Is regeneration of our towns and cities GREEN, ie sustainable?

Is regeneration of Dudley town centre GREEN, ie sustainable and in tune with the much-vaunted, chest-thumping declaration of a climate emergency last year?

Does it mean prestigious, vanity, fossil fuel-fed expenditure to encourage all the ungreen, unsustainable lifestyles we have so come to love and depend on?

Dudley regeneration gathers pace with:-

 

Dudley town centre has £1 billion to invest on nine planned projects with one goal - to improve the borough.  Or, is it only to improve the town centre of Dudley?

for Save Halesowen Countryside Facebook page - when available

I'm still plugging away with maintaining two official public rights of way in our 32 sq Kms Golden Green Triangle bounded by M5, A456, A491 that includes the Clent Hills Country Park.

Recently, on a snowy weekend in January, I saw a traffic jam of 4x4s at 1,000 feet on the summit ridge of Walton Hill.  Nine of them, at least, all out on essential travel (of course) at 9 pm one Sunday night!  One driver, quite understandably, told me that he thought it was a green lane.  They had all driven up from the main car park on Walton Hill Road.  It certainly looks most inviting on foot or in the cosy, warm comfort of your big, 'aren't I impressive', 4x4, with no gate or notice to tell drivers that the smooth, nicely surfaced track was not for them.  It is part of the N Worcestershire Path and is a bridleway.  Not for your motors, please - just your walking boots or, finite fossil fuel-free bikes - and not e-bikes, either!

TUC webinar on 11 Feb 2021

Should the TUC be at all concerned?  When West Midlands Metro tram extensions mean:-

• at ten times the construction cost/Km of rebuilding a railway line in Scotland in 2015;
• convert 6.7 Kms of a half unused but ready built 120 Kms Black Country mainline railway into a tramway;
• convert eleven direct bus routes through the Birmingham Five Ways underpass and Broad Street into a tramway that mean all round the Wrekin diversion for bus passengers;
• that then make for a slower, longer and worse public transport service for the eleven bus routes from west Brum, Dudley borough, and Sandwell;

should the TUC be at all concerned?    Tim Weller

First duty of government

Thanks for using my question at the very end, after a worthwhile hour.  You very properly missed out the last few words about how low-income people are, too often certainly in the Thatcher decade, being expected to pull themselves up by their bootlaces.  I feel a duty, a conscience to help them out financially/practically.  The well off can look after themselves in a way that the poor cannot.  The first duty of government is to look after those at the bottom of the pile who have no-one to help them and to ensure a much more sustainable, justice-centric and equitable society.

I think the 6 Mayor elections should be postponed because of the risk from these more virulent variants that are around - nominations that need collecting and all the people at the count.

You need to remain as Mayor with a postponed election!

Best wishes

Tim

PHOTOS to smile over:

 M6 Toll banner 01.jpg

 M6 Toll 03.jpg

Half a billion destroys the above half-finished 120 Kms railway and these trees, all for a 'shuttle' tramline that does not even connect with the two stranded mainline railway sections!  So what is the point of doing it?

 6 glorious white trees.jpg

More Covid election spread when the Mayor has "no formal powers"

Should we risk Covid spread when the Mayor has no formal powers and is the excellent figurehead for the WMCA, only?

Thanks for the email.

Last Friday, we had the announcement of the 6 May elections going ahead.  However, when journalist Jonathan Walker correctly calls the Mayor position a figurehead and, within a month of being elected in May 2017, Andy himself was conceding that he has "no formal powers", in an interview on the 'Today' programme, should many hundreds of political workers and reporters risk getting Covid, themselves and spreading it?

Should, perhaps the post of Mayor be subject to an open and fair selection (not election) process on Andy's retirement or resignation?

What do you think, Andi?  Are you happy with GP workers getting 105 valid nominations for Steve Caudwell and helping to spread Covid and, even more virulent variants?  I don't think I am!

All important democracy must override raging pandemic

But announcing the decision, UK constitution minister Chloe Smith said: 'Democracy should not be cancelled because of covid'."  Jonathan Walker on 'BusinessLive' on 5 Feb 2021

Democracy is far, far too important for Covid to stop the election of our Metro Mayor who has no official powers and is solely the mouthpiece of seven district council leaders and Cabinets who rubber-stamp decisions by senior officers who, in the case of the £15 billion mainly Metro underground and overground tram extensions, are influenced by the national tram lobbying group that shares its HQ with the Mayor!!

