to Jane Haynes

PHOTOS I've been forgetting to send you:

View of M6 Toll railway bridge from below with my last decade's banner (it did not last long!!):

 M6 Toll banner 01.jpg

Photo below is the bridge from above.  It was built for intercity trains between London and Edinburgh but is now being turned into a dog walkers' paradise of a cycle-walkway!  What a waste.  What a scandal.  What idiocy!  But we DO get HS2 for frequent flyers to have a break from all that flying between London and Brum!

 M6 Toll 03.jpg

Call phone (+44187258197

My comment is:  "The senior leadership team at WMCA have more money than sense with their tram construction that is three times more expensive per Km to build than 46 other tram extensions around the world.  There must be a public inquiry to report back in 12 months time and carried out by Max Caller, without a penny more going to him with his already obscene and grossly inflated 'water bosses' size salary - and, sadly, with so little to show for it."

You wrote that you wanted an independent expert in:

"I am just writing a piece about the Digbeth tram line - where costs have rocketed to £352m from £227m in just four years, and it still won't be open until 2026 at earliest (other than very short extension to Clayton Hotel next year). If anyone can provide a brief expert comment on this huge cost please let me know."

Your expert is the CNNCT man, Mat Taylor, details here:

mt@cnnctconsultancy.com

Send email

01872 581978

"Not by might, nor by power but by my spirit, saith the Lord God."

The Jews who survived a Christian nation's attempt to exterminate them, used terrorism and massacres to win and hold the land of another people. But by expelling and slaughtering the people of Palestine, they made those Palestinians who survived, the enemy of the Jews for 80 years. Israel has never quelled them and has never lived in peace, despite their nukes, having America and the West on their side and being the Middle East super Power. And, most importantly, being God's one and only Chosen People. 

"Not by might, nor by power but by my spirit, saith the Lord God." OT prophet, Zechariah 4 v 6

The Jews have now started on Iran, to make even more enemies out of neighbours who must look on them as the Very Bad Samaritan. Indeed, as the violent thug/bandit in the famous story.

Israel has gone rogue, Netanyahu is a rampaging war criminal and the Violent Middle East Maniac. Or is it me who is completely out of my mind?

Please tell me.

Hi Tim,

             No I, and many others, agree with you, Netanyahu and his Zionist supporters are attempting to exterminate as many Arabs from as many countries as they possibly can. Netanyahu has been devious enough to understand that Trump is a very short-sighted and stupid President interested only in what benefits first him personally than his country rather than having any global perspective. Netanyahu hides behind the US and I think Starmer will be making a massive mistake if he allows UK forces in the Gulf to defend Israel. I think it's very depressing that Netanyahu has successfully sold the idea that Iran was hellbent on destroying Israel to the Israeli people who seem more united in supporting this latest attack than they were behind the extermination of the Palestinians in Gaza. There was no reason other than opportunism to attack Iran now as the Ayatollah is 86 years old and when he dies it is likely a regime change will occur naturally. I think Netanyahu fully intended to precipitate a conflagration involving as many middle Eastern countries as possible from the beginning in the belief that he and Trump personally, and their respective countries, will be able to prosper in the aftermath.

I'm appalled that three evil, self-seeking individuals like Netanyahu, Trump and Putin have been able to inflict such massive global damage.

Cheers,

              John

Jane Haynes on tram extensions

Hi Tim

I am just writing a piece about the Digbeth tram line - where costs have rocketed to £352m from £227m in just four years, and it still won't be open until 2026 at earliest (other than very short extension to Clayton Hotel next year). If anyone can provide a brief expert comment on this huge cost please let me know.

Separately, I have never been able to get hold of the feasibility study of the tram line to East Birmingham that was commissioned by Andy Street and has been revisited by Richard Parker. Can you point me in the right direction? I believe it concluded that the costs of a tram line would be excessive and complicated because of the route having to go across the ringway and then use narrow residential streets, at least for the section into and out of the new Blues stadium area.

Any help you can provide would be much appreciated. 

