In 2020, part of the UK's very last half-used but ready-built, principal mainline railway, near us was transferred to the W Mids Combined Authority for a Very Light Rail test track and two short sections of Light Rail tram line - and, proposal for an extended cycle-walkway!!
Showing posts with label Very Light Rail. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Very Light Rail. Show all posts
Friday, 2 April 2021
Wednesday, 23 December 2020
MY QUIZ of 12 ... oddities, eccentricities, peculiarities ...
MY QUIZ of 12 ... oddities, eccentricities, peculiarities ... ?
1. A poisoned chalice. The gods have played a cruel trick on us. A one-off geological inheritance that was never meant to be exploited with such gay abandon. It was the apple on the tree that we were never meant to take, let alone partake of as we have done, for 300 years. But we can hardly blame our ancestors, can we? I expect, we would each have done exactly the same. Perhaps, a serious flaw in our human nature!
What is in the chalice?
2. Name the largest UK town without a railway station that it had for 100 years, successfully, until 50 years ago. It now gets a tram stop and Innovation Centre with a 2 Km test track, instead!
3. "In October, the BLANK October on record according to the EU’s climate monitoring service." (Directors' Report 2019 from Operation Noah)
Fill in the blank.
4. Who said,
"We have unwittingly begun a massive experiment with the system of the earth itself." Quoted by Andrew Marr, p 480 in 'A History of Modern Britain' (owned by Mike Verduyn and bequeathed to his grandson Jonathan).
5. Name earth's sister planet and what makes it so?
6. Munros, Tops, Corbetts, Grahams, Donalds, Bridges, Nuttalls, Marilyns, Furths.
Where do you find them?
7. For a few years, which UK city had "a concrete collar" named by the very planners who had built it?
8. Not many people know this useless piece of information: What can you legally do on a public footpath that you may not want to do?
9. Since the 1990s, how many times has Centenary Square been rebuilt, including its latest incarnation in 2019 at £16 m construction cost?
10. What was the name of the newest national park, announced by the authorities in August 2019?
11. "It would a lovely city if they could only finish building it!" What on earth do they mean?
12. Any suggestions for filling in the BLANKS in this sentence that are not expletives but really polite, descriptive and accurate? I'm sure I must have had a rich vocabulary in mind at the time and I wish I could remember what the polite English was! Can you help me out, please?
When you have a BLANK, BLANK, BLANK 56 Kms blankety gap in the middle of a mainline railway of "national strategic significance" between Worcester and Derby, do you really shuttle passengers across the gap using "bus on rails" trams, a Very Light Rail test track and cycle hire, as is happening?
Tim Snr
Tuesday, 8 December 2020
Someone, believes mainline railways must be turned into tram lines, test track and fresh air"
from Specialized:
"I think this is the guy who used to turn up to Railfuture meetings and make a massive song and dance about this. The problem with campaigning to cancel projects like this which are agreed, funded and supported by politicians, is that you might end up with nothing and the money being spirited away on road schemes instead. Weller knows he hasn't got a cat in hell's chance of actually becoming Mayor, so is abusing the democratic process to get some publicity for his hobby horse."
MY REPLY:
This dear troll, 'Specialized', who doesn't have the guts to give his name, is so ashamed of his eccentric/peculiar/odd support to convert the UK's last half-finished, mainline railway "of national strategic significance" into a tramline and test track that he has to remain anonymous!
Our friend believes in shuttling passengers across the 56 Kms gap without the trains, by using trams on 6.7 Kms, Very Light Rail test vehicles and fresh air. Quite a novelty!
Tuesday, 1 December 2020
Shuttling to and fro by tram on the mainline railway, instead of using the TRAIN for the whole 120 Kms length!
Thank you, Matt for your interest in this line and for the comment.
Unfortunately, out of the unfinished 56 Kms, and half used 64 Kms, the 120 Kms Worcester, Black Country, Derby mainline railway "of national strategic significance" (Network Rail and Dept for Transport in March 2018), 6.7 Kms is being given over to Metro trams and a further 2 Kms for a Very Light Rail test track. This means that the UK's last mothballed mainline will be severed by the trams and test track, instead of all 120 Kms of double track being used for commuter, regional and freight trains, with Railfuture's nine new stations.