"Democracy should not be cancelled because of covid. More than ever, local people need their say", said UK constitution minister Chloe Smith

We have our say by writing and phoning officers and members of councils.

Spend on the poor; on making them richer!

Spend on humanitarian aid for Yemen.

Spend on Fare-Free Public Transport for all

Spend on green jobs to address the climate emergency.

Spend on a Basic Income scheme and more generous Universal Credit

Spend now to save on greenhouse gases in the medium to long term.

Spend on renewables - solar, wind, hydro.  PV on every roof.

Spend on trains and stations back on our wasted/part used 106 Kms of double-track railway lines in the Black Country and Brum.

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!

Pay freeze for workers on more than £150,000 a year

Thanks Stuart and Doug. I think a pay freeze for workers on as much as £150,000 a year must be only the start. The more you get paid, the more you will spend. The more you spend, the more you are taking of finite, precious resources that poorer nations and future generations might just possibly need. But it's worse than that.

Because we are now well and truly trapped in the most prodigious consumption of finite fossil fuels, we are all so dangerously changing the planet's climates for the worse, that Attenborough was warning in Dec 2018 of this:-

"the collapse of civilisations, the extinction of much of the natural world and time is running out".

It is urgent that we not only lockdown for Covid but lockdown our greedy overconsumption for Climate.

Selfish, thoughtless overconsumption is one of the two main drivers of global destruction - the other is ... ?

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 for him by unelected officials.

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.

Status symbols for our own self-aggrandisement

Metro is all part of the most unfortunate, greedy and immoral HS2 syndrome. These are the two most extravagant and over-indulgent and totally unnecessary expenditure that is of no help to the hordes on low incomes. They need the money, not you and me for our status symbols and personal self-aggrandisement. Use the £106 billion for HS2 and the £15 billion for trams for FFPT for all; for UC and Basic Income generous enough to keep everyone living in dignity.

To Cllr Steve Caudwell

Dear Steve

Thanks very much for replying, although I fear it was only because you are our GP candidate for W Mids Mayor on the 6 May.  However, I suppose I should be grateful for that fact.

You wrote,

"I'm replying from this account as I keep my Councillor account strictly for Council-related matters; so if you need to get in touch in future I'd be grateful if you could do so here."

My first email, as is this, solely about "Council-related matters".  It is councillors like your good self who are responsible for the four biggest and longest-running scandals in UK finance/transport history!  Here they are:

SIXTY YEARS OF TRANSPORT SCANDALS:

1. Your colleagues completely destroyed our electric tram network in the 1950s.
2. From the 1960s onwards, our well-meaning councillors destroyed about 100 Kms of our railway network in the W Midlands region.  Used the railways for homes, offices, shops and roads.  BEAT THAT! So,
3. In 2021, you are all in your fourth decade of having built and maintained and partially mothballed a 120 Kms Black Country Mainline Railway "of national strategic significance", converting it into two short sections of tramway totalling 6.7 Kms; a test track in between; and, an extended cycle-walkway to make it run all the way from Walsall to Lichfield (proposed).
4. Making public transport worse by adding to congestion with trams mixed up with buses, cars, vans, taxis and lorries and, pushing out the buses to make eleven different bus routes take a longer and slower journey!  This, by giving priority to trams and excluding buses from the Five Ways underpass and Broad Street that are now dedicated to trams.

Your colleagues have given me so much fun, over the decades, pointing out the bleeding obvious!!

Are you proud of letting your colleagues do all of this, Steve?

Or, have you said something - ever?

Even when you may not have been a councillor?

Or, will you now, please, ask one or two pertinent questions about the eccentric and bizarre behaviour of your colleagues, Steve?

I do hope so.  It is still not too late to stop the mainline conversion to tramline.  Maps, here:​

 Railfuture's full map.pdf

​​

 Metro map with my notes.pdf

​

​You wrote,

​"I am interested in the arguments for and against trams - I acknowledge the cost but I see there are concomitant benefits too, so a nuanced discussion is welcome."​

Here are both sides of the case:​

 BOTH SIDES OF THE CASE, here

​

​And good ol', well blessed Solihull gets blessed with even more - HS2, Metro trams, swish Sprint hydrogen buses and all the other transport modes.​  Extravagance for the rich and austerity for the poor!

