WMCA = Corrupt Authority and Comedy Authority

Until upright, honest people put a stop to the fraudulent, financial abuse of billions in price and in weight of greenhouse gases going into High Scam 2, Metro and Sprint, buses will continue to lurch from one 3 monthly handout to another and buses will continue to be the forlorn, forgotten, Cinderella mode that gets stuck in traffic as car commuters block its path and business vehicles are hindered.

Literally, a handout of billions for Metro tram and Sprint extensions that destroy railway lines, destroy nature and create more congestion and mayhem in their construction and use.  Fare-Free Public Transport of the kind that I have had for 15 years must be given to ALL.

Dudley No 1 Canal embankment, housing land, public open space and lots of nature at Merry Hill SC all get spoilt or obliterated by tram construction.  Already, the UK's very last principal mainline railway "of national strategic significance" has been destroyed by Metro largesse given to build the trams.  As well as to bring in multi-modal rail transport hubs to make for more changes and delays in our journeys.

A public marketing campaign to shame the thoughtless, selfish car commuter who clogs up the roads must be mounted to reward them with free bus, train and tram travel in the region if they leave their beloved in the garage.

Bus lane experiment for two years on Hagley Road that is strictly enforced to speed the bus and inconvenience the car commuter.

BUS at the top of the prestige pile and High Scandal 2, Metro and Sprint at the bottom!

An Apology is Long Overdue

An Apology is Long Overdue.

Or, at least, an explanation!

40 years of regional railway lines being sidelined, even bulldozed out of existence as top priority was always given to tram lines.

40 years of £100s m being given to tram lines only 20 years after the complete network was obliterated!

40 years of stupidity.

40 years of the total support from the whole trade union movement, the green movement and every faith leader imaginable!

Trams are public transport, so they are allowed to replace other modes like bus and train, as has happened!

Astonishingly, unyielding trade unions, the unGreen Party, the social injustice movement and all faith leaders have been unashamedly and guiltily silent in boosting GHG emissions, injustice and stupidity in the West Midlands.  For over 40 years!

TIME FOR A REVOLUTION, A FIRST TIME RESOLUTION TO REPENT AND TRULY DEFEND THE RAILWAYS IN THE BLACK COUNTRY AGAINST THE FINANCIAL SCANDAL OF TRAM LINES IMPOSED by the W Midlands Comedy Act (WMCA) breaching their financial regulations by eye watering amounts.

Incorrigible Councils!

Hi all

This is excellent and so good to read.  Thanks.  However, my concern is that the culture of WMCA and all its constituent councils is one of very high spending on far too many prestigious, totally unnecessary and, definitely, harmful transport projects that are diverting them from our first rate, Nine Action Points plan (with my own 10th added!), as here

 Nine Action Points from W Mids Climate Coalitio...

and my own ideas from 2019 that I gave to most members who attended last Friday's Board meeting, as here:

 My ten point West Midlands plan for the new Gov...

I would have preferred us to stay concentrated on the original 'Nine Action Points' that Bob, Chris and I presented to Cllr Ian Courts, Chair, Environment and Energy Board - was it two years ago, now?  They have now forgotten about it and certainly done nothing.  They need reminding and chased up!

I would like all of us and especially for those chosen to go to next week's meeting with Ed Cox, to read through our original Nine Action Points with him and to insist that even faster moves, already taking place towards FFPT, are fast-tracked by abandoning their £15 BILLION to 2040 mainly immoral Metro expansion programme.  This would help fuel poverty and all the other multiple crises that affect those using public transport much more than the wealthier swanning around in their personal motors and worsening the climate emergency.

Does that make sense to anyone out there - please?!

Tim

BACKGROUND to my thinking:

the post below

The lie promulgated by WMCA

We are given the lie that the UK's only 120 Kms mainline, half-used, railway "of national strategic significance" must be converted to a tramline, VLR test track and cycle-walkway, with passive provision being the magic solution built-in to the same tracks to allow conversion to freight and mainline railway at a later date!!

The second lie is that Metro trams, on this same track, are the catalyst to get the freight and passenger train services back on this line.  This was put out by Tom Magrath, Passenger Services Director at Centro who wrote to me in September 2000:

"Light rail provision provides the basis for restoring heavy rail services at the appropriate time."  And this remains the case to this day.  It has never been withdrawn nor, has a correction and apology been forthcoming.

Questions for Left Unity

Thanks for these emails that I have just re-read and appreciated.

