FROM: https://premetro.co.uk/stourbridge-proposal-could-save-taxpayers-millions/

Pre Metro has proposed the Stourbridge Dasher be considered to connect Dudley sooner rather than later, which could save taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds while delivering enhanced connectivity and economic revitalisation.

The Stourbridge Dasher is being proposed as a cost-effective replacement for Phase 2b of the Wednesbury and Brierley Hill Metro extension, a project fraught with budget overruns and delays. Originally allocated £449 million, the Metro extension’s costs have skyrocketed to an estimated £650 million.

Phase 2b, linking Dudley with Waterfront, is expected to cost £228 million, with additional funds required to reach the Merry Hill Embankment and Brierley Hill High Street. These escalating costs have raised concerns about the project’s affordability compared to other local initiatives.

Pre Metro’s service would utilise the existing Round Oak dual-track freight line, converting one line into a bidirectional rail service between Stourbridge Junction and Canal Street. Connecting Stourbridge to Brierley Hill could be achieved with just £30 million.

The potential benefits of the Stourbridge Dasher extend beyond cost savings. Local surveys reveal strong community support, with 87% of residents expressing interest in using the new service and 40% of businesses along the route expecting increased customer footfall. Employment opportunities are also likely to rise, with projections showing a 63% increase at Merry Hill alone.

Not only that but extending this scheme to include Dudley would total only £50 million—a staggering 78% saving when compared to the currently proposed tramway. In addition to substantial cost savings, the Stourbridge Dasher offers a faster implementation timeline, reduced disruption to local communities, and improved access between Dudley and Stourbridge.

By repurposing existing infrastructure, the project aligns with principles of efficiency and sustainability, addressing the region’s transport needs while ensuring better value for taxpayer money.

Concerns over excessive spending on recent tram extensions within the West Midlands— reportedly costing over £100 million per kilometre, far above global norms—have cast doubt on new transport initiatives in the region. With public funds finite, accountability is paramount, and VLR seems to offer a less disruptive and more cost-effective solution.

Despite these clear advantages, Transport for West Midlands has deferred consideration of the Dasher proposal until 2027, citing the need for further financing and study. This delay risks missing a critical opportunity to connect southern Dudley and Stourbridge, leaving local businesses and passengers underserved.

Pre Metro has urged the West Midlands Combined Authority to collaborate on adapting the Metro proposal sooner rather than later to save public money and improve regional connectivity. This approach would reduce costs and expedite project completion.

Steve Jasper, Director of Pre Metro, and local resident, ratepayer, and former Public Transport Manager, emphasised:

“It’s time for the Combined Authority to prioritise financial accountability and embrace transformative alternatives. By safeguarding public funds, we can deliver a brighter, more connected future for everyone.”

As an SME, Pre Metro has already pledged £25,000 to advance the Strategic Outline Business Case. They are now requesting that the Authority review current proposals and assist in evaluating an alternative that offers quicker results and better value for money.

Stourbridge’s Bigger Picture Strategy can be accessed here.

The tragedy of HS2 - so grossly exaggerating its benefits that, for me, it amounts to dishonesty and self deception

• £66 billion for a completely new railway mode, while about 100 Kms of the present W Mids rail mode is either unused or is freight only.
• The UK's first, super expensive, high-speed railway line.  Yet basic public transport is nowhere near as good as even the average on the mainland of Europe.
• The only UK railway line safeguarded for use "by freight trains by the 2040s, at the earliest" is used for a short tramway, a Very Light Rail test track and a much longer cycle-walkway extension.
• This is the 120 Kms (but 56 Kms unused in the middle) Black Country Railway between Worcester, the Black Country and Derby.
• The much-vaunted increased capacity that will be available once HS2 is open has now been found out to mean ONLY increasing the length of our railway lines!
• It only increases the choice, NOT capacity, for travellers going directly between London, Brum and its airport.
• They can choose between flying and HS2.  However, passengers for other intercity stations have only the existing service that might be less frequent when HS2 is open.
• Non-HS2 passengers get the same old story of tired rolling stock and stations on the WCML that must remain after HS2 is shooting past them.
• The £66 billion might have been used to modernise and upgrade the existing railway network.
• The £66 billion goes to only benefit a small minority of railway passengers who could, anyway, continue to use plane travel between the capital and Brum.
• Why are they singled out for special, super-duper treatment while the rest of us have second-rate public transport and are paying for their totally unnecessary, high-flying, lifestyle?
• For me, this is a dishonest use of taxes, especially when every pound spent is yet another pound in weight of GHG emissions to worsen the climate emergency and worsen finite, vital resources.
• Perhaps, the majority of the British public is misled by this flash, swanky lie that ALL rail users will benefit from HS2 increasing the mirage/illusion/scam of 'capacity'.
• It is a wasteful and unnecessary duplication of an adequate, existing London to Brum railway line