The best we can hope for is that one day the shuttle tram, in the middle, will shuttle passengers to a reopened railway line to connect the tram at Brierley Hill to Stourbridge Jct and Worcester and, at the other end, connect the tram stop at Wednesbury to the train taking passengers on to Walsall, Lichfield and Derby.
It would have been easier and more sensible, simply to have put the trains back on the whole length of 120 Kms in one go!
Friday, 31 May 2019
Nearly £2 BILLION (to 2026) to replace diesel buses with diesel Sprint buses and using electric trams to destroy the UK's only mothballed mainline railway!
TO THE STAR
24 May 2019
Nearly £2 BILLION (to 2026) to replace diesel buses with diesel Sprint buses and using electric trams to destroy the UK's only mothballed mainline railway!
In the 1990s, I was told in all seriousness by the Leader of Dudley MBC, Cllr Fred Hunt, that the Wednesbury to Brierley Hill Extension (WBHE) would be open by 2000. It was not. In March of last year, I was told by the Black Country Director of Transport, Stuart Everton, that work was due to begin in the summer. It did not. The official start date for the main works is now the third quarter of this year. Therefore, there is still time for cooler heads to prevail. You three journalists are distant and independent from the fray. If you think I am on to something here, please write a little more so that the blunder is further delayed to enable a review of the scheme. If I am wrong, please tell me!
Metro One was opened in 1999. That meant the permanent closure of Low Level principal station and a loss of passenger services, I believe, to Shrewsbury and possibly Crewe (I would like that confirmed or corrected, if you are able, please). WBHE is even more devastating on heavy railway services for growing freight and passenger services, that are at full capacity now, in the Black Country and Brum. Platform 4 at Snow Hill station is still unused and wasted!
£55.7 billion is being spent on HS2 to increase capacity. The politicians’ £449 million for WBHE is soon to be spent to reduce capacity!
All political parties are still wanting the 1981 decision to have a network of electric trams to replace some diesel buses and diesel trains. This, when electric buses and electric trains would have been more sensible, financially responsible and with lower greenhouse gas emissions. Not one public statement condemning the scandalous destruction of urban railway lines that continues to this day. No public statement on the sheer stupidity of converting the 120 Kms Black Country Mainline Railway into a piddling little shuttle tram line over 6.7 Kms. No public statement on the matter of this important railway "of national strategic significance", having a Very Light Rail Innovation Centre, a trail of trees and, in south Staffordshire, a new extended cycle-walkway. All on a nationally important, mainline railway!!
From the powers that govern us, there has been:
NO discussion or debate in any of the seven council chambers on spending nearly £2 billion.
NO vote, of course. There was, however, in Edinburgh, in March, over their tram extension. And in went ahead: 36 to 26 councillors voted in favour.
NO democracy - in the land that goes on (wrongly) about being the Great Mother of all Parliaments and the best democracy in the world!
YES to improper but powerful influence at Transport HQ by the national tram promotion group that wants trams everywhere, regardless of the cost. That lobby group also has its HQ in Transport HQ.
YES to collusion + complicity = corruption at 16 Summer Lane.
YES to continuing to squander nearly £2 billion over the next seven years. This, at a time of continuing austerity causing suffering for the NHS/social care and, the £2 billion resulting in a worsening climate catastrophe of £2 billion of totally unnecessary greenhouse gases to hasten planet earth turning into our 'twin' planet, venus.
I think the green transport policy is free bus travel for all and not just the disabled and elderly, like me. Dunkirk and Luxembourg are going down this route with total free public transport. Many eastern European towns and cities are already doing it. £2 billion would pay for this and the no 9 bus route experiment, I have proposed elsewhere.
With best wishes
Tuesday, 2 April 2019
STOURBRIDGE SHUTTLE EXTENDED to car park and shops!
Anyone interested to extend the John Parry, gas powered, flywheel tram that runs, so successfully and frequently, on the 0.75 mile branch line from Stourbridge Jct (on the half used Black Country Railway "of national strategic significance") to Stourbridge Interchange?
