill. This will require a new station at Brierley Hill.”  Thus, we all pile out of the train to get on the tram into Brum when the train could take us the whole way without changing.  And, when extended to Walsall, it will require from Worcester, a change from train to tram at Canal St tram stop, near Brierley Hill and back to the train at Walsall station for progress to Derby!
25. Wikipedia has: “Passenger services were terminated between Walsall and Wolverhampton in 2008 on cost and efficiency grounds.”  Shortly after they were introduced! Yet, now, trains are to be re-introduced with two new stations when there is a good Platinum bus service between the two places.  The trains need to go all the way to Brum via the Sutton freight only line. But, finishing the Black Country Railway is much more desperately needed to reduce road and railway congestion.
26. On the unused, wasted, 56 Kms, tens of millions of pounds have been spent on two motorway crossings and three tunnels to cross three dual carriageways - for the 120 Kms Black Country Railway "of national strategic significance".  But this is the same unused, wasted, middle section that is to be turned into a 6.7 Kms tramline, a test track, rusting lines and a jungle of undergrowth. What a waste of tens of millions of pounds!

All of this is such complete nonsense that Cllr Roger needs to step down, with Keith Harrison using the ‘Express and Star’ as a way to help him to give way.

Great Brexit Britain steals a march on Germany!

How is it that patriotic, flag waving, Great Brexit Britain is buying foreign built "bus on rails" trams, at ten times the price of a double decker bus, to wreck any possibility of our British built hydrogen electric trains completing the full 120 Kms Black Country Railway?

Slow, frequent stopping trams preventing forever the train that, last year, we sold to Germany - 14 British hydrogen electric trains are now in use in Lower Saxony.

Turning a 120 Kms mainline railway "of national strategic significance" (Network Rail/DfT) into a piddling little tram line of 6.7 Kms is the ultimate stupidity that Black Country councillors, MPs and transport 'experts' have wanted for the last 37 years.  In 1999, the tram on another commuter railway destroyed one Wolverhampton mainline station, 2 Kms of railway line and, platform 4 at Snow Hill station remains unused since the tram bypassed Snow Hill station two years ago. The sole reason for the £60m/Km extension was to link Snow Hill to Grand Central that it does not do!  Such is their incompetence and folly and, dishonesty in getting the money under false pretences.

Central government, on the 8 March, finally recognised the importance of the 120 Kms strategic, nationally important railway between Worcester, the Black Country and Derby.  Because of devolution, it seems they are powerless to stop the idiocy of the W Mids Combined Authority and the incompetence of Mayor Andy Street and his transport lead, Cllr Roger Lawrence.  Incompetence, idiocy and irresponsibility in spending an official £343 million to turn the unused 56 Kms Black Country section, out of 120 Kms, into a 2 Kms test track in the middle of 6.7 Kms of tram line, a cycle-walkway, a trail of trees and Himalayan Balsam and, 6 Kms of freight only railway line.  They have approved a £30 million Very Light Rail innovation centre to go on the only feasible site for Dudley’s mainline station that was so successful for 100 years and would be again if they used this existing railway, “of national strategic significance”, for regional and commuter trains.

Both well-meaning but hopeless politicians should resign - now.

Tim Weller 12 April 2018

One horrible history of truly terrible transport!

SUMMARY

Lord Beeching still lives on at Centro House, Integrated Transport Authority, Dept for Transport and Network Rail.   You all fully co-operated with the idiocy of Beeching and went even further than him by not mothballing lines and - wait for it - building on them!  You also put light rail (LR) and, now, very light rail (VLR) on heavy rail lines instead of simply re-opening them for existing passenger trains.  Beeching lives on with the stupidity of 72 Km of freight only lines as we go into the next fifty years of increasing road and rail congestion in Birmingham and the Black Country!  And, Metro extensions in Brum centre simply mean modal shift from bus to tram; cyclists being put off by tram lines that send us crashing to the floor (as Richard Hammond found); and, even more crowded roads with cars, trucks, vans, lorries, buses - and, now, trams to add to the mayhem.  Perhaps, it might encourage us to walk more!

IN GREATER DETAIL

After about 100 years of successful train travel for our ancestors, your predecessors in Rail HQ had a brainstorm in closing and not even mothballing over 100 miles (160K) of rail lines (in Birmingham and the Black Country) of which there are still left the 45 miles (72K) that were safeguarded for freight only.  I wanted you both to check the distance (on my map, above) to confirm that for 100 years they did have passenger trains and to reassure me that existing diesel passenger trains and stations could return to all of the remaining 45 miles.  If necessary, freight at night and passengers in the daytime.

PTA/Centro put light rail trams (not trains back) on 11 miles of the 100 miles of closed rail lines.  This was in 1999 after 18 or 19 years of work on Midland Metro Line One.  Even then, as you told me yourself, Toby it was never extended to New Street Station, as PTA/Centro obviously should have done.  More incompetence when the tram line (unlike its predecessor, the perfectly good train line) was not connected, even, to either rail station in Wolverhampton!  Only now are you connecting the tram to the one and only rail station that is now left in Wolverhampton.  But, what a lot of wasteful effort and money in closing the rail line fifty years ago and, only now, are you getting back to completing a rail link between Snow Hill and Wolverhampton station.  A rail line that could have been left well alone in the 1960s in a growing and ever more populated and congested urban conurbation.  Yet, all the transport authorities and even trade unions fully co-operated with Lord Beeching in closing and, sometimes selling off, the miles of urban rail lines he wanted closed.

PTA/Centro chose the further station (Snow Hill) from New Street rather than the nearer Moor Street Station to connect New Street with Metro trams.  They did this when they knew that all trains stop at both Snow Hill and Moor Street stations.  Therefore, it seemed more sensible to me, for the nearest station to New Street to be connected by a tram and not the one furthest away!  Or, why was the Metro not brought to Moor Street Station, as well, before going on to Grand Central Shopping Centre and Station?

I remember you telling me, Toby, that the problem of New Street Station rail congestion is down to the tunnels on both approaches.  Exactly!  So why on earth did PTA/Centro and Network Rail lose the opportunity to build additional ones, first when B'ham Westside was being developed in the 80s and 90s and, secondly, when the Bull Ring was completely rebuilt in the 90s and noughties?

£700 million has just been wasted on a cosmetic tart up of New Street Station that remains more of a shopping centre and, underground station than the magnificent Victorian rail station it was for 100 years - until the demolition and destruction of the 1960s!  Why did PTA/Centro and Network Rail not use that money towards the new tunnels that are desperately needed?  £15 billion for Cross Rail and Thames Link but nothing meaningful for Birmingham to address the real problems of inadequate rail infrastructure at sub standard, subterranean, New Street Station.  Or, why was £700 million not spent on rebuilding the grandeur of the old station and dispensing with yet more shops and stores?

An opportunity missed to address the problem of rail congestion at New Street Station.  Nothing to address the chronic and dire problems of road congestion, either, around New Street Station at peak times.  When I pick up my daughter on a Friday evening I have to park in the road called Holloway Head, on the far side of Holloway Circus from the station and, walk in to meet her.  Otherwise, it is half an hour of nose to tail traffic into the Stop and Crawl tunnel.  This tunnel is nicely perfumed with a cocktail of poisonous gases, just like the platforms of Brum's premier station.  Nearly fifty years and rising of very unhealthy and dangerous particulates from all the diesel smoke.  This is the main reason why I boycott New Street Station, if I possibly can.

In the 1980s, PTA/Centro failed to extend Don and Roy Richardson's Merry Hill monorail the remaining 400 metres to join up with the Black Country inter-city line at the Waterfront, that should have been re-opened then!  How negligent and stupid is that?

In the next decade, I visited a Victorian signal box at Round Oak on the Black Country inter-city Line and found the door closed but unlocked.  When I revisited a few weeks later, it was burnt almost to the ground.  Network Rail was Negligent Rail.

I don't suppose one of you has questioned the scandal of spending £300 million of taxpayers' money on the 48 Km rail line to the middle of nowhere in southern Scotland.  That money should have gone to the Black Country inter-city Line to relieve the chronic road and rail congestion at New Street Shopping Centre and Station.

I now read that Snow Hill Station is going to be rebuilt - for the second time - when the Victorian station should have been left well alone.  What on earth is going on?

Rail electrification is still nowhere near being completed.  Yet, the Swiss did all their electrification in the 1920s and 30s!

One further matter; and this was the final straw.  Shortly after I met with Peter and you, I learnt from a newspaper - and this was without any public consultation of any kind - that, without giving up on light rail Metro on the Black Country inter-city Line, you were now working to put Very Light Rail (VLR) on that same line, too but, for only 2 Km.  This, all of one mile between Dudley Castle Hill (that should, asap, be a stop for inter-city trains between London and Glasgow) and Dudley Port!  The 21 Km Black Country inter-city Line, had passenger trains for one hundred years, then some years of freight and not even freight since the 1980s after Round Oak.  I think it should be extended to Lichfield for existing diesel trains.  Yet, you want to put in Very Light Rail in bite sized chunks, reminiscent of the failed bite sized chunks policy of PTA/Centro when it came to Metro trams but, we will now get even slower VLR trams.  But, only when this university project has been developed, tried and tested and passed the rigorous H&S regulations - in I don't know when!

I have never before heard such nonsense, such absurdity in all my life.  Especially, when the VLR project could be developed on the Pensnett branch line from the former Brierley Hill Steel Terminal site at Moor Street to the north side of Pensnett High Street.  From Moor Street, eventually road running to the Waterfront and Merry Hill and another line to link with Stourbridge Town interchange.

Am I right in thinking that VLR is what we have with the PPM on the Stourbridge branch line for three quarters of a mile between Town and Junction stations?  For years, off and on, I was writing to Centro and to every member of the PTA, wanting John Parry's tram on this line - as well as trains back on, what I thought then was 38 miles of freight lines.  (It is actually 45 miles with the Walsall to Wolverhampton line that I had overlooked.)  It took a very long time to achieve the successful PPM.  Yet, the transport authorities are planning to put a refinement of John Parry's excellent tram, that is ideal for branch lines and road running, onto a major inter-city line!  How ridiculous is that?

I really do think that all of you, from Cllr Roger Lawrence and Geoff Inskip down and, in Network Rail, the ITA and DfT, need an earthquake to well and truly explode you into the real world that the rest of us have to get about in - but, with increasing difficulty!