We in the rich West, are so entitled and well off in every way, already.  Yet we demand and expect, ever more prosperity and the very best of everything.  Social injustice, in my book!  Climate blindness, too!  But, what rich, right-wing governments provide for their rich clientele.

So more of the war-ravaged, hungry, miserable hordes pile into the overcrowded small boats to get to our capitalist dystopia for a better life.  The hordes fleeing the poverty and environmental degradation and war-ravaged countries from our wars, our arms exports and our greedy economic growth and growth of climate killing greenhouse gases.

OT ethics of annihilation of the enemy is quoted because ...

... the state of Israel is Yawheh's Chosen Nation ("you shall be my people" Lev 26 v 12) divinely ordained to settle the entire Promised Land.  It is Israel's manifest destiny to have and hold the Land.

From Wikipedia: "Manifest destiny" means it is obvious (manifest) and certain (destiny).

On 'PM' today, Evan Davies reported:-

"Israel's Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, tweeted a quote from Leviticus this afternoon, 'You will pursue your enemies and they will fall before you by the sword'.  He said our enemies cannot hide and we will pursue and eliminate them."

Leviticus 26 v7,8

No need for our railway lines to have railway trains!

14 October 2024

FROM NETWORK RAIL:

Thank you for contacting us about the use of former railway lines and your concerns about them being used for reasons other than running trains.

We are, across the rail network, committed to running a railway which meets the needs and demands of the communities we serve. This is an approach taken with our train operating partners to provide the best service in terms of frequency, reliability and journey options.

Where lines have previously taken out of use, they are often kept within the ownership of the railway authority to potentially be brought back into use should there be a demand and business case to support it. If neither of these requirements are not present, and considering all other factors and influences, we may look at alternative uses.

If there is an option to support the development and progress of other modes of transport, to encourage people to travel in a greener and more sustainable way, this is something we would consider for future use.

This is what has happened with sections of disused railway lines in the West Midlands, where we have worked with the West Midlands Combined Authority to make the routes available as part of the region’s tram network.

As part of the regulated land disposal process, Network Rail is required to consider any future potential rail use and we foresaw there may be a future need for freight or other traffic along the Wednesbury to Brierley Hill extension.

As part of the sale to West Midlands Combined Authority, there is a condition that should there be a requirement for freight or other traffic, it could be restored alongside Metro services with at least 10 years’ notice.

The Lichfield to Brownhills section of route has been out of use for a number of years and will be converted to an active travel route as proposed by Lichfield District Council. We retain the ability to terminate the lease should it be identified that there is a case for reinstatement of heavy rail but currently this section and the route via Dudley do not feature in the priorities for us or those of our partners for reinstatement of heavy rail but we regularly review in light of changing policy, planning and funding situations.

Any proposal for reinstatement of railway along this corridor will need to be developed in conjunction with local and regional partners and national government to ensure that it is the right thing to be doing both for the route itself and the wider transport network. At this moment in time there is no project looking at the reinstatement of this route and has no plans to be making applications for development funding in the near future.

I hope this explains why certain decisions are made and demonstrates that we are committed to train travel, sustainable travel and supporting partners to improve public transport both now and in future.

Thank you for contacting Network Rail.

Kind Regards

Sam Clinton

Community Relations

My eco-credentials

Since the mid 90s I gave up the car for 90% of work journeys, for climate reasons, even though I was classed as an essential car user for my social work. Living close enough to work to reduce my eco footprint has been uppermost in my mind since coming to this house in January 1976. And I've  maintained that discipline, to the best of my ability, ever since to reduce my hypocrisy quotient. Nearside lane driving to Scotland, now cut back to twice a year and then living in the car, is my reward for living simply so that others may simply live. Now, occasional hotel and more bus use in old age!

Your new house must be well above any river, for reasons you well know!

Sept/Oct 2024 Scottish expedition

Left on Wed 25 Sept on the afternoon I had loaded up in the morning.  Unheard of for me!