From time to time, over the years, I have asked John to work on extending it to the 350 space, now better used car park on Stourbridge Road (next to the Household Recycling/Reuse Centre). From there, on to High Street/Market Street via Coventry Street and back to the bus station. This would enable some pedestrianisation of High Street and/or Market Street and bring a much needed reduction in local air pollution and fewer international greenhouse gas emissions that seem to be 'slowly' turning planet earth into planet venus.
Please ask for Moor Street, Brierley Hill for the National Very Light Rail Centre instead of the only feasible site for the reopened Dudley Castle Hill railway station on the, eventually, finished 120 Kms Black Country Railway between Worcester and Derby via Dudley and Walsall.
PLEASE RESPOND - everyone and anyone!
Friday, 15 June 2018
Decision makers can be influenced!
Many thanks, Pam. Much appreciated. You are quite right, of course.
This WOM business seems to have been resurrected by Maria who was on TV last week, I think!
Her address is mcadmin@midlandsconnect.uk
She is another of the transport bosses who are all stuck fast in the grossly extravagant and irresponsible tram rut of putting this "bus on rails" on a half finished mainline "railway of national strategic significance", instead of doing the bleeding obvious!
Other addresses are here:
Please flood them with e-mails just saying, perhaps, those five words: 'WESTERN BYPASS RAILWAY BEFORE tramway or motorway'. Or, whatever you want to say but, say 'Yes' to something better, so as not to appear negative. Thanks!
Pam's "decision makers" can be moved/changed. We can change what seems inevitable eg:
- In the 1990s, we stopped both the 16 Kms KBH and the 87 Kms WOM in their tracks! That was a huge victory.
- 2015 decision to put trains not trams, after all, on the 9 Kms Camp Hill railway in Brum.
- 2016 decision for train operating companies to bid for the new franchise by putting forward a proposed passenger service on the half used 120 Kms Black Country Railway.
- 2017 decision to put trains on our main line railway from Stourbridge Junction to Canal Street tram stop at Hart's Hill. This was a step in the right direction but needs to go all the way to Burton on Trent, of course.
- A paper decision in a letter to me on 8 September 2000 to get the freight and passenger trains back but, the very costly "bus on rails" trams must be done first - you pay twice to get what you say you really want all along - a proper railway passenger service!
- The decision to put the Very Light Rail test track on the railway from Dudley Castle Hill to Dudley Port was reversed in 2015 or 2016. It now goes in the opposite direction. However, still, on a nationally important railway!!
- 8 March 2018 letter, Network Fail and the DfT finally conceded that our railway is "of national strategic significance".
- More recorded here:
MANY THANKS TO YOU ALL. PEOPLE POWER; PEOPLE PRESSURE; PEOPLE PREVAIL!
Tim
Tuesday, 12 June 2018
We can change what seems inevitable
This WOM business seems to have been resurrected by Maria who was on TV last week, I think!
Her address is mcadmin@midlandsconnect.uk
She is another of the transport bosses who are all stuck fast in the grossly extravagant and irresponsible tram rut of putting this "bus on rails" on a half finished mainline "railway of national strategic significance", instead of doing the bleeding obvious!
Other addresses are here:
Please flood them with e-mails just saying, perhaps, those five words: 'WESTERN BYPASS RAILWAY BEFORE tramway or motorway'. Or, whatever you want to say but, say 'Yes' to something better, so as not to appear negative. Thanks!
Pam's "decision makers" can be moved/changed. We can change what seems inevitable eg:
- In the 1990s, we stopped both the 16 Kms KBH and the 87 Kms WOM in their tracks! That was a huge victory.
- 2015 decision to put trains not trams, after all, on the 9 Kms Camp Hill railway in Brum.
- 2016 decision for train operating companies to bid for the new franchise by putting forward a proposed passenger service on the half used 120 Kms Black Country Railway.
- 2017 decision to put trains on our main line railway from Stourbridge Junction to Canal Street tram stop at Hart's Hill.