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/first-look-new-tram-route-31816837

E Brum & Solihull tram extension - Jane Haynes

READ MORE: £1 bn tram plan for Blues, NEC, HS2 and Birmingham Airport unveiled that will 'change lives'

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/first-look-new-tram-route-31816837

The line would then continue along Bordesley Green East on to Meadway to Chelmsley Wood before, most likely, snaking down Chelmsley Road and Coleshill Heath Road, bypassing the Rolls Royce premises.

The indicative line then dissects the Airport on one side and the NEC and Resorts World on the other, via Birmingham International train station, before turning east to the new HS2 interchange station and Arden Cross science and health campus nearby.

Estimates published as part of a new funding deal agreed with the Government suggest the first phase of the scheme - covering less than 1.5 miles - from Curzon Street, site of the new HS2 station, via Digbeth to St Andrew's, would cost £400 million.

The costs would also include planning and designing the whole line, including detailed design, surveys and public consultation for the whole 10 miles route, and putting in the most complicated section from Digbeth to Small Heath, including designing the best way for the line to cross the Lawley Middleway/A45 ring road.

Factually correct evidence is dismissed as "an opinion"!

D​ear friends

Dismissed as "an opinion" by your 'Good Governance' experts, no less!

Over the decades, I believe I have uncovered the biggest finance/transport scandal in the history of the UK, with reams of evidence supplied that I'm sure is never read.  It can't be because you persist in digging an ever bigger hole for yourselves.

W​hat you have done is weird and wonderful​.  It is ​truly bizarre and invite​d derisive laughter​ from one member of the prestigious Lunar Society, no less. Honestly!​  This was when I correctly quoted, from memory, the written words of your Centro Passenger Services Director, Tom Magrath from his letter to me dated September 2000:-

"Light rail provision provides the basis for restoring heavy rail services at the appropriate time" - on the principal mainline railway​

 "of national strategic significance".pdf

​​that you have all nicely destroyed for a tramway, a test track, a cycle-walkway, buildings and fresh air.  What utter incompetence and stupidity.  What a joke!  Station Hotel in Dudley now has to be renamed 'Tram Stop Hotel' - it is bang opposite Castle Hill tram stop where the important mainline railway station used to be for 100 years.

Clear and obvious financial misspending and destruction of TWO mainline railways is not called incompetence or sheer stupidity as motorways clog with traffic BUT, A DIFFERENCE OF OPINION!!

I have "an independent whole-life assessment ... " from CNNCT, below.  I have lots of facts and figures (see below) collected over the decades of Brum's Tram Tragedy.

Last year's transport consultant's report to TfWM is here:

 CNNCT Costs Comment September 2024.pdf

and Bob Whitehead's report, here:

 The Case for FFPT in Birmingham.pdf

FFPT should have the money saved from abandoning the billions going into tram expansion (£15.6 BILLION in England and Wales for mainly trams on Thursday 5 June, Rachel Reeves announced.).  FFPT would be so much more cost effective in cutting congestion and getting the W Mids more Climate compliant.  But there has to be the stick of stiffening penalties, as well, on thoughtless/selfish car commuters who clog up the roads unnecessarily.

My own research has come up with this:

 Like for like comparison of infrastructure building costs

100s of miles of bus routes but only 23 Kms of tramway between Wolverhampton railway station and Edgbaston Village tram stop and most of that on the first mainline railway destroyed!

 Bus/tram subsidy 22/23.pdf

 Service Total subsidy 2022/23 (source: Transport for W Midlands)

No one is interested, apart from me!  The elected councillors are spineless, change so often and, therefore, simply accept the word of the full-time professional officers who advise them how to vote when they do have the occasional, hurried vote.  A rubber stamping exercise from beginning to end!  So much for democracy.

Very Important Document here:-

40 years of scandal, carefully researched and chronicled, is exposed here:

  Trumpland Transport in the West Midlands since 1981

T​IM WELLER

to my very own Cllr Tom

Dear Tom

This thought has just occurred to me:-

To what extent has persecution of the Jews over many centuries, culminating in the Holocaust by our ancestors, followed by Jewish terrorism from 1945 to gain Palestine as their homeland; plus, Zionist success with British surrender and withdrawal in 1948; led to the Jews/Zionists/Israelis being so bellicose and so victorious in every single war over their enemies ever since?  Yet, they never live in peace and justice, live in constant fear of more attacks, and security is their no 1 priority.  How tragic.