What exactly are we saying about the cost of living crisis?

That the rich, like me, must pay more in taxes to level down so that those on only state pensions, benefits and other low incomes can level up?

Do we agree that the war between Russia and Ukraine (fueled by the West) must be quickly ended by talks, compromise, negotiations, settlement so that Russian oil and gas can be released once more to fund our lovely high fossil fuel lifestyle and to get energy prices down?

Do we support a windfall tax on the companies that have unexpectedly found themselves in the happy position of being cash cows?  Or, what are we saying on the financial bonanza that only shareholders and directors are benefitting from?

Do we want the energy price cap to be frozen, as Labour is saying, to knock hundreds of pounds off bills?  Paid for by a tax on energy company profits, according to Starmer writing today in the Sunday Mirror.

To help tackle the energy/cost of living crisis, does anyone out there join me in calling on the WMCA to make a public announcement that there will be no more Metro "bus on rails" tram extensions beyond Dudley bus station and beyond the current construction in Digbeth High Street?  Similarly, with no new contracts going out for more Sprint extensions.  The money saved to extend FFPT to the young and middle aged and to bring in more electric buses going directly on the roads without the very high GHG emitting railway tracks going on the roads (to bring cyclists like me crashing down when our wheels get stuck in the rut!)?

Could we discuss this last paragraph at our next meeting and then vote on it, perhaps?

I would be glad of some clarification and, even some help/support/agreement/encouragement (delete what is impossible!) would be quite magnificent, please!

Union/Management Incompetence and Guilty Silence

Thanks, Carol who wrote, "I have discovered that one of the main arguments being put forward for metro vs rail is the number of stops where people can get off and on. Increasing footfall and revenue compared to rail???"

The wasted, still unused, principal mainline railway bridge built when the motorway opened in Dec 2003.  Built for slow "bus on rails" invisible ghost trams? :-

 M6 Toll banner 01.jpg

The up line nicked by metal thieves! :-

 M6 Toll 03.jpg

More tram stops than train stations over the same distance makes the tram much slower than the train - average speed of the tram is 22 mph between Wolverhampton and St Chads tram stop in Brum on a former mainline railway between Shrewsbury and Brum.  Therefore, flash, over indulgent "bus on rails" trams are more suitable to replace diesel buses than trains.  In fact, to end up foolishly duplicating the bus service as we see on Hagley Road and Broad Street in Brum (for a scandalous, corrupt £110 m/Km construction cost).

Yet, it is not buses but regional and commuter trains that are getting mostly replaced by trams!  This is stupid, foolish and incompetent.  Two mainline railways have now had or having this treatment of trams on part to prevent, for ever, the regional and commuter trains being able to return on the full length of mainline commuter railway.  This is complete idiocy!

The UK Tram HQ at our Transport/WMCA HQ at 16 Summer Lane (vested interests at play here to corruptly influence decision makers) argues that trams are "buses on rails".  This was said by tram promotion group Director, Andrew Brodick in November 2016 when 7 passengers were killed and many tens of people had serious injuries when the Croydon tram crashed in a morning rush hour.  They should have just kept to the trains and buses, of course and the 7 would still be alive today.

Wealth flaunting "bus on rails" trams are totally unsuitable for a former principal mainline railway "of national strategic significance" as they are doing in the case of WBHE.  Sheer stupidity!

 "of national strategic significance".pdf

 Like for like comparison of infrastructure buil...

Tim Weller   0791 380 4363

38 C in the Arctic yesterday, on 14.12.21

Dear all - to people whose email addresses I have after last night's Zoom.

Bob told us this figure at our meeting yesterday.  He is right.  I heard it announced on Radio 4 later in the evening.  This is really alarming.  All because of our prodigious consumption of finite fossil fuels that are changing the planet's climates for the worse.  Economic growth but ecological disaster.  I'm writing this with no heating in the house but wrapped up warm, as usual.  For the first time in 46 years, I had to fossil-fuel-free mow our tiny patch of lawn in November.  When I do have to drive, I'm driving so fuel frugally I'm getting nearly 80 mpg and, it will have to be my last car.

I proposed that Bob should take up the suggestion that we write an open letter to the WMCA Board for their meeting in January.  I think that was met with approval, with the letter being sent for checking by the rest of us, as Bob wanted.  And we gather to lobby and present the letter to Andy Street at the Board meeting on 14 January 2022.  It starts at 1100 hrs.  We meet at 1030 hrs at the venue to be announced by the CA who will confirm the date.  We must have XR there to provide banners and the band, if someone could invite them, I am suggesting.