- The decision was made to get the freight and passenger trains back but, the very costly "bus on rails" trams must be done first - you pay twice to get what you really want all along - a proper railway passenger service!
- The decision to put the Very Light Rail test track on the railway from Dudley Castle Hill to Dudley Port was reversed in 2015 or 2016. It now goes in the opposite direction. And, still, on a nationally important railway!!
- 8 March 2018 letter, Network Fail and the DfT finally conceded that our railway is "of national strategic significance".
- More recorded here:
MANY THANKS TO YOU ALL. PEOPLE POWER; PEOPLE PRESSURE; PEOPLE PREVAIL!
Tim
Monday, 17 October 2016
THINGS ARE LOOKING UP!
A word of encouragement to our transport, planners, strategists, managers and politicians
Only for the last fifty years our dear transport, planners, strategists, managers and darling politicians (from councillors to MEPs) have been resolute and persistent in thinking that urban railway lines were for cars and lorries to use and, for homes and hotels to be run down them. An intriguing departure from normal transport practice. About 80 Km in the Black Country and Birmingham have gone this way.
More by accident than design, one main line railway was not destroyed for homes, trading estates and roads. Indeed, such is progress that our terrific transport personnel are now turning the UK’s most important, unused but easily reinstated, double track intercity line into use by two different kinds of slow trams. We are now to have Very Light Rail and Light Rail, very slow and slow - a shuttle tram and a Midland Metro tram - going on 9 Km out of 65 Km that are unused - unused for passenger trains, would you believe - on this nationally vital but overlooked 120 Km main line railway between Worcester and Derby.
Yet, the lot of them do, ultimately, want the trains. They genuinely think that Metro trams “are the basis for restoring heavy rail services at the appropriate time” (letter dated July 2000 from Tom Magrath, Passenger Services Director, Centro and repeated last year). This is complete idiocy!
However, things are definitely looking up. From being drunk and incapable with their success in putting cars, lorries and buildings instead of trains down rail lines, they have now improved to an E grade. From F grade to E grade in now being only less than competent by running slow trams that stop almost as frequently as buses on double tracks that are desperately needed for commuter and intercity trains between London and the North via the Black Country.
£55.7 billion for HS2. Not a dickey bird for the 115 Km double track railway lines in the West Midlands without a single passenger train or station. Homebase was built on one station in Brum - Kings Heath!
£6 million per Km for Scotland’s new, rural, rail line last year, according to RailNews.
£106 million per Km for Birmingham - Brum getting all the money, yet again - for road running Metro trams to replace buses to grandiose Grand Central Shopping Centre and diesel perfumed, basement station. A similar sum of £106 million per Km for the status symbol trams to the even more prestigious HS2 stations for Brum. The £128 m for 1.2 Km did include 21 new trams to replace the 16 year old trams, according to RailNews. So, say £80 m per Km for trams to the HS2 station and beyond.
Enough said.
Friday, 24 July 2015
Midland Metro history and costs
Dear all
The Wikipedia account of Midland Metro tells us that it was in 1981 that a joint planning committee between the West Midlands County Council and Centro "formed a joint planning committee to look at light rail as a means of solving the conurbation's congestion problems. In the summer of 1984 they produced a report entitled "Rapid Transit for the West Midlands" which set out ambitious proposals for a £500 million network of ten light rail routes which would be predominantly street running, but would include some underground sections in Birmingham city centre."
In 34 years and, still to this day, there has never been any kind of consideration given, it seems, to reversing the urban Beeching cuts for our own national and local trains that had been so successful for about 100 years. To this day, no trams, let alone the much easier to achieve trains, on nearly 50 miles of freight lines for 50 years in a densely populated and growing urban conurbation!
When you don't deliver even just the ten Metro tramlines from 1984 when you are paid to do so, it must be a mixture of corrupt practice, incompetence and negligence. Especially, when you were given 31 years to get it done.
Even after many years of many people working on the project, it was never delivered - yet, you all came up with even more! Hence, I read:
"The first of up to 15 lines was intended to be operating by the end of 1993, and a network of 200 kilometres was planned to be in use by 2000.[7] Annual Report 1988–1989, West Midlands PTE." Fifteen lines and 200 Km (124 miles) in 12 years is preposterous and totally unrealistic, especially after their previous experience, above!