​With best wishes and thanks again for writing, Steve.

Traffic jam on summit of Clent Hills!

29 January 2021 

Dear friends - and Emma in particular

Nothing quite like a pandemic for stopping all non-essential travel to make for 4x4 traffic chaos on the Walton Hill summit ridge!

 Repair, please.jpg

 STILL no repair.jpg

This will stop the 4x4s from Walton Hill Road car park using the N Worcs Way bridleway but still allow the horses and walkers through:-

 Do this at car park.jpg

 work needed.jpg

 Simple restoration needed.jpg

Thanks for writing back, Mick but not all your information is correct.

No gate was smashed to gain access for the off-roaders when I was with them last Sunday evening.  The Warden with the NT Land Rover, that I met with Richard Marchant on Tuesday, agreed with me that there never had been a gate there, as far as he knew.  So no gate to smash down!  It certainly looked as though there had never been a gate there.  Is that really true, Emma?

I cycled over this afternoon and the bridleway remains so obviously an open invitation for drivers to go up it from the Walton Hill Road car park and do a wheelie or two around the trig pillar before trundling back down!  I quite understand why the 'car club' thought it was a green lane open to all traffic, as one driver told me.  I think, he even said 'Sorry' for disturbing my walk!

This afternoon, on the brick track between Ferns Hollow and Walton Hill Farm, I met a horse rider.  She lives locally and has known about the 4x4s going up onto the summit ridge for all the ten years she has lived, nearby.  It is always the case with snow and about five or six times every year, she said.  She did not seem to mind, at all!  She explained that all the Trust needs to do is to put a locked metal gate at the foot of the N Worcs Way bridleway but to leave a gap (as at Ferns Hollow) or, a metal walkers' gate, next to the locked 4x4 motorists' gate.  As long as it is not a kissing gate, both walkers and even horses can easily get through.  Problem solved!

However, perhaps the Trust has lost interest in all responsibility for their land.  Are they actually wanting the off-roaders and the grass cut up and the roadside verges turned into "carnage", as this afternoon's horse rider described it as?

A lot of work is needed on the Clent Hills, including the gully/soil erosion.  Please use my wife's life membership of the Trust and for our hundreds or thousands of pounds profit that the Trust has made from our decades of visiting their properties and for our expenditure there.

Emma, who was the NT staff member with your Land Rover, with Richard Marchant, at Kenelm Wood Yard?

Has the Warden's Base been moved there from High Harcourt Farm?

Is the worker allowed to do any repair work with a spade to fill in the wheel ruts, from my evidence, above?

Should I cycle up there with my spade and do the work for you?

Best wishes

FoE's 3 Feb Zoom with self as a declared candidate

Hi Chris

Thanks v much for organising the Zoom session with people to hear what my concerns were and to quiz me.  It was worth doing, but the real test is for you to put me up against the other candidates, the proper politicians.  Are you thinking of doing a hustings like that?

I would love to have feedback over what the others are saying about our concerns, please.

I also forgot to save the chat, yesterday.  Did you do so and could you send it to me, please, Chris.  Thanks!  I'm sure I had to reply to someone about something!  And there was that pledge for me to sign about divesting from fossil fuels in the W Mids Pension Fund.  Could you give me her name and address, please?

Who was that person speaking about zero waste?  I need her ideas, too.

Thanks and all the best.

Tim

Underground tram lines at £15 billion to 2040

Since February 2020, W Mids Combined Authority has been working on a £15 BILLION to 2040 scheme for mainly Metro "bus on rails" trams, underground and overground, replacing buses and trains when it is electric buses without rails that are needed with Fare-Free Public Transport for all age groups, as reward/compensation for a slightly greater risk of Covid in doing the right thing in using bus, train, tram.

Now, underground tram lines - what a thrill to spill yet more greenhouse gases!
"As part of his re-election campaign, West Midlands Mayor Andy Street has unveiled his ambitious £15bn transport plan for the region. ... At 150 miles long, the ambitious transport network expansion would feature eight new Metro lines, 380 new stops and 21 new rail stations.

