System Change and Climate Change

Dear Stuart

It was brilliant to hear you say that you have PV and don't have a car.  You're a better man than me and, have been a brilliant campaigner - I'm sure all your life.  In using solar and not car we are divesting from fossil fuels and cutting the profits of the fossil fuel industry.  VERY SATISFYING!

I've also been working for change for 40 years, since about 1980 when I saw a BBC 'Tomorrow's World' programme that, if I remember correctly, said that there were 200 greenhouse gases to make for climate change.

My own system change to reduce climate change:

The 80s and 90s saw two roads schemes that I worked hard to oppose: 16 Km KBH and the 87 Kms WOM.  The 90s and onwards has seen me asking that trains be returned to the Snow Hill to Wolverhampton Low Level Station.  But the "solution looking for a problem" and "bus on rails" tram line was done instead.  Just as is happening with the 120 Kms Black Country Mainline between Derby, Dudley and Devon.  Trams are going on two short, nibble-sized (officially "bite-sized") chunks totalling 6.7 Kms.  But there is still 49 Kms left for commuter and regional trains.  What do you think, Stuart?

Do I have your support over cutting GHG emissions by putting trains, instead of trams, on our mothballed or freight-only railways in the Black Country and Brum?  106 Kms, including the railway used as a cycle-walkway between Walsall and Lichfield when every motorway, road and canal crossing is in place for trains.

Switzerland electrified their railway network in the 1920/30s. The UK is nowhere near finishing after 70 years of trying and, certainly the Black Country, thinking that roads, trams and every building imaginable were meant to run along railway lines. Complete incompetence by everyone in the railway sector!

Stuart, do I have your invaluable support over opposing the £15 billion of GHG emissions for underground and overground tram extensions that Andy wants?  If so, why please?

Your wonderful eloquence and outspoken nature is a huge asset to all of us.  Did you get to speak at the climate rally on the 6th Nov?

Could I have the email address for Martin Lynch, please?  I'm desperate to win over the unions.  My really big FAIL!

All the best

Tim

PS I love your banners, behind you, on Zoom calls.  Absolutely brilliant!

ReplyForward

PURPOSE OF 28 NOV PUBLIC MEETING

I'm really copying the mostly well attended 'Ask Andy' meetings that Mayor Andy Street holds around the West Midlands.  I'm trying to whip up more interest in politics and what our politicians and their professional officers and experts are doing in the region.  In particular, I would like church goers, atheists and agnostics to think about the morality of what is being done in our name - whether it is £1.38 billion to 2026 of WM Metro trams to replace buses and trains, the over £2 billion for the 87 Kms Western Orbital Motorway, the £55.7 billion for HS2, the £3 billion of arm sales to Saudi Arabia in the first 18 months of the Yemen civil war (CAAT).  £7 billion for two sitting duck aircraft carriers that now need more billions for a flotilla of warships to protect them when out at sea and, £100 billion to replace Trident WMD.  YET,  a struggling, a poorly endowed in some areas NHS with some shortages, growing homelessness but large homes being built for the well heeled.  AND, the more we spend the less we have and the more damage we do to our life support systems.

Our three speakers are well worth hearing.  Mark Dowd, in particular, is a most articulate, engaging, well thought of public speaker who is always goes down like a bomb with audiences (non violent bomb, of course).  He is on our side - the side of the poor, the disadvantaged and vulnerable and, on the side of the climate.  He will be the grand finale to the meeting.  I, personally would welcome good natured, humorous heckling and other contributions from the floor.

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:​

 May 2018 A5 flyer - double sided

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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:

1. In the 1990s, we stopped both the 16 Kms KBH and the 87 Kms WOM in their tracks!  That was a huge victory.
2. 2015 decision to put trains not trams, after all, on the 9 Kms Camp Hill railway in Brum.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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!
6. 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!!
7. 8 March 2018 letter, Network Fail and the DfT finally conceded that our railway is "of national strategic significance".
8. More recorded here:​
   
    10 quotes: Bring the ghost of Queen Victoria ba...
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MANY THANKS TO YOU ALL.  PEOPLE POWER; PEOPLE PRESSURE; PEOPLE PREVAIL!

Tim

We have a winning, knock out argument!

Thanks, Andi for this.

With the 87 Kms WOM in the 90s, I was campaigning up and down the line of the route at public meetings I organised and, in two General Elections for the Green Pary - '92 and '97.  Always being positive by saying the Black Country Railway that runs parallel to the line of the proposed KBH and M5/M6 needed the passenger trains back over its entire length before building the WOM.  At that time, I was saying only as far as Walsall.  Only in this decade did the railway lobby groups tell me that it does, in fact, go all the way to Burton on Trent with double track lines but no passenger trains - 56 Kms unused, wasted, with every engineering structure in place, like the bridge over the M6 Toll!  Look at my photos:​

 M6 Toll banner 01.jpg

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 M6 Toll 03.jpg

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You write, Andi that "we aren't ignoring the issue at all".  By that you mean the WOM.  That is brilliant.  What I am asking is that all greens and Greens to please campaign, from now on, for completing the 120 Kms Western Bypass Railway, aka Black Country Main Line Railway, FIRST AND FOREMOST, before anymore work on the WOM.  Our railway line that goes through Netherton is "of national strategic significance".  It must have regional and commuter trains and not "bus on rails" trams.  "Bus on rails" trams are immorally expensive and prevent the return of regional and even inter-city trains coming to the Black Country.  The authorities are deceiving us when they say we must have trams first in order to get the trains back.  It is a lie.  And, is further evidence of the longest running and biggest scandal in UK finance/transport history.  I have written reams about it over the years.