When after, say 10 years (1994) you are not being given the money to do the three tram lines - and, most were to be on rail lines that should never have had their trains and stations removed - you should have got the message and changed to something more obvious, cheaper and, therefore, easier to achieve, namely putting right the idiocies of the 1960s urban rail closures. Yet, you and your predecessors have all gone on taking the money in salaries and expenses without, it seems, any feeling of unease, let alone guilt.
The Wikipedia account of Midland Metro history ends with this:
In 2005, "The Commission for Integrated Transport (CfIT) gave an overall cost estimate for British systems of £3.79 per light-rail vehicle-kilometre in 2003–2004, compared with £0.94 per bus kilometre in 2002–2003, according to Rapid Transit Monitor 2004. CfIT estimated that the fare required for Midland Metro to break even was twice that of Manchester Metrolink, London Tramlink and the Tyne and Wear Metro.[89]"
Therefore, Midland Metro's running cost is four times more expensive than buses. In addition, it seems, from the figures I have been given in recent weeks, Metro is ten times more expensive to build than reversing the rural Beeching cuts in depopulated southern Scotland for the return of trains. That cost is £294 million for 29 miles, according to RailNews (March 2015).
In a letter dated 18.9.2000, from Tom Magrath, Passenger Services Director, wrote, "light rail investment provides the basis for restoring heavy rail services at the appropriate time." To tell me that light rail Metro was needed to be put on the Black Country Line in order to be able to restore heavy rail services at a later date on that line is complete nonsense. That idiocy is now repeated with the insistence that Very Light Rail must go on that intercity line but that it will not stop express and local trains returning at a later date (conversation with David Golding, Principal Strategic Planner, Network Rail at ITA meeting on 16.7.2015) No wonder, I am thinking that there is something very corrupt, very wrong at the heart of Network Rail, ITA, Centro - and, for decades, too. They all want express and local trains returning but want Light Rail and/or Very Light Rail, first to help get the everyday trains back!
This scandal over the misappropriation of public funds for trams on rail lines instead of trains (and stations rebuilt) has gone on for long enough.
Yours sincerely
Tuesday, 14 April 2015
Trains Back on the Tracks - Briefing Paper
BACKGROUND BRIEF:
Please could you consider using your position and influence to help to re-open the Black Country inter-city Rail Line?
Could you help to re-open our Dudley borough's, mothballed, 13 miles (21 Km) inter-city and local train line and, to stop the present plan to use one mile of it to shuttle passengers' to the inter-city line in the neighbouring borough? The present plan will destroy forever, what was, for about 100 years, a successful passenger line!
SUMMARY:
Did you know that in 34 years, the West Midland councils have opened only one Metro tram line out of a dozen or so that they wanted and spent much taxpayers' money trying to get? Did you know that that one line finally gets completed this year?
Did you know about the 72 Km of freight lines in Brum and the Black Country that all had passenger trains for 100 years until 50 years ago?
Do you not think that they need top priority over tram lines with which the councils have failed to deliver any (apart from the one on a rail line they should never have closed) over these last 34 years?
Do you not think that chronic road and rail congestion at and around New Street Station could be alleviated by re-opening the Black Country Rail Line for inter-urban and local trains through the heart of three Black Country boroughs? Ideally, extending it to Lichfield, of course, on National Cycle Route 5.
Why not take some of the pressure off Grand Central/New St Sta? In this way, the councils would improve the passenger experience in giving us the choice, in the Black Country, of going to London and Scotland by either the Black Country or by Brum. We would have a direct connection to the south and north of the UK by going via the Black Country boroughs on our own reinstated inter-city line!
Did you know that all of that continues to be lost with 34 years of light rail Metro trams (never achieved) and, now VERY light rail trams being introduced as a shuttle service on only 2 Km of the 21 Km Black Country Line? Below is a map to show the 72 Km of freight only lines and missing stations in our congested conurbation. Read more in my 'Horrible History ...'.
Increasing rail capacity does not need to wait until 2026 and HS2!