5 Feb 2020"FROM:
https://www.google.com/search?q=andy+street%27s+metro+plan&oq=Andy+Streets&aqs=chrome.3.0i355i457j46j0j0i10i22i30l2j0i22i30l2j0i10i22i30.19727j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

The Cambridge University economics professor on 'Today'

"Covid is a reflection, a manifestation of our overuse of the earth's system.  We go where we should not go.  We should leave niches alone but we don't.  Movements of people, trade in goods and services have enabled us to enter every ecological niche on earth and that is dangerous."

Growth comes at a devastating cost to the environment.  Nature must be valued alongside profits when measuring economic success.  People are paid more to destroy nature than to protect it.  Amazon, the company is worth more than $1.6 trillion but the Amazon rainforest, the greatest ecosystem on earth is worth virtually nothing until, that is, you cut it down, sell the wood and start farming the land.

Britain's greatest naturalist, Sir David Attenborough, has welcomed today's report by saying "if adopted by governments, it should help avoid the disasters that currently threaten the very future of all life on this planet."

from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-55893696

The report says that we need to recognise that humanity is part of and not separate from the natural world.  It recommends ditching GDP for a measure that reflects the true value of nature.  The professor says taxes and subsidies should also go to protecting ecosystems.  "Contemporary economics does not take nature seriously.  My review is arguing that nature needs to be embedded in our economic thinking."  Make no mistake, what he is proposing is a fundamental attempt to transform the way our economies work.  Change won't happen immediately but the hope is that this will begin a serious international discussion about what we really value, as our societies continue to encroach on the natural world as never before.   Justin Rowlatt on 2 Feb 2021

A landmark review has called for transformational change in our economic approach to nature.

The long-awaited review by Prof Sir Partha Dasgupta, of the University of Cambridge, says prosperity has come at a "devastating" cost to the natural world.

The report proposes recognising nature as an asset and reconsidering our measures of economic prosperity.

It is expected to set the agenda on government policy going forward.

At its heart is the idea that sustainable economic growth requires a different measure than Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

"Truly sustainable economic growth and development means recognising that our long-term prosperity relies on rebalancing our demand of nature's goods and services with its capacity to supply them," Prof Dasgupta said in a statement.

"It also means accounting fully for the impact of our interactions with nature across all levels of society."

Covid-19 has shown us what can happen when we don't do this, he added. "Nature is our home. Good economics demands we manage it better."

In the 2020 BBC film, 'Extinction: The Facts', Attenborough said,

"Scientists have even linked our destructive relationship with nature to the emergence of Covid-19."

For me, Covid is part of the Climate, Ecological, Nature emergency.  Covid is yet another sign of humans messing things up.  All the time we react and react far too late, rather than preparing for the worst and hoping for the best.  As happened with Covid, we are very complacently in denial until, finally, it comes and hits us in the face.  By then it's all too late, of course!

Birmingham construction stays resilient amid coronavirus lockdown

By

Tamlyn JonesBusiness Reporter

• 05:00, 2 FEB 2021

Activity in the city centre is slowed only slightly despite ongoing impact of pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic has failed to make a major dent in the rising tide of construction work in Birmingham city centre, (my emphasis) according to an annual property barometer report.

The 2020 Crane Survey, published by financial services firm Deloitte, suggests the city held up well against the economic impact of the outbreak and subsequent lockdowns, with only a slight drop in activity.

The number of new developments across the city centre in 2020 was ten, a fall of just one from 2019, while the number of current schemes under construction dropped year on year from 41 to 34 last year.

The ten new starts recorded were split across residential (four), office (two) and one each in education, hotels, leisure and student accommodation.

This represented a more even spread compared with 2019 which was split seven to four between residential and office.

Deloitte's annual Crane Survey assesses the volume of development activity taking place across major UK city centres and is now in its 19th year for Birmingham.

Among the projects currently under construction in the city centre are office blocks 103 Colmore Row and One Centenary Way on the Paradise scheme and the 42-storey Mercian apartment block in Broad Street.