THE URGENCY OF THE CRISIS

I am also asking that the letter from us all include our insistence that the CA abandon, immediately, the massive £500 m of greenhouse gases (GHG) for 10 Kms of the Wednesbury to Brierley Hill "bus on rails" tram extension (WBHE) on the 120 Kms Worcester to Derby mainline through Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and south Staffordshire.  There has only been preparatory work and no track laid, in over two years.  Any cancellation fees are easily worth paying because of the enormity of the blunder in wrecking the Black Country Mainline that is needed to take freight and passenger trains from the "at capacity" railway lines and stations in Brum.  What the TfWM/CA is doing is the most colossal oversight in putting light rail (LR), very light rail (VLR) and ultra-light rail (ULR) on a heavy rail line "of national strategic significance" (DfT letter, 8 March 2018), here:

 "of national strategic significance".pdf

 Railfuture's full map.pdf

 6 scandals on the 40th anniversary of the W Mid...

Best wishes

Eccentric game changer - changing a mainline railway into a tramway!

Mayor of the West Midlands and chair of the WMCA Andy Street, said:

The Wednesbury to Brierley Hill Metro extension will be a game-changer for the Black Country as it will help to boost public transport whilst providing much-needed links to the existing rail and bus networks.

There are already links to the bus network with large bus stations at Dudley and at Merry Hill on the route of the tramway.  And, a forgotten link to the nearby, half-used railway!

The existing bus route is to be duplicated by a tramway that also uses the Derby to Devon via Dudley principal mainline railway that gets destroyed in the process!!

All for half a billion pounds (£500 m) for only 10 Kms!!

Scotland rebuilt a railway of 50 Kms for only £350 m in September 2015.

The foolish authorities even built a link between the nearby mainline railway at the Waterfront and the bus station at Merry Hill.  But, they forgot to extend it, only 400 metres further, from the Waterfront car park, to the principal mainline railway between Worcester and Derby - and, to finish the railway with passenger trains, too!

“An elevated monorail was officially opened at the Merry Hill Centre on June 1st 1991, costing £22,000,000 to build." 

"The monorail was broken up in 1996 and sold to a shopping centre in Queensland, Australia."  (Google search)

Emergency Resolution for LU to consider on 17 July 2021

As internationalists and socialists who are concerned for the future of humanity and, in fact, all of nature, we note:

This week

1. Abnormally and record high temperatures in western N America, with wildfires out of control.
2. Disturbed weather patterns and extreme weather events since Wednesday have killed over a hundred in western Europe, with a similar number missing.
3. Extreme weather events affect those of our number with health issues much more seriously than those who are fully fit.
4. Since 1988, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has consistently warned of such events from the burning of finite fossil fuels that is changing, dangerously the chemical composition of the atmosphere that allows life on earth.
5. Therefore, we appeal to the WMCA to act as though they are taking the climate emergency seriously by now moving to a rapid reduction of fossil fuel use that includes minimising fossil fuel travel and spending and, in every other way minimising our impact on ailing life support systems.

I've kept it short and simple!

Talk and then vote as to whether Mike should send this to Laura Shoaf, Interim Chief Executive of the WMCA?  If not, I'm happy enough to send it as coming from me, only - and from no-one else!

to Tim Baggs, Communication Manager, RCN

 Dear Tim

Thanks very much for your email.  I am anxious to take part, online but, I ought to make clear that I may not go through to the bitter end as a confirmed candidate because I am not wanting to spread Covid.

I am a declared Independent candidate to instil some urgency into how changes in transport, jobs and housing policy can reduce the impact of human climate breakdown and postpone Attenborough's "collapse of civilisations" and "extinction of much of the natural world" and "time is running out" warnings (at COP 24, December 2018 - over two years ago!).

My manifesto is for more sensible, cost-effective and easier ways to reduce congestion and pollution.  Fareless, electric buses for ALL; not only for the few, like me!  To free up road space for essential users.  Paid for by abandoning Metro, diesel Sprint and Clean Air Zone.  Called, Regional Fare-Free Public Transport for ALL that I have had for 13 years!

My manifesto is for a considerable income hike for all NHS and care workers receiving wages and a lesser rise for those in receipt of monthly salaries paying the basic rate of income tax, only.  Pay freeze for the wealthy rest.