Or, is their oppression, coercion and violence because America and the West arm them to the teeth as our Western/Christian/democratic HQ in the centre of the Arab/Muslim Middle East?  Israel is holding the fort for us and is upholding liberal democracy.  Hence, we support and arm them and let them be the only holder of WMD in the Middle East.  Hardly balanced!

Have our centuries of violent behaviour towards the Jews meant their violent behaviour against the Palestinians and other Arabs, who could never accept the UN resolution of 1947 to share the land?  Especially, when it seems that European/Christian violence against the Jews, was very much more than Arab/Muslim towards them, the Jews?

Has the victim of oppression, Palestine, suffered much more grievously than the perpetrator of oppression in every Arab struggle to overthrow the Jews in Palestine?  And, we Brits were responsible for fleeing/deserting Palestine because of terrorism in 1948.  We Brits threw in the towel!  Defeated by terrorism to leave the situation we have now - for 77 years and rising!  There was also our duplicitous ("perfidious Albion") behaviour and partiality/preference/bias to Jews between the World Wars when we governed Palestine under the British Mandate from the League of Nations.

Perhaps, Tom read two relevant chapters on Gaza from Jeremy Bowen's 'The Making of the Modern Middle East' (pub 2022).  Hardback copy can be obtained by the Halesowen Library.  I'm re-reading the library's paperback copy.

Do listen to this week's 'The Today Debate' on BBC Sounds.  Find it here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002d0d7

Former Israel PM, Ehud Olmert, in a speech said,

"How are fears born? They are born because of differences in tradition and history; they are born because of differences in emotional, political and national circumstances. Because of such differences, people fear they cannot live together. If we are to overcome such fear, a credible and healthy political process must be carefully and painfully developed. A political process that does not aim to change the other or to overcome differences, but that allows each side to live peacefully in spite of their differences."^{[11]    FROM: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ehud_Olmert}

Best wishes

YES to expelling Gazans from Gaza

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-05-28/ty-article-magazine/.premium/yes-to-transfer-82-of-jewish-israelis-back-expelling-gazans/00000197-12a4-df22-a9d7-9ef6af930000

Analysis | A Grim Poll Showed Most Jewish Israelis Support Expelling Gazans. It's Brutal – and It's True

"A new survey showing that 82 percent of Jewish Israelis support the expulsion of Gazans was met with disbelief among those who stubbornly believe that the extremists are outliers. But these trends are as consistent as they are shocking."

For Abercynafon meet up on 11June 2025

 

1. Eighteen years after our 1896 exuberant and triumphalist hymn was published all about a "kingdom of love and light", and of singing a song that "shall conquer evil", we blundered so hurriedly into a totally unnecessary and the most foolish war in the history of humanity.  So much for "shattering the spear and sword"!
2. That war led to the Middle East being blessed with our British and French empires and all the horrors for the poor inhabitants of Palestine and Lebanon, Jews and Arabs, who simply wanted to be left alone from yet more foreign invaders.
3. It was a Christian nation, now on our side, which was responsible for the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust.
4. It is our great friend and ally in the Middle East, the Jews and Arabs of Israel who are prosecuting the current war with "82 percent of respondents reportedly supported the forcible expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza, while 56 percent supported expelling Palestinian citizens of Israel."  FROM https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2025-06-04/ty-article-opinion/.premium/do-82-of-israelis-really-back-expulsion-of-gazans-the-data-tells-a-different-story/00000197-39da-da41-a9f7-3dde468d0000
5. ONE READER'S COMMENT:  During a time of high emotion and misinformation, I doubt if any poll results reflect the fundamental beliefs of anyone.
   That said, the fact that there are a significant number of Israeli Jews who call for the deportation of Palestinian Israeli citizens is very troubling. Israel's medical infrastructure will collapse if it weren't for the fact that 25% of all doctors, 27% of all dentists, 35% of all nurses and 49% of all pharmacists in Israel are Palestinians. There is a serious cognitive dissonance in Israel's Jewish society when the very people who profess that they will be more secure if all Palestinians were deported, yet will put their lives in the hands of Palestinian medical professionals every day.
   This dissonance is the result of years of brainwashing and probably makes any poll numbers suspect regarding Jewish attitudes towards Palestinians.