Many thanks if you feel able to help - and, to help us all to get around with a little less congestion on our road and rail networks!
Tim
Tuesday, 10 March 2015
Truly terrific transport - I don't think!
Rail in the UK
First with trains but will the UK be the last to complete electrification? If it ever happens, of course.
Switzerland was late with their railways, according to TV film presenter Michael Portillo but, did all their electrification in the 1920s and 30s.
Rail in Birmingham and the Black Country
In our conurbation, the rocking and swinging sixties saw over 100 miles (161 Km) of passenger lines closed by our transport people and the rail workers tolling the bell for their own demise!
Is this unheard of in the EU?
Over 50 miles (80 Km) lost for ever. Unique in Western Europe for one conurbation?
Those superb rail engineers, the Swiss, built and installed the monorail at Merry Hill Shopping Centre in the 1980s. Just a pity that our transport professionals forgot to connect it to the heavy rail line next to the Waterfront. And, its still there. It is called the Black Country inter-city Line and should have been re-opened, then - 30 years ago - but they have, still done nothing to get it back in use. Truly extraordinary!
Our transport experts not only left the monorail 400 metre short of the heavy rail line but then allowed the monorail to be closed and carted off for use, elsewhere soon after it opened!
Those superb rail engineers, the Swiss, built and installed the monorail at Merry Hill Shopping Centre in the 1980s. Just a pity that our transport professionals forgot to connect it to the heavy rail line next to the Waterfront. And, its still there. It is called the Black Country inter-city Line and should have been re-opened, then - 30 years ago - but they have, still done nothing to get it back in use. Truly extraordinary!
Our transport experts not only left the monorail 400 metre short of the heavy rail line but then allowed the monorail to be closed and carted off for use, elsewhere soon after it opened!
Our transport experts are experts at experimenting with novel ways of using rail lines by sending hotels, homes and trading estates down them, eg Dudley to Wolverhampton line on the well used by passengers for 100 years, the old Oxford, Worcester, Wolverhampton Railway Company line (part of that line is the Black Country Line of 21 Km).
Surprising news - our experts are experts at squirreling away 45 miles (72 Km) some, literally alongside or, near to commuter congested roads over these last fifty years as road and rail congestion has grown.
Shock news - goods trains can use the 72 Km but not us passengers!
Shock news - goods trains can use the 72 Km but not us passengers!
Bad news - of the 72 Km, 21 Km is the only unopened, mothballed, nationally important, inter-city rail line that has remained closed for fifty years!
The 21 Km Black Country inter-city Line is the only north-south railway between Hereford and Shrewsbury in the west and congested New Street Station in the east.
The 21 Km Black Country inter-city Line is the only north-south railway between Hereford and Shrewsbury in the west and congested New Street Station in the east.
But, don't despair - this line will, one day, have a Very Light Rail (VLR) tram from a university group and, for all of 2 Km out of the 21 Km!
The only problem: we have to wait until it is developed, tried and tested and, passed fit for Health and Safety to allow fare paying passengers.
The only problem: we have to wait until it is developed, tried and tested and, passed fit for Health and Safety to allow fare paying passengers.
Hurrah! Then, it will get extended in bite sized chunks.
Never mind, that the bite sized chunks strategy never delivered the dozen Metro Light Rail trams in 34 years.
This time, it will work with VLR, for sure, however. Even if it does take another 34 years!
In 34 years, one Metro line (and even then not connected to Wolverhampton rail station until later this decade!)
After all, our transport professionals think it would be scandalous to allow the university students and graduates to work on their VLR on the 3 Km Pensnett branch line, that I think would be ideal. They think the Black Country inter-city Line will be ideal for freight trains, and for Light Rail Metro and for the university Very Light Rail tram idea but never for ordinary, diesel, passenger trains instead of light rail!
Good God! We can't have Virgin and Chiltern trains on the line to connect the Black Country directly with London, Bristol and Scotland. After all, Dudley people are only allowed to use trains to those cities via Birmingham stations and Wolverhampton.
Great news - rural, southern Scotland has their 48 Km rail line re-opening in September to connect Edinburgh with small communities slap bang in the middle of nowhere (cost £294 million).