I am Covid conscious and I am not at all keen to knock on doors to get the 105 signatures on my nomination form to become a confirmed candidate.  If I refrain from putting others and myself at risk of transmission, I will give my £5,000 deposit (that I am bound to lose) to the Disasters Emergency Committee and/or other humanitarian agency.  But I am still anxious to take part in Zoom hustings!

I am also unhappy that election workers on the 6/7 May are risking the spread of infection for a Mayor with no "official powers", as Andy Street volunteered in a BBC 'Today' interview that I heard shortly after his election in May 2017.  In addition, he has no more influence than you or I with our ability to write and speak with the real decision-makers at 16 Summer Lane that is the HQ of the WMCA, of TfWM and of the national tram promotion group, UK Tram.

The real power lies entirely with the seven leaders of the seven West Midlands district councils.  And, they themselves, seem to be largely swayed by the top officers of the seven authorities who decide on policy and practice.  In addition, the seven council leaders never have debates and votes on transport policy that is committing them all to spending £15 BILLION to 2040 for mainly underground and overground "bus on rails" trams to replace buses (directly on roads) and some trains.  The Metro Mayor is the Chair of the WMCA Board but has no power.  All seven leaders and Andy are rubber stamps, to confirm what the top officers want.  The elected 'leaders' don't seem to be able to think for themselves or to act on their declarations of a climate emergency.  It is a classic case of the blind leading the blind, in my opinion.  I expect that none of them have even heard of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, let alone read them.  They had not even realised there was an unfinished, half used, mainline 120 Kms railway "of national strategic significance" through the heart of the Black Country!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_Development_Goals

The longstanding and respected journalist, Jonathan Walker on the Birmingham Post, describes the Metro Mayor as "the figurehead" of the WMCA.  Jonathan is exactly right.  Andy is an excellent public relations man and he is a great guy. I  voted for him in 2017 and will again, this time as my second choice.

However, I am still anxious to take part in all the Zoom hustings to exert a little influence!  Therefore, I would be glad if you still felt able to invite me - please!

I can make any date and time.  Preferably sooner rather than later because of signed nomination papers having to be in by an unknown date.

Best wishes

To Jacob

Thanks so much for your email.  My answers:

Five years ago, confirmed by the election for Mayor in 2017, we had the creation of a completely new regional government organisation that I had no idea would be the result of getting a Metro Mayor four years ago!  So, we have workers like Deborah Cadman on £180,000 a year, as Chief Executive, to an unknown number of employees in many layers of a deep hierarchy.  What is worse is this.  Not one of these new decision-makers was elected.  But that will not make a scrap of difference if the election of the Mayor is anything to go by.  He has no official powers and simply says, and rubber stamps, whatever is decided by unelected officials for him.

Yet, from out of our numbers, we get members of councils who are so hopeless they have allowed professional officers, whom they have agreed with, to do this:

1. An electric tram network completely obliterated and replaced with diesel buses.
2. About 100 Kms of our West Midlands railways were used for housing and trading estates and roads.
3. The UK's very last, fully in place but, only half used, is now converted after 50 years to shuttle tramline, VLR test track and proposed extended cycle-walkway.
4. A worse public transport journey for eleven different bus routes from west Brum and the Black Country because of the rebuilding of the tram network that has always had priority over trains and buses from Metro's start in 1981.  The bus now has a longer and slower journey into Colmore Row because of the tram taking over.  If you change for the tram, this is no quicker if you have to wait upwards of 15 minutes for the tram at Five Ways to take the direct route that was taken by the bus.

IN PARTICULAR:

1) What is your official policy regarding the specific role of the metro mayor, both nationally and locally?

The Metro Mayor should be challenging the policies/decisions by the officers and not simply rubber-stamping them.  That should be his role locally and regionally.  He/she should be insisting on full council chamber debates in each of the seven district councils over the wisdom of spending £15 billion to 2040 for mainly underground and overground Metro trams to replace buses and trains.

2) What are the main points on which you are campaigning in the run up to the 2021 West Midlands mayoral election?  To expose the four scandals, above.

3) Would you change the way in which the WMCA currently works with the metro mayor?

The mayor should be more proactive and questioning and not simply a mouthpiece and PR person for the WMCA.

Please comment, if you wish.    Tim

Metro election for a public relations, rubber stamping, figurehead Mayor!