Horrendous congestion on M6 in Cheshire, however, meant I had my first night ever in a Travelodge.  This one at Burton Services, Carnforth that was ony £57 and most helpful three receptionists.  One advised against the £5.50 breakfast box and recommended the fast food outlets.  Went to M&S for excellent breakfast.

The OS have two different places for the car park that is not a car park for Cairnsmore of Fleet hill (a Donald and a Graham).  Summited in the afternoon in wind and cloud and rain.  Cold coming down meant I put on every layer I had with me but the clear footpath was a great help.

Impossible to do the other two summits in those conditions so had to repeat the walk the next day, Friday 27 Sept on a fine, sunny day.  I took the bike up the tarmac road and the forest road.  Left it unlocked but lots of walkers on such a fine day - but, it was still there on return!

I met a 75-year-old who got to the summit but needed a quad bike to get him down after he was having difficulties.  I stood on the very fine motte next to the stoney road as the quad bike with him as rear pillion went steaming past.  I met him again at the car park that is not a car park and had a chat recommending walking poles when it was his balance that he said was the problem.  Then on to Joan and Mike's to Sunday 6 October.

Back home on Friday 11 October, via a night at Westmorland Hotel, then walk to Orton village straight after breakfast before the mainly nearside lane drive home to achieve 86.7 mpg between Carlisle and home.

16 summits visited with 13 left - 9 in the Ochills and 4 in the Galloway Hill.  The 16 reached were 7 in Galloway Hills and 9 in the Lowther Hills.

No more accelerating GHG emissions

No more accelerating GHG emissions.  And no more destruction/waste of railway lines or Multi-modal public transport - especially when the money should be going to regional Fare-Free Public Transport for ALL and not just to my old crocks age group!

Always blame everyone else but yourself!

Certainly, China is building more renewables than any other country I heard on the Jeremy Vine Show from a former BBC environment correspondent - Roger Harrabin, I believe it was.  China is the workshop of the world in making products for us all to lower our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions but raising theirs.  It means uninformed people point an accusing finger at them, never realising three are pointing back at them.  What hypocrisy!  Always blame everyone else but yourself!

Has Colt seavers got rid of gas, entirely, in his/her home and gone over to an annual, 70-80% self-generating electricity, as we have done?  Only in cold spells do we import electricity and, then, only at night when it would otherwise be wasted and, hence is very cheap.

Who is Mr Robinson, Mr Robinson is not a nice man?!

Why such weird and wonderful names?

Why not pluck up courage and use your own name that we all know you by?

Have the honesty of standing by your convictions, please instead of being so ashamed of what you write.

Email to send to TfWM - the essence!

Suggested email to customerservices@tfwm.org.uk  --

KEEP THE TRAM ON THE RAILWAY

You are writing a business case for bringing the Dudley Tram as far as Merry Hill SC to destroy nature, landscaping, public open space and housing land with the 400 metre tramway viaduct and new tram bridges.

Will you write a further business case for terminating the tram at Stourbridge Jct to allow it to connect with the national railway network?

Have an electric bus to then connect the tram on the railway with Brierley Hill High Street and Merry Hill.

Do you need to compare both options to be able to make the right decision?

2 fossil fuel follies and 1 sensible essential

The transport engineers and planners have had decades destroying all the properly closed Beeching railway lines because they made such big losses as we all went out and bought cars.  Now, we are no longer building roads, homes and offices on commuter railway lines.  Instead, converting a principal, mainline railway, alongside or near to congested M5/M6, into a tramway and cycle-walkway!  This is the 120 Kms, unfinished in the middle, Black Country railway that bypasses Brum to the west between Worcester and Derby.

No wonder we have to have High Scam 2 to give plane passengers between London and Brum a change of scenery from clouds and sky to fields and the remaining woods from the super fast train!

End the expansion of multi-modal public transport in the West Midlands and West Yorkshire.  Heavy rail, Light rail and Very Light Rail mean more changes and delays between the three different railway modes.  Railway lines and concrete are very expensive in both price and in weight of GHG emissions.

Give the LR, VLR funds for regional Fare-Free Public Transport (and free buses throughout England) FOR ALL that I, as an old geezer, have had for 16 years.