Bad news -Never again will Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall be connected to London, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Glasgow by the Black Country inter-city Line (cost less than £200 million). Unless, there is a rapid change of heart.
Never mind, that the bite sized chunks strategy never delivered the dozen Metro Light Rail trams in 34 years.
This time, it will work with VLR, for sure, however. Even if it does take another 34 years!
In 34 years, one Metro line (and even then not connected to Wolverhampton rail station until later this decade!)
After all, our transport professionals think it would be scandalous to allow the university students and graduates to work on their VLR on the 3 Km Pensnett branch line, that I think would be ideal. They think the Black Country inter-city Line will be ideal for freight trains, and for Light Rail Metro and for the university Very Light Rail tram idea but never for ordinary, diesel, passenger trains instead of light rail!
Good God! We can't have Virgin and Chiltern trains on the line to connect the Black Country directly with London, Bristol and Scotland. After all, Dudley people are only allowed to use trains to those cities via Birmingham stations and Wolverhampton.
Great news - rural, southern Scotland has their 48 Km rail line re-opening in September to connect Edinburgh with small communities slap bang in the middle of nowhere (cost £294 million).
Bad news -Never again will Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall be connected to London, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Glasgow by the Black Country inter-city Line (cost less than £200 million). Unless, there is a rapid change of heart.
But, good news, all of £15 billion for London's rail tunnels to open in 2019.
and nothing for additional tunnels at New Street Station to ease rail congestion there.
But, fantastic news - we got £600 million for a new shopping centre - this year, even - to brighten the rail passengers' day at a tarted up and gleaming, sun reflecting, glorious Grand Central Shopping Centre and, as an afterthought, the underground station is tagged along, too - in the basement!
ALL IS FORGIVEN!
ALL IS FORGIVEN!
Friday, 27 February 2015
Questions for the Secretary of State for Transport
Suggestion for MPs to put down a question to the Secretary of State for Transport. May I suggest, this question?
Why, in the Black Country, is the UK's last remaining, unopened, north-south inter-city rail line to be relegated to a test track for a still to be developed Very Light Rail (VLR) tram train, that may be appropriate for branch lines and road running, only? Especially, when there is an unused branch line in the same borough of Dudley that would be a more appropriate alternative.
(NB: The Black Country Rail Line of 13.5 miles is in your constituency and is one that you could use to and from Parliament - if you and I were allowed to!)
Further possible question:
Why, in Birmingham and the Black Country, are there 45 miles of double track rail lines that, for 100 years had passenger trains but, only freight trains for the last 50 years?
Very many thanks, if you can help us all in this way, please.
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The 56 Kms refers to the missing trains and Railfuture's nine stations, slap bang in the middle of the important 120 Kms mainline railway between Worcester, through the 1 m population of the Black Country's four boroughs and, onto Derby. The Great British Transport Competition, organised by the Taxpayers' Alliance, says it would cost only £120 m to finish all 56 Kms. This is because every bridge, viaduct, tunnel, flyover and underpass is already built for every motorway, road and canal. They forgot the trains after all that work!
SEE:
https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/taxpayersalliance/pages/16562/attachments/original/1558213640/GBTC_REPORT_FINAL_REVIEWED_18MAY2019.pdf?1558213640
£120 m for 56 Kms completed on the 120 Kms, compared with £449.5 m for 6.7 Kms on railway and 4 Kms for road running Metro trams to spoil the whole 120 Kms!
Darlaston station (with Willenhall) is being built on the Walsall to Wolverhampton railway that gets priority over the much more important one - finishing the 120 Kms railway "of national strategic significance" (Network Rail and DfT in a letter to me in March 2018. Yet, they've still signed it away, this year, for a tram line!)
Dudley Castle Hill railway station is now being used for the VLR Innovation Centre and test track. Spoiling, for ever, a desperately needed railway to take pressure off 'Grand Central and Diesel Perfumed Underground Station in the Basement of the (closed) John Lewis Store'. And one of only two mainline, north-south, railways between Brum and the Irish Sea. They're all on the east side!