To this very day, our Western, traditional Christian beliefs and values, demand drones and air strikes and bullets and buildings crumpled into dust and ashes to so nicely wipe out tens of thousands of evil Hamas men, women and children.

£2.4 billion for trams "to change lives in one of the most deprived parts of this region."

 " ... we have been able to put the money into our frontline public services but crucially more investment money.

"As a result today we are able to announce £15.6 bn of investment including £2.4bn coming to the West Midlands for Richard Parker to spend on the priorities of the people here in the West Midlands."

Chancellor Rachel Reeves, speaking against a backdrop of a group of young apprentices and local politicians, said the Government was committed to supporting 'left behind' parts of the country to unlock growth.

The much vaunted line will run from the city centre to the Sports Quarter, then later go on to Heartlands Hospital, Birmingham Airport, the NEC and the HS2 interchange at Arden Cross. The first phase could be ready in five years.

READ MORE: £1 bn tram plan for Blues, NEC, HS2 and Birmingham Airport unveiled that will 'change lives'

The West Midlands is one of several regions handed a package of investment for local transport in today's announcement. The aim is to ensure transport schemes are in place to help unlock jobs, skills, housing and opportunities in poorer parts of the country.

Other transport initiatives to be funded by the West Midlands package are yet to be confirmed. A total of £15.6 billion of investment was announced nationally.

READ MORE: Why tram line to East Birmingham, Blues, Airport and NEC has to happen

Mayor Parker said: "This funding means we can now deliver a new Metro line to the Sports Quarter, connecting it to Birmingham city centre and unlocking one of the most significant private investments our region has ever seen.

Are you on the side of the angels?

Tom, You are my elected representative. It would be nice to get a reply, my friend. This time?

Is it reasonable to insist that Hamas must first give up the remaining hostages if they really want our side (Israel, America, Germany, UK, NATO) to no longer murder Palestinians in cold blood, in the hope of killing Hamas fighters in the process?

Or, is Israel right when it says Hamas is responsible and not the most moral and upright army in the world?

And this, when our side knows that only ceasefires, talking and compromise have brought hostage releases.

Tim

Dear Tim, 

I've given a great deal of thought over this. I don't believe there is a simple answer, and certainly not something I can elucidate in an email. 

So I'll simply ask a question in return, then pose a part of my belief. 

Are our side murdering Palestinians? I don't believe so. Unfortunately, Hamas is an brutalist, savage terrorist organisation, masquerading as a legitimate government. 

Dear Tom

Thanks for the reply.  Fantastic for that but, not this:

I woke up this morning to hear on the radio of more Gazans murdered and many injured in cold blood by the IDF, on our side, our friend and firm ally in war and peace that the UK and NATO fully arm.  Still, from HMG, nothing like a 100% arms embargo, no sanctions placed on Israel, no recognition from HMG that it recognises Palestine as a state, no action to tell Israel they must stop the 22 settlements from being built in the Occupied West Bank that Israel calls Judea and Samaria.  They are names from the Bible, that Israel claims is part of their country promised to them by God but others say is needed for a Palestinian state.

Yesterday evening I watched on BBC iPlayer, the documentary from Louis Theroux, 'The Settlers'.  I recommend it as part of our education about the tragedy of Israel in a state of constant worry, fear and insecurity with being unable to live in peace with its neighbours.