Last year was a record for Birmingham in the history of the survey, with purpose-built student accommodation delivering 1,458 new student bed spaces, over two-thirds of which belong to the towering 1,023-bed project at Lancaster Circus island.

However, the current pipeline for this sector is below the ten-year average for Birmingham at 741 beds.

Residential development continues to see an uptick in activity, according to the research, following the completion of 2,072 units which is well above the ten-year average of 607 and the highest total in the past decade.

But the report said this record was set to be broken in 2021 as delayed schemes came to fruition alongside those that are due to complete, with 20 under construction and four new schemes breaking ground in 2020.

Residential projects are on the wane slightly, dropping from 26 in 2019 to 20 last year and a 27 percent drop in units being developed, from 5,318 to 3,886.

For the fifth consecutive year, office space surpassed one million sq ft under construction (my emphasis) but just over 210,000 sq ft was completed in 2020 against a projection of more than 600,000 sq ft being finished.

This year should see the delivery of more than 750,000 sq ft completed.

Edwin Bray, partner at Deloitte Real Estate in Birmingham and author of the survey, said: "2020 has seen a shift in development across the city but it has remained resilient in a very challenging year.

"Both residential and purpose-built student accommodation have performed well and, although we have seen a significant drop in the amount of completed office space, there is still over one million sq ft under construction.

"Both domestic and foreign investors continue to see Birmingham as the UK city of choice as we look forward to hosting the Commonwealth Games in July next year.

"Beyond that, the arrival of HS2 and the first brand new intercity terminus station built in Britain for over 100 years means Birmingham is continuing to attract national and international interest."

To Cllr Kath Hartley, Ladywood, Brum

I would like to ask you about pretty basic matters, regardless of getting a healthier planet - see below.  Questions over the straight competence of your officers that advise you; let alone green competence!  I believe, basic competence is a serious issue at 16 Summer Lane, quite regardless of climate change and resource depletion.

Do you realise that, because of Metro trams still being given top priority over, even, reinstating trains on railway lines, you have delivered a slower, longer and worse public transport journey?  And, this, for eleven bus routes that for many years sped us on our way into the city centre via the Five Ways underpass and Broad Street?  Now, all those buses are pushed out to queue on the Five Ways roundabout, on a diversion via the Arena on narrow roads with many parked cars to add to the mayhem!

Or, shortly, we could instead, get off the bus opposite 54 Hagley Road, cross the road and wait up to 15 minutes for the tram to take us through the underpass and along Broad Street.  This change and delay makes thing worse, discourages car drivers from using buses and, is totally unacceptable, in my opinion.

I do think some issues are so obviously unhelpful (pointless, grossly extravagant, climate-wrecking HS2, Metro, Sprint) and should not be pursued, while others are very advisable.  I would suggest, spending only on projects immediately, that will do the most to cut deadly greenhouse gas emissions; and not duplicating or replacing buses and trains with greedy, wealth flaunting, vanity projects to impress visitors but that take and burn the most finite fossil fuels to worsen our prospects.  Unfortunately, these glitz and glam projects are the very ones that excite us most and that all of us, politicians and people, simply adore!  I love trams and brand new, flash, everything!  But, we have to show some restraint in the light of the Climate, Ecological, Nature emergency.  Hence:

ACTION - my suggestions to reduce catastrophe in transport (not just climate catastrophe):

Minimise finite fossil fuel use as much as possible.

To get competence, let alone low climate impact from transport - stop destroying railway lines.  For urban railways, can their commuter trains be returned; can the railway lines no longer be built on; or, if not for trains, can they be used as cycle-walkways?

Stop converting railway lines and bus routes into tramways for "bus on rails" trams.

Use electric buses going directly on roads, without the railway tracks.

Use the money saved from abandoning tram extensions into Fare-Free Public Transport (FFPT) for all and not just old people like me that I have enjoyed for 13 years!

Move from multi-modal transport that is multi-mixed up transport with more changes and delays, into sticking with making buses more sought after.  That means FFPT and electric buses on bus priority roads.

FFPT is essential to compensate for a slightly higher risk from Covid transmission when using public transport.

FFPT is essential to cut greenhouse gases, congestion and polluted air in cities.

FFPT is a reward for leaving the car at home.

Upgrade the major, strategic, 22 Kms Black Country Cycle-Walk Mudway so it can be used by everyone who goes human-powered and not fossil fuel-powered, including horse riders.

Oppose HS2 extensions and scrap Metro and Sprint to concentrate on the basics - the buses, our local 106 Kms of mothballed or freight-only railway lines and, cycle-walkways for commuting, business and leisure use that are not waterlogged and muddy.

Many green campaigners love "bus on rails" trams to replace buses and trains!

Dear Gerald - please could you respond and, would you be so good as to forward this to Ian and Lisa?  Thanks!  This is long but theirs was even longer!

December 2020 Friends of the Earth Activists’ Briefing: Making transport fit for the Climate Emergency Ian Taylor and Lisa Hopkinson, Transport for Quality of Life   

It's been very good to find your name under 'Acknowledgements' in the excellent document above.

I strongly agree with Ian and Lisa and think that FoE and Greenpeace should insist on public ownership, as here:

"These problems are structural, and it is only by changing the structure of the railway so that it is a single entity operating under public control, in the public interest, and with an objective to act in such a way as to reduce carbon emissions from transport to the greatest extent possible, that they can be resolved. Transport for Quality of Life has carried out research in this area and is of the view that public ownership is necessary to achieve this. Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace have not carried out research in this area so do not have a position on public ownership, but do believe that the structure of the railway needs to change to be managed as a single entity and under public control."

However, I do think all three organisations need to also come out against the unnecessary and most unhelpful fragmentation of our transport provision into bus, tram and train.  And, bus is being added to with the superbus, Sprint diesel (now hydrogen), to further complicate life!!  All of you are fully supportive of light rail trams taking over bus and train routes.  As Ian and Lisa have written, here:

"In fact there would be very substantial resources left over for investment in improving bus services, or building tram networks."  p 17

and,

"where excellent new public transport infrastructure (such as tram lines) will be provided", p 20.  

and,

"The necessary changes to our transport system will cost money. In the next 10 years we must invest at an unprecedented rate in new tram networks, rail electrification, green electric buses, cycleways and healthy streets for walking. Substantial ongoing revenue funding will be required to run free local public transport services."  p 22

So don't encourage tram extensions at ten times the cost per Km of rebuilding the Borders Railway in Sept 2015 when it reopened!  £7m/Km for the rebuilt railway; £81 m/Km, plus cost overruns for the new 1.7 Kms Brum Eastside Metro tram.

And,

"to infrastructure that cuts carbon emissions, such as tram lines, bus priority networks, cycleways and healthy streets for walking." p 22

"There is thus no shortage of potential funding. Rather, the issues we need to fix are that money is being spent on the wrong things, building roads that make carbon emissions worse, instead of tram lines, cycleways and healthy streets for walking; and we do not yet have the mechanisms to secure contributions from all those who will benefit from a better transport system. p 24  

Stick to bus and train, only.  For these good reasons:

1. Spending = finite fossil fuels used = greenhouse gases emitted = climate catastrophe = THE END!
2. Trams are the second most expensive transport mode to construct after HS2 and even most Maglev train projects in S Korea, China and Japan.  See:
   
    Like for like comparison of infrastructure buil...
3. UK Tram Ltd called the tram "a bus on rails" at the time of the Croydon tram crash that killed seven and seriously injured 62 passengers, 19 seriously, in November 2016.  SOURCE: Radion 4 'Today' interview with Andrew Broddick of UK Tram.  Seven would be alive today if the railway line had been used for trains linking into buses on roads.
4. No injuries, no deaths, no disruption if they had stuck to trains on the railway lines and buses on the roads.
5. There have been a couple of deaths because of the 1999 Metro One but not amongst passengers on the trams.
6. Disruption of tram services due to cars driving off the roads onto tram lines.

I wrote this to Keith Budden of Cenex last year.  Keith also gets a mention in your paper:

"Why are Metro trams - and two other types - taking over our Worcester to Derby railway via the Black Country?

Why are "bus on rails" trams chosen over commuter, regional and freight trains on two short sections of a half-finished, 120 Kms principal, mainline railway "of national strategic significance" that runs from Worcester to Derby via Kidderminster and Dudley?  

There are proposals and, active plans now being implemented, for three different kinds of trams over four short sections of this nationally important, partly finished railway!!  Pre Metro shuttle tram, Very Light Rail tram test track, and Metro Light Rail tram.

Why complicate public transport travel in this way?

Why so many changes to make a public transport journey?  It's quite enough to put the most ardent environmentalist off and to get out the bike, instead but we are thin on the ground!

Why cannibalise unused railway lines for tram lines?  And, leave many miles of unused railway lines wasted for more decades or forever!

Has no one thought of trains for train lines that have not yet been used for the bizarre, eccentric activity of running homes, offices, shops and roads down them?

Complete amateurs have rebuilt entire railway lines.  Why can't the professionals put TRAINS BACK on existing, entire, already built railway lines?"

from Ian and Lisa's paper:

"As a result of Covid-19, public funds have been providing the great majority of bus company operating costs, so the step to provision of free bus services is not now such a large one. If the present level of funding is justifiable to tackle the Covid-19 crisis, surely it is at least as justifiable to tackle the Climate Emergency?" 

And, 

"Drastic cuts in central UK government funding over the last decade have led to cuts in local transport services and spending. At the same time local authorities find it hard to get government funding for measures that can cut transport carbon, such as the Leeds Supertram."  Always super flash, over-indulgent, show off, grossly extravagant trams to impress visitors.  Always style over substance!  With the Sheffield Supertram, £75 m was spent on changing a railway to tramway to allow the Supertram to run from Sheffield Cathedral to Parkgate Shopping Centre - all of 12 Kms.  What was wrong with a bus without rails directly on roads?  And electric, too?

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.

I feel that the £15 billion to 2040, going into mainly underground and overground Metro trams to replace some buses and trains, should be used to pay for it all. And, thus, raise the status and attractiveness of bus travel that is, far and away, the most well-used mode.

Andy is very keen on trams because it adds to the public transport pool of different ways of getting about on public transport. He calls it multi-modal public transport. Unfortunately, it ends up being multi-mixed up; and, with yet more changes and slower journeys between the different modes. It is much better just to stick to the bus and train. Simpler, quicker and fewer changes.

AN EXAMPLE for those who come into the city centre on Hagley Road:-

All eleven bus routes down Hagley Road now get diverted on a longer and slower journey into Colmore Row via the Arena. And, the bus no longer uses the underpass at Five Ways which is given over to the tram, permanently! If we change for the tram at 54 Hagley Road, we then have to cross the busy main road and wait for the tram (opens 2021). Again, a slower and less helpful journey to hardly encourage people to give up the car and use the bus! And those without cars are penalised, once again. So give them Fare-Free Public Transport (FFPT) as a reward, on bus priority roads.  Paid for by abandoning "bus on rails" tram extensions!

Best wishes - and please give me your reasons for tram construction, Gerald, Ian and Lisa.

HYDROGEN IS NOT ZERO-EMISSION!

HYDROGEN IS NOT ZERO-EMISSION.  Even when spending £88 m of greenhouse gases.

Thanks for this.  We must lag ourselves and lag every building - the 1990s energy triangle of conservation (using much less through cutting our demand), efficiency and renewables.

What do you make of hydrogen buses, here Jonathon?

Dear Tim

 

In due course, running bus fleets on genuinely green hydrogen does make good sense – simply because of ease of refuelling at bus depots. But getting to the point where hydrogen is genuinely green is a different story – as laid out in that blog!

 

Best wishes

Jonathon

https://www.wmca.org.uk/news/national-express-to-run-zero-emission-sprint-bus-services/

Solihull gets both flash, flaunting our wealth, grossly extravagant with greenhouse gases, trams and, Sprint hydrogen buses ("These tram-style buses have proved popular with customers on similar rapid transit services across Europe and the UK.")  Simply reduce more greenhouse gases by using electric buses directly on roads without the rails (trams) or, without all the junction changes/upgrades and road widening (Sprint).

Brum leader, Cllr Ian Ward, wrote, “These zero-emission buses, including the 20 hydrogen-fuelled vehicles funded by Birmingham City Council, will offer travellers on the A34 and A45 a comfortable and reliable alternative to the car for their journeys and contribute towards achieving our climate change targets.”