Water meters and usage

Since 1990 all new build home built must have a water meter fitted by law. From 2025, South Staffs Water is starting a programme to fit a water meter at every property that does not currently have one, where it is possible to do so, over the next decade. Over 130,000 are planned to be fitted between 2025-2030, with the remainder by 2035. Alongside another large reduction of leakage levels, fitting these meters will play an important part of ensuring we have enough water to go around to meet human demand and ensure the environment is protected. You can find out more here: https://www.south-staffs-water.co.uk/about-us/our-strategies-and-plans/our-water-resources-management-plan 

Water supplied to customers across the South Staffs region is taken from the River Severn, over 20 underground aquifers and a major reservoir which provides water to customers, you can find out more about it here: https://www.south-staffs-water.co.uk/environment/managing-water-resources/where-our-water-comes-from/. At this time we are not planning to increase the size of our Blithfield Reservoir, but this is an option that we can bring into our plans if the situation changes, e.g. we receive less rainfall over time, or demand for water rises quicker than forecast.

 

As you are a metered customer, you can work out your usage from your recent water bills. On your bill, following an actual meter reading being taken, it will show you the amount of water used in meters cubed (m3). You can then convert this to litres - 1 cubic meters/day = 1,000 liters/day – to work out your daily usage. The company is currently looking at the best ways to provide this information through an online portal, or similar,  for customers to make it easy for them to track their water usage. 

 

Regards,

South Staffs Water – Your water your say team

CLUELESS COUNCIL

Cllr Patrick Harley has called the ice rink scheme so obvious and essential that it is "a no-brainer".   However, all the best brains around the world in the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have been repeating since 1988, with increasing urgency, that we need to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and move to a more climate justice and social justice community of nations.

Since 2020, when Dudley Council declared a climate emergency, it has shown its complete ignorance over climate breakdown and, this latest hypocritical 2,000 seater ice rink proposal, is yet another indication that they are clueless over the many obvious and essential measures to slow climate disaster.

TRY NON-VIOLENCE, PERHAPS?

I think violence has solved nothing since 1945 but only brought misery, murder and mayhem in the Middle East, Far East and Northern Ireland. In the despicable behaviour of the unHoly land, it has never ended. Our side, the Western Dominating Powers, are wholly to blame for the slaughter.

Mum knows the answer - and the other Tim W!

You have a line of impenetrable Galloway Forest plantation before you coming down off a broad ridge BUT, you have to find the narrow ride you came up after depositing the bike on the forest road.  I FAILED!

How did I escape?  Not by climbing up a tree or summoning mountain rescue.

What should I have done?  But even the great Ronald Turnbull, author of walking books galore says "its tricky"!

Council members need to sharpen up

Thanks for this. All very helpful.

Many councillors change from year to year because of elections and leaders moving them around the different committees. It means that no sooner to do they get to grips with their brief than they get moved!

Many appear uninterested, poorly informed and are far too subservient to the senior officers. They are simply rubber stamps with most unable to check, challenge and question. But this is their sole purpose, I think.

Whistleblowers and watchdogs like me are far more valuable!

Stuff their teeth with gold

Bus franchising is expensive and risky with the local councils having to carry the can if things go wrong in this foolish, commercial enterprise. Both Brum and Dudley have tried risky and foolish projects, as I have described elsewhere. This one means that we taxpayers have to foot the bill initially in buying up bus depots, buses and changing staff contracts and, have to fork out when bus services don't bring in the expected revenue.

Keep to the excellent Enhanced Bus Partnership (EBP) model and use the money saved from franchising to bring in FFPT.

Bus franchising is another re-organisation that is unnecessary when you already have EBP with the bus companies being paid to run socially necessary but unprofitable services. Money talks with the bus operators. Stuff their teeth with gold to bring in FFPT!

Why are you continuing with your 40 years of hard endeavour ... ?

Why are you continuing with your 40 years of hard endeavour to convert the West Midlands mainline railways into tramways?

Snow Hill station to St Georges Sq in Wolverhampton tramway was put on the first mainline railway between Birmingham and Wolverhampton, instead of returning the commuter and regional trains.  Opened in 1999.

You are continuing with the highly extravagant idiocy of putting Metro trams on an even more important principal mainline railway between London, the Black Country and Edinburgh.  This is the Wednesbury, Brierley Hill Extension (WBHE) of Metro One that was put on the first mainline railway, as I have mentioned, above.

In South Staffordshire, you are turning this same London to Edinburgh via the Black Country mainline into a cycle-walkway when you have built all the motorway, road and canal crossings for fast passenger and freight trains to go back.  WHY THE  WASTE, IDIOCY AND INCOMPETENCE of building an intercity railway line and then using it for trams, cycles, dog walkers and a 2 Kms section for a Very Light Rail test track from the former Dudley mainline station that is now the BCIMO HQ?!   BCIMO = Black Country Innovative Manufacturing Organisation.

"of national strategic significance" paragraph, dated 8 March 2018 from DfT

I have sought clarification on the situation from Network Rail, who inform me that this is a section of railway of national strategic significance. Investment in the corridor would allow for continued freight growth given that the other SW-NE route (via Bromsgrove) is already at full daytime capacity. From a passenger perspective, safeguarding a heavy rail corridor across the Round Oak-Bescot route is of value as this is the only corridor which could accept freight traffic displaced by further passenger flows into central Birmingham. I understand from Network Rail that recent discussion on the project has therefore focused around how best to balance the interests of freight and passenger rail traffic.

Chagos Islanders

Please will you restrain the shouts of “Betrayal” from the current Tory leadership candidates and one past PM? They are all based on false assumptions:

1. The Joint base on Diego Garcia is secured by a 99-year lease under UK control, despite Mauritian sovereignty. 

2. The USA and India are fully in support of this deal. President Biden has specifically welcomed it. There is no chance that China will sneak in by the back door.

3. The return of the deported population should warm the hearts of those who want minorities to go back home. I have been fighting their legal cases for the past 25 years.

4. The cost of looking after the current Sri Lankan asylum seekers has cost tens of millions of pounds and is now the responsibility of other countries

5. It was a Tory Prime minister, Liz Truss, who first agreed with Mauritius to discuss returning Chagos to Mauritius.

6. It was James Cleverly who announced the pursuit of these discussions but was  stalled by David Cameron who had forbidden the return of the Islanders in 2016

7. If the UK had supported the return of the population in 2000, when the High Court declared the deportation of the population to be illegal, the Islands would have had a UK-supporting population living there, just as in the Falklands. In all probability, Mauritius would never have been able to mount a successful claim at the International Court.

8. It is arguable that PM Cameron and the FCDO are responsible for forfeiting sovereignty by reckless decisions to exclude the Chagossians from their homeland.

9. Having lost the case in the ICJ, while Boris Johnson was Foreign Secretary, the UK was directed by the United Nations to quit Chagos within 6 months.

10. If there is any substance in shouts of betrayal, it lies in the failure of both Labour and Tory governments to respect the rights of Chagossians to go home under the flag they would have preferred.

Request for a comparative business case to be written

Former principal mainline railway being turned into tramway, test track and cycle-walkway in the Black Country (Sandwell and Dudley boroughs in W Midlands); and, South Staffordshire.

Before my 15 mins chat with Alex B, I would like you both to please consider my suggestion, here that you write to Louise Haigh, Sec of State for Transport, to:-

Request a comparative business case to be written

Former principal mainline railway being turned into tramway, test track and cycle-walkway in the Black Country (Sandwell and Dudley boroughs in W Midlands); and, South Staffordshire.

It would be wonderful if both of you could PLEASE write to the DfT asking if a business case might be written to complement and compare with the one being prepared for the West Midlands Metro tram, Phase Two of the Wednesbury, Brierley Hill Extension (WBHE).

For thirty years I have been fighting, single handedly, to save my vertical guerrilla garden, much more of nature, public open space and housing land at Merry Hill Shopping Centre from the 400 metre, £100 million, tramway viaduct.  Their wish to reduce congestion and air pollution can be achieved much more cheaply and sensibly by keeping the tram on the railway

 "of national strategic significance".pdf

down to Stourbridge Jct to connect with the national railway network.  Far more useful, now that the tram has gone on the railway instead of commuter, regional and intercity trains being used at a fraction of the price!

Plan here:

 WBHE plan for Merry Hill.jpeg

There needs to be a comparative study with a second business case written to show the far greater financial and transport advantages of connecting the Dudley Tram to the national railway network, rather than leaving it at Cottage Street, Brierley Hill, in the middle of nowhere, as is the intention of Transport for West Midlands and the Combined Authority, would you believe!

This is my photo of where the climate impacting tramway viaduct is to go:

 6 glorious white trees.jpg

and the official photo, below that plays down the impact because the canal embankment with the viaduct is in the background in their photo.  From their plan, the viaduct goes over the top of the guerrilla garden and not to the right as in their photo.  MMA is Midland Metro Alliance:

 MMA photo of canal embankment viaduct

Many thanks for your help and best wishes