"As such, the mayor acts as a figurehead on regional issues such as jobs, skills and transport and a vital link between the West MIdlands and central Government."  Journalist, Jonathan Walker, BirminghamLive

What is the point of an election?  The Mayor is simply a PR man and rubber stamp for unelected officials.  And he does Chair WMCA Board meetings but, he has no decision making powers that can override the seven leaders.  I believe this is correct but will check with Tim Martin, Head of Governance.

It is absurd that we risk yet another resurgence of Covid and a fourth lockdown for our Metro Mayor election on the 6 May when the person elected has not one single power to make any change at all in WMCA policy.

All he/she can do is exactly the same as you and I.  Only the power of persuasion, a good argument and the power of the pen!

No democratic mandate for this WASTE! Never even one debate and vote in a single Council Chamber out of seven, since 1981, when it all started!

ALL THAT GLISTERS IS NOT GOLD!

No democratic mandate for this WASTE! Never even one debate and vote in a single Council Chamber out of seven, since 1981, when it all started - unlike Edinburgh City Council over their tram and, later, tram extension to Leith and Newhaven!!

"The £227m Birmingham Eastside extension will help transform and support the regeneration of Digbeth through improving connectivity and making the most out of HS2. The 1.7km extension will run from Bull Street, in the city centre, to Digbeth, adding four new tram stops to the Metro network." 10 December 2020 press release from WMCA

This is a shocking expense at £133.5 m/Km of public money when electric buses would be a tiny fraction of the price. And, the money could be used to give EVERYONE free travel in the W Mids and not just my age group!

The Edgbaston tram extension that results in a longer and slower public transport journey from the west, is £75 m/Km of finite fossil fuel use from the public purse.

The M6 Toll was £21 m/Km of private money when it opened 17 years ago.

Rebuilding the 50 Kms Borders Railway through Scotland's Southern Uplands that opened in 2015 was £6 m/Km of greenhouse gas emissions. A big difference from the £133 m/Km for a tram line to be built, only five years on!

Metro is all about competing with Manchester for Brum to be a great, impressive, international city that has TRAMS, too! Very childish, grossly extravagant, over-indulgent and irresponsible. And, more deadly greenhouse gases in the construction and, track replacement every 17/18 years.

Regional govt by decree, not democracy is wrong

 No democratic mandate for Metro trams.  Regional govt by decree, not democracy is wrong.

26 November 2020 from WMCA:

"The single biggest sum of money will come through the five-year intra-city transport settlement, which will see an estimated £800m come to the West Midlands to be spent on public transport projects.

"This is the single largest devolved pot of money the region will have received since the formation of the WMCA. Critically the Government has announced a start date of 2022 for the fund, allowing Transport for West Midlands to work closely with councils to start planning and allocating funding."

 26 November 2020 from WMCA:

"The single biggest sum of money will come through the five-year intra-city transport settlement, which will see an estimated £800m come to the West Midlands to be spent on public transport projects.

"This is the single largest devolved pot of money the region will have received since the formation of the WMCA. Critically the Government has announced a start date of 2022 for the fund, allowing Transport for West Midlands to work closely with councils to start planning and allocating funding."

MY COMMENT

No democratic mandate for Metro trams or Sprint.  Regional govt by decree, not democracy is unacceptable and hypocritical, in my opinion.  The problem is that councillors have always felt that transport matters are a 16 Summer Lane matter, so take very little interest.  Cllrs on Transport Delivery Committee are expected to deliver - never authorise what the professional officers want!

QUESTION on giving for WMCA faith leaders webinar on 9 Dec 2020

"These sessions have a faith and public health focus, but they will also offer an opportunity to address some wider issues affecting our communities." (my emphasis)

Therefore, I have submitted this question:

How do our faith leaders interpret our theme of 'giving' when it comes to being biased to the poor or the least well off in our community?

Should the least be given more than those with the most?

How would this play out when it comes to public transport?

Should the least well off without cars, and everyone, not just the elderly, be rewarded with, and compensated for the slightly higher risk of getting Covid when travelling on bus, train and tram, by being given Fare-Free Public Transport?  About 100 towns and cities around the world have it, including Dunkirk, Luxembourg and Tallinn, Estonia.