The threat of the WOM makes it even more urgent that all Greens and greens read my stuff over recent years about trains back on our existing railway lines instead of trams.  It is the most important argument to deploy to delay the WOM further.  How can anyone disagree with the parallel and nearby, unused main line railway being given top priority over the WOM?  We have a winning, knock out argument!

With Dudley GP on board we can stop the trams stopping the trains AND stop or, at least delay, the WOM in the process.  Do you all now get the importance of what I have been writing about for years?

Please don't ignore what I am saying and please help me!!  This campaign to delay the WOM and get the trains back FIRST should never have been a one person campaign, as it certainly feels like to me.

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 FAKE NEWS, MISLEADING STATEMENTS AND LIES

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 Revealing financial comparisons

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 Cost comparisons

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 28 transport tragedies for 37 years - so far!

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Tim

I WILL VOTE FOR YOU, IF ...

Ray, you can satisfy me over these questions.  Please put your answers under each bullet point in a different colour font: 

• What did you do in the late 80s/90s over the 16 Kms KBH motorway bypass?
• What did you do over opposing the 87 Kms WOM in the 90s?
• Do you have any kind of track record in opposing the obliteration of our Black Country and Birmingham railway lines?
• Did you do anything to oppose the building of roads, homes, trading estates and retail units on these railways?
• Did you do anything to oppose the house being built on the southern side of Manor Way (Halesowen Bypass) on the Halesowen Railway line in 1976 or 1977?
• Have you been a member of the Planning or Development Control Committee when these railway lines came up for new building?
• When you were a councillor in the past, have you ever been a member of the PTA?
• From your recollection, has the PTA ever been active in opposing the obliteration of railway lines in its area?
• Has the PTA ever opposed the building of any road scheme?
• Did you do anything when you saw or were told or found out that the Lapal Canal restoration in Leasowes Park was going wrong?
• What has your Council done about putting the matter right, since your party regained power?
• What are your reasons for supporting the Black Country Tramline going on the Black Country Railway line to mean that half of the 120 Kms will continue to be wasted with it being a test track for Very Light Rail, an innovation centre, a trail of trees, Himalayan Balsam and undergrowth - and a cycle-walkway in south Staffordshire?
• Can you recall anything coming before Dudley Council about the building of roads, homes and businesses on the southern end, in Brierley Hill of the former Brierley Hill, Wombourne, Wolverhampton Railway?
• As a councillor or a Dudley resident, did you do anything about stopping the unnecessary movement of the Grange roundabout two or three metres to the west, last decade?
• Did you approve the loss of the second of the two left turning lanes from into Manor Way to help morning rush hour traffic eastbound to the M5 at Jct 3?
• Have you done anything about the absence of landscaping on this only major, 30 metre diameter roundabout that does not even have a blade of grass or a single weed on it?
• Has there ever been a Cabinet member responsible for watching over and improving bus and train travel and promoting cycling/waking in Dudley MBC?
• Will you ask Cllr Karen to please reinstate the tetra-pak food and drinks recycling bank at the Birmingham Street car park in Halesowen?
• What do you think I mean by the MMA/TfWM/WMCA continuing the tradition of all our eggs in one basket transport policy?
• Would you be prepared to advocate publicly and privately my suggestions, below?:

Please, can our Black Country LEP do anything to further these enterprising ideas of mine?

• 6 Kms Halesowen to Longbridge railway line to be compulsory purchased from the individual landowners to allow a new public right of way to be created on the 4 Kms, former single track, from Manor Way, Halesowen to the M5.  This, to link with the existing right of way in the pedestrian subway under the M5.  The Frankley to Longbridge section is nearly complete, with St Modwen working on the last section to the smart, new Longbridge Shopping Centre.
• 18.5 Kms Black Country Puddle Strewn Mudway to be converted to Black Country Cycle-Walkway by tarmac applied on the full length to make it fit for purpose.  To be used by cycle commuters who have given up on the car and jam packed trains, horse riders, walkers and all others needing non-motorised help to get about.  The OS Explorer map think it is already used as such!
• 6.7 Kms of the Black Country Tramline and 2 Kms for VLR innovation centre and test track to be converted to its former use as a 120 Kms railway "of national strategic significance" (Network Rail and DfT) - and, for the Alstom hydrogen electric train to provide the regional passenger service between Worcester and Derby.  This, to allow us to compete more effectively with the honey pot that is Brum, to help relieve the very long standing train congestion at Grand Central Shopping Centre and Diesel Perfumed Basement Station and, to give a new direct commuter railway between our four boroughs and Snow Hill via Bescot.  We then have Derby to Devon via Dudley; Burton to Bristol via Brierley Hill and the new DY5 Enterprise Zone.   Both Landranger and Explorer OS maps think it is already in use for trains!

These three projects put the Black Country on the UK map for sensible enterprise, initiative and leadership.  They reduce road and railway congestion, obesity and ill health, human induced climate change and resource depletion.

I look forward to much good news over these helpful, constructive and positive suggestions for progress - in the right direction!

Best wishes and many thanks, Ray