The other day I wrote this to Christian friends about a hymn my wife and I sang at church last month, 'We've a Story to Tell to the Nations':

1. Eighteen years after our 1896 exuberant and triumphalist hymn was published all about a "kingdom of love and light", and of singing a song that "shall conquer evil", we blundered so hurriedly into a totally unnecessary and the most foolish war in the history of humanity.  So much for "shattering the spear and sword"!
2. That war led to the Middle East being blessed with our British and French empires and all the horrors for the poor inhabitants of Palestine and Lebanon, Jews and Arabs, who simply wanted to be left alone from yet more foreign invaders.
3. It was a Christian nation, now on our side, which was responsible for the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust.
4. It is our great friend and ally in the Middle East, the Jews and Arabs of Israel who are prosecuting the current war with impunity.
5. To this very day, our Western, traditional Christian beliefs and values, demand drones and air strikes and bullets and buildings crumpled into dust and ashes to so nicely wipe out tens of thousands of evil Hamas men, women and children.

Are you able to help me stop the Dudley Tram destroying yet more nature and housing land to bring it the 600 metres from the about to be built Merry Hill tram stop, into Cottage Street, Brierley Hill, please?

 WBHE plan for Merry Hill.jpeg

which has led to the felling of these trees (for the new Merry Hill tram stop), needed to capture carbon dioxide and, with money saved from unnecessary tram expansion, to help the poorest with food and energy bills and Climate compliant housing:

 6 glorious white trees.jpg

And please read this:

 Stourbridge Friends of the Earth and MP and councillors

and this to our MP, quoting:

 Lord Peter Ricketts

Best wishes

Chris Baines for Daniels Land opinion?

Would Chris Baines meet me at Merry Hill Shopping Centre for me to show him Daniels Land that might be an SSSI, such is its isolation from human hand and foot for many decades. I would like his opinion, please. There is no official access but it can be viewed from the Dudley No 1 Canal towpath opposite M&S and Next. It looks important for wildlife but is down for housing development

"OCTOPUS: RECOMMENDED BY 'WHICH' EIGHT YEARS RUNNING"

"OCTOPUS: RECOMMENDED BY 'WHICH' EIGHT YEARS RUNNING" (bright, cheerful, cheeky Global Player advert!)

My long list of questions, in an earlier email to Octopus, do need to be answered by Octopus with one sensible answer to each question, please.

The same excellent service I had from Good Energy over FIT, now needs to be quickly seen and maintained by Octopus, so that I no longer lose FIT and SEG payments.

Are Octopus able to supply me with quarterly reminders of when FIT generation readings must be sent?

Why has this never been done, so far?

Can Octopus take export readings from my smart meter?

Or, do I have to send them in manually?

Should Octopus supply a smart meter that IS able to send export readings to them?

John Ch

Dear John

I'm writing to you, again because your knowledge and eloquence in arguing our case is a huge asset for us Climate activists.  I also strongly supported you, by writing, in trying to get our alternative proposal for Smallbrook Queensway to be adopted.  I also support Toqueer with a monthly sum.

On Saturday, like Rajan of XR, you also disagreed with me (or, it was not your priority) over my 40 years of writing about the destruction of our regional railway network for Metro tram expansion.  It really is the authorities' top transport spending to relieve road congestion and reduce GHG emissions.

John, I would love you to put me right over my contention that the billions being spent on GHG emissions for tram expansion, should and must be our top priority in arguing our case to the decision makers - the Senior Leadership team at 16 Summer Lane.  My case, below:

WMCA is causing Climate catastrophe by ...

• Allowing congested main roads near or alongside existing but unused​/partly used railway lines.
• Stourbridge Junction ​is very well used but its second mainline railway - once as equally important as the one in use - is used only for freight.
• Instead, people pile into their cars and add to the deepening Climate Emergency and congested roads.

• Why not use existing transport infrastructure for their design purpose​ and a century of use?

• Why not get the existing public transport at least as good as the average on the mainland of Europe?

• Would 150 miles of tramways simply make for a more complicated and slower public transport journey - with three modes instead of two - meaning more changes?

• The tram is like a "bus on rails" and, therefore, accelerates the Climate Emergency with all the concrete and steel having to be used, when both are very high in greenhouse gas emissions from ​their manufacture.

My suggestions to enable the low-hanging fruit to be picked first.   (timweller1@gmail.com)

1. TfWM/WMCA intention is to spend £15 BILLION (Jan 2020 figure) of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for 150 miles of tramways in our region.

2. INSTEAD, could that money go on extending Fare-Free Public Transport (FFPT) to everyone in the region?

3. Spend it on electric buses and finishing the electrification of the railway network.

4. Spend it on level access from pavement bus stop to bus door - for smooth access for all on four wheels or pushing four wheels.

5. Spend it on returning TRAINS to the remaining railway network and not trams.

6. Spend it on recording and fining those thoughtless car commuters who could leave their motors at home and enjoy the reward of FFPT.  In this way, the roads are freed up for essential vehicle users and GHG are reduced.

7. Spend it on retrofitting the homes of the poorest to make their houses solar-powered, energy-efficient and super-insulated.  Get the money back from wealthy landowners by the established practices.

My personal example - if I can do it ... My own house completed Climate compliance on 30 November 2023 when the gas meter was taken out​ (and £30/mth total energy, less a huge sum in what I export)!  In 1992/3 I gave up my right to claim car mileage by cycle commuting and, on official council business, cycling for work calls - for over 90% of the days for the last 20 years of work.  So 15p/mile instead of 40p/mile!

I've had regional FFPT for the last 17.5 years.  Everyone needs it!   (0791 380 4363)

The people to write to:  customerservices@tfwm.org.uk    AND    customerservices@wmca.org.uk

WMCA is causing Climate catastrophe by ...

• Allowing congested main roads near or alongside existing but unused/partly used railway lines.
• Popular Stourbridge Junction but its second mainline railway - once as equally important as the one in use - is used only for freight.

• As a result, people pile into their cars and add to the deepening Climate Emergency and congested roads.

• Why not use existing transport infrastructure for their design purpose and a century of use?

• Why not get the existing public transport at least as good as the average on the mainland of Europe?

• Would 150 miles of tramways simply make for a more complicated and slower public transport journey - with three modes instead of two - meaning more changes?

• The tram is like a "bus on rails" and, therefore, accelerates the Climate Emergency with all the concrete and steel having to be used, when both are very high in greenhouse gas emissions from their manufacture.

My suggestions to enable the low-hanging fruit to be picked first.   (timweller1@gmail.com)

1. TfWM/WMCA intention is to spend £15 BILLION (Jan 2020 figure) of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for 150 miles of tramways in our region.

2. INSTEAD, could that money go on extending Fare-Free Public Transport (FFPT) to everyone in the region?

3. Spend it on electric buses and finishing the electrification of the railway network.

4. Spend it on level access from pavement bus stop to bus door - for smooth access for all on four wheels or pushing four wheels.

5. Spend it on returning TRAINS to the remaining railway network and not trams.

6. Spend it on recording and fining those thoughtless car commuters who could leave their motors at home and enjoy the reward of FFPT.  In this way, the roads are freed up for essential vehicle users and GHG are reduced.

7. Spend it on retrofitting the homes of the poorest to make their houses solar-powered, energy-efficient and super-insulated.  Get the money back from wealthy landowners by the established practices.

My personal example - if I can do it ... My own house completed Climate compliance on 30 November 2023 when the gas meter was taken out!  In 1992/3 I gave up my right to claim car mileage by cycle commuting and, on official council business, cycling for work calls - for over 90% of the days for the last 20 years of work.  So 15p/mile instead of 40p/mile!

I've had regional FFPT for the last 17.5 years.  Everyone needs it!   (0791 380 4363)

The people to write to:  customerservices@tfwm.org.uk    AND    customerservices@wmca.org.uk

Is this deep green or shallow green or neither?

• Congested main roads near or alongside existing but unused railway lines.
• Popular Stourbridge Junction but its second mainline railway - once as equally important as the one in use - is not being used fully.
• Instead, people pile into their cars and add to the deepening Climate Emergency and congested roads.
• Why not use existing transport infrastructure for their design purpose?
• Why not get the existing public transport at least as good as that on the mainland of Europe?
• Would 150 miles of tramways simply make for a more complicated and slower public transport journey - with three modes instead of two?
• The tram is like a "bus on rails" and, therefore, accelerates the Climate Emergency with all the concrete and steel having to be used, when both are very high in greenhouse gas emissions from their manufacture.