FoI request re Merry Hill Shopping Centre

1. Could you please send me all reports and minutes of meetings, going back to the 1980s, that concern all discussions over the Richardsons' monorail, the Metro tram and the nearby, Brierley Hill, 120 Kms intercity Worcester, Black Country, Derby railway.
2. Did PTA/Centro ever suggest or discuss the monorail being extended to the intercity railway to await its reopening asap?
3. On what date did it take its first fare-paying passenger?
4. On what date the monorail close?
5. Why was the monorail closed in the 1990s?
6. What was the date of its last fare-paying passengers?
7. Did PTA/Centro ever discuss the possibility of reinstating the passenger railway at the Waterfront/Round Oak?
8. What were the reasons for always rejecting the railway being completed and new stations built?
9. Since the formation of MMA/TfWM/WMCA has there been any review or discussion to finish the double-track Worcester to Derby railway to serve Merry Hill, Brierley Hill and the rest of the Black Country?
10. Can I please have sight of those discussions and minutes?
11. Why, in nearly forty years, has Metro trams always been the chosen option for the UK's last, virtually ready built, fully available but the forgot the trains and some stations, principal mainline 120 Kms railway?
12. Unlike other councils in the UK, eg Edinburgh in 2019, why has there never been a debate and vote in a single West Midlands council chamber over the wisdom of proceeding with a rebuilt tram network on the railway network instead of using railway trains?
13. Is this oversight a matter of failing to follow correct procedures?
14. Please comment and rebut my own comments above each of the three photos, below.

MY PHOTOS: what you see described by one person as 'bizarre'; another called it 'bonkers':

Wasted 56 Kms from Stourbridge Jct to Burton on Trent on the ready built, but only half used, 120 Kms Worcester to Derby principal mainline railway.

Since the 1980s, the intention remains to fell these trees for an embankment/viaduct for the Metro tram when, 600m away, is the half-finished, half-used principal mainline railway that needs finishing and not wasted, unused and even destroyed in places:

 6 glorious white trees.jpg

When the 6 lane motorway opened in Dec 2003 with private money, it was half the estimated price per Km of the WBHE (Dudley) tram construction

 M6 Toll banner 01.jpg

16 years have passed for metal thieves to pinch the up line.  It is taking an eternity and more to get the trains back because of Metro.

 M6 Toll 03.jpg

Benevolent, charming, we know best for you, dictating policy makers at Transport HQ

Thanks, Geo.  Nice to hear from you.  WMCA is West Midlands Combined Authority brought in by a Conservative government, that another such government, getting on for forty years ago, abolished.  That authority was called the West Midlands County Council done away with by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.  There is nothing new under the sun!  We had county councillors, then.  With this one there is no councillors, so no democracy.  Not that any of our councillors seem to be interested in anything very much!  There is no discussion, debate followed by voting by councillors whom we have elected.  Democratic deficit at 16 Summer Lane, Brum, the home of Transport for West Midlands, the autocratic WMCA and the one and only national tram promotion group, UK Tram Ltd.

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

Devolution, sharing sovereignty and converting the last mainline railway!

DO WE KNOW WHAT WE ARE DOING?

The process for UK devolution to its smaller countries was not followed for leaving the EU or in converting a mainline railway into a tram line, a test track, a trail of trees and an extended cycle-walkway.

The three minor countries have to share sovereignty with England in a united UK but the UK is not willing to share sovereignty with the EU in an eventual federal set up very different from three countries being part of England/UK!

The 1990's and 00's careful, sensible and gradual process that led to eventual devolution was not followed for a matter of even greater import - our future membership of the EU.  For something more complicated than devolution, all the checks and balances built in to get, eventually an assembly and one parliament was not followed over the matter of the UK leaving EU membership.

On 5 April 2019, 'Have I Got News for You', Ian Hislop commented, "Thatcher said we shouldn't have a referendum on Europe.  It was too complicated an issue to put to the public. She was right."

Similarly, for something so game changing, expensive and, therefore, climate breaking as the decision to convert a safeguarded, 120 Kms mainline railway into two very short sections of tramway, on that matter too, none of the checks and balances were followed.  There was not even any kind of debate or even discussion beforehand, let alone a vote. Not even one of the constituent councils of the WMCA had a debate and vote.  The elected members were content to have the decision imposed upon them by the UK pressure group for trams that has infiltrated Transport HQ.  This, to spend nearly half a billion to destroy the middle section of a mainline railway that reduces capacity.  Yet, £56 billion is spent to increase capacity on our railways with HS2!

Never mind!  That will make £92 billions of benefits for the UK, says the business case!!  Are we living in Alice in Wonderland? Or, know what we are doing? This must be dishonest, crooked economics when all the crucial, fossil fuel resources are finite and, when burnt, screw up the planet's climates in changing the composition of the atmosphere for the worse?