SO-OO-OO IMPORTANT! The mighty, 22 Kms Black Country Cycle-Walk Mudway!

Dear Judith, Harry and Michael - and copied to my own, much under-appreciated MP, James Morris.

Thanks so much for writing.  Lovely to hear from all three of you.

No hard manual labour required - just a persistent, polite, irregular email/phoning of the addresses I've given you; plus your own MPs and councillors - PLEASE!!

MUDWAY TO WALKWAY TRANSFORMED because:

1. 22 Kms in length, made up of two unused railway lines with a funny kink in the middle where they don't quite meet!
2. Mentioned in our current 'Walk' magazine.  Can you find the mention?!
3. Connects one city and one town via the delightful village of Wombourne in South Staffordshire.
4. Well used in Wolverhampton and South Staffordshire by all kinds of walkers and even some horse riders and cyclists.
5. NOT well used in Dudley borough because, in places, it is overgrown and muddy and waterlogged.
6. An unrecognised, forgotten, unappreciated, unloved cycle-walkway.
7. But all of it could be a business, commuter and leisure route for cycle commuters deserting their cars to respond to the climate emergency.  Like I have, literally, for decades!
8. Three nature reserves, with two in Dudley borough.
9. Two refreshment halts in two old Victorian railway stations.
10. One nationally important long-distance footpath, the Monarch's Way, uses part of it.
11. One Woodland Trust property, with car park, called Himley Plantation is next to the cycle-walkway.
12. One SSSI at Pensnett, Dudley for its nationally famous Great Crested Newts.
13. Baggeridge Country Park is nearby.
14. Recognised by the Ordnance Survey on their Explorer map as a major "traffic-free cycle route".
15. HS2, Metro and Sprint extensions all prove money is in great abundance and grows on the trees that don't get felled for HS2!

Very best wishes for any writing you can do to impress on the authorities how desperately needed it is for it to be finished with a wide, all-weather, free-draining surface.  Exactly like the upgrade in Woodgate Valley Country Park in west Brum, now transformed after decades of patient, intermittent requests - by me!

QUIZ of one bloodless question!

 The non-violent killer question:-

When the authorities have built a 120 Kms mainline railway "of national strategic significance", do you use it for:

    1) Metro trams?

    2) Test track?

    3) TRAINS?

    4) Cycle-walkway?

    5) Trees?

    6) For all 5?

How have I cleverly assisted you with the correct answer?!

But the authorities are doing 6)!

Do the experts know something we don't know?

Of course they do. They're out to impress with their multi-modal, multi-mixed up transport for Kiddi, Stourbridge and the Black Country!

5 Quick Questions for your answers, please!

Was ours the right way to prepare for the virus crisis that emerged in December? The UK finally acted on 16 March with Boris Johnson's alarm to the nation talk.

Is this the right way to prepare for the climate crisis?  Spending £449.5 m to convert our intercity railway to tram line, test track and extended cycle-walkway?

Was it wise to prepare for the climate crisis by building a £4.33 m carbon intensive concrete wall for the tram line on the site of the former 120 Kms intercity Black Country railway between Worcester and Derby?

Is the virus crisis lockdown doing more to prepare for the climate crisis than the UK's many hypocritical declarations of a climate emergency?  A reduction in travel and economic activity has resulted in a drop in greenhouse gases.

Should a carbon allowance be worked out for every person or household, like the banding for council tax?

to Bob Warman of Central TV

Dear Bob - my full contact details are at the bottom of this email.  Tim Weller

Is this value for money? Does this nice piece of idiocy deserve a mention on your excellent programme, Bob?

6.7 Kms of a half finished 120 Kms, 'Out of Use' (mothballed) mainline railway "of national strategic significance", is about to be turned into a short shuttle tram line to transfer passengers to the mainline railway in the next borough.  This, for £449 million when the Taxpayers' Alliance says nearly all of it can be re-opened for £120 million with three new stations. And, for £449 m there is still 49.3 Kms wasted, unused apart from a 2 Kms VLR test track and a new extended cycle-walkway, alongside or near to jam packed M5/M6 and many main roads!!

I am referring to the missing, middle half of this supposedly nationally important mainline railway between Worcester, the Black Country and Derby.  It was very well used for 100 years until the 1960s when we all deserted the railways to buy and use cars. The track bed and every bridge, tunnel and viaduct are all in place under or over every congested motorway and main road. But, not even a single ghost train is to be seen!

"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?

 M6 Toll banner 01.jpg

 M6 Toll 03.jpg

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)