"The rail crisis" The Times 27 June 2015

COPIED TO: Birmingham City Council, Dudley MBC and Network Rail Chief Executives, for their urgent action

Sir,  How bizarre can Birmingham and the Black Country get when it comes to rail?  Is this not a bigger scandal than FIFA?

For fifty years, Network Rail and the authorities have deliberately kept nearly fifty miles of double track freight lines without passenger trains and stations.  Lines that are literally alongside or near to commuter congested roads.  All of them had successful passenger services for about 100 years, until fifty years ago.

Our transport aficionados have been so mesmerised by Midland Metro trams that in 34 years of enthusiastic endeavour, costing taxpayers millions of pounds, they will have finally achieved their one and only tram line by Christmas when it finally delivers shoppers to our dazzling, mirror-like, brand new Grand Central Shopping Centre and station at a cost of £750 million (the old New Street Station).  Cost for the 0.7 mile tram extension at £75.4 million is £100 million per mile!  A network of 200 Km Light Rail (LR) tram lines were planned to be in use by 2000. In 2015, they achieve 22 Km (mostly on a rail line) while 78 Km of double track freight lines remain devoid of commuter and ICE (inter city express) trains!

France, Switzerland and Germany have stunning ICE trains.  Our 13 miles Black Country Line had express trains for about 100 years until the 1960s.  Nothing since then - not even Midland Metro (LR) trams that, extraordinarily, remains their intention after 34 years.  With growing road and rail congestion, why are our experts still wanting to see trams?  The very latest plan is for Very Light Rail (VLR) trams on this local and nationally vital rail line.  This strategic line is to shuttle passengers for only one mile, on one track down our ICE line, to the inter-city line in our neighbouring borough of Sandwell.  The other track will be the test track for VLR.  Why not connect Dudley directly with all parts of the UK with ICE trains to increase capacity and to reduce train congestion at our shiny new Grand Central Shopping Centre and station and, on our road and rail network?

14 examples of public money misappropriated in Brum and the Black Country

TO RAIL MINISTER, CLAIRE PERRY and other eminences for their action - please

Dear Claire - and copied to four members of the Lords and my own MP, James Morris

I know you are not my MP.  I am trying to get my own MP, James Morris (see below) to arrange an appointment with you and Patrick McLoughlin.  Please will you see us?  I believe you are from Bromsgrove, Claire - not far from my home of Halesowen where I am writing this.  Therefore, you must know what I have written here is correct.  My concerns:

1. Millions of pounds squandered in destroying our Birmingham and Black Country tram network in the 1950s.
2. Millions of pounds squandered in destroying, in B'ham and Black Country, about 100 miles of our urban rail network in the 1960s.
3. Millions spent in demolishing stations and building fast roads, homes, hotels and trading estates on about 50 miles of the 100 miles.
4. 12 miles of an urban train line turned into a tram line costing tens of millions of pounds.
5. Nearly 50 miles of former passenger and freight lines, still used only for freight in the last 50 years.
6. In that same decade, millions of pounds wasted in demolishing New Street Station and rebuilding it to make for an underground mainline station perfumed with coal and diesel smoke on the enclosed platforms.
7. In this decade £700 million misappropriated to address passenger congestion at New Street and nothing about train congestion.  £700 million to turn it into Grand Central Shopping Centre with the station demoted to the basement; tagged along as an afterthought.
8. Millions misspent with demolishing