Hi Tim.
Hope you are well.
I would like to bring to your attention, this article which appeared on the web regarding how much money this nutter of a mayor & the transport authority is applying for to the government to fund forthcoming transport projects in the East/ West Midlands.
SUMMARY BY SELF of what train driver, Dave wrote, below:
25% of Snow Hill station was converted from use by commuter trains for use by grandiose "bus on rails" trams in the 1990s. This, when the tram could have gone down the side of the station, even then, as it now does. But all too late! Bringing back the 25% is to cost a colossal £27 m but, when that will be done is anybody's guess.
THE MAN WHO KNOWS, writes:
The item which really caught my eye is the cost of reinstatement of platform 4 at Birmingham Snow hill for returning services back to heavy rail.
According to this article, the cost to do this is £27million, yes, £27million.
All this to relay a few yards of track and to alter the signalling and is not expected to be completed until 2026.
Now the question is, when Snow hill was reopened by the West Midlands transport authority, with funds paid for by the government as the railway was still run by British railway, who was the individual, or group of individuals who made the decision to allow the Metro from Wolverhampton to convert platform 4 at Snow hill for it to gain access into Snow hill station, when there was space at the side of the station (the route it uses now to gain access to the city centre) without the need to abolish platform 4?
Would this individual or group of individuals like to offer an explanation to the public why they are now begging for £27million of public money to reinstate this platform ?
Or will they remain in hiding until all this gets blown over or forgotten about?
In my opinion, the cost of this scheme should be funded by the Metro alliance, use private money, after all, it was for their benefit it was closed in the first place.
SUMMARY BY SELF of what Dave has written, below:
Trains from Coventry to Leicester were popular for 100 years. That was stopped to give priority to fast intercity trains. That 'do it cheap and quick' blunder has been acknowledged and the 'experts' want to reinstate Coventry to Leicester by bypassing Nuneaton for the basement bargain price of only £5 m!
THE TRAIN DRIVER WHO KNOWS, writes:
Another interesting point is the scheme to run services to the East Midlands from Coventry.
These services used to run in Pe-privatised and Privatised days from Coventry to Leicester, Nottingham, and Lincoln.
These services would run via Nuneaton which required a reversal of train direction to gain access to the line to Leicester.
When the West Coast Mainline was upgraded to allow Virgin to run faster & more frequent services, Nuneaton East junction was remodelled and the crossover was removed.
This means that now there’s no access for trains arriving at Nuneaton from Coventry to carry on their journey to Leicester and beyond.
However, this has not deterred the Transport authority who want to run a service to Leicester from Coventry, but now does not want it to call at Nuneaton ( which has connections to the north ).
The only way they can do this is to link the Coventry line with the Leicester line by means of a flyover or tunnel under the West coast main line.
This would not be a cheap solution.
Would be far better to re alter the junction at Nuneaton and return to services running as they did before.
So there you have it, two examples of how people who hold position on these authorities to make decisions costing taxpayers millions of pounds and have no knowledge of transport needs as they claim to have.
MY SUMMARY: The Pre-Metro, ultra-light rail, gas and flywheel powered Stourbridge Shuttle, is planned to bridge the gap left by the light rail "bus on rails" tram terminating at Brierley Hill town centre. This slow, shuttle tram shuttles passengers on a successful for a 100 years, mainline railway between Stourbridge Jct on the mainline, to drop passengers off at Harts' Hill to get the light rail "bus on rails" Metro tram to Wednesbury on the same mainline railway! You then change to the bus to get to Walsall railway station. In the 21st century, we get two changes when from the 19th century for 100 years none were necessary to get all the way to Walsall and, even to Derby, direct from Stourbridge Jct!
We do have to travel less, to lockdown, for both Covid and Climate but this is getting ridiculous. No wonder people just jump in the car!
THE MAN WHO KNOWS, writes:
As I send this to you pre metro operations company at Stourbridge are now applying to run a light rail service from Stourbridge to Round oak on the existing portion of the Stourbridge to Walsall freight line.
No doubt this will be approved by this nutter of a mayor and his cronies at the transport authority.
I guess the light vehicles they use will be tested on the new portion of line from Dudley to Harts' Hill, then taken by road transport to Stourbridge.
You couldn’t make all this up?
Total incompetence by the authorities and the idiots who run them.
As I’ve said before Tim, we have no hope.
Regards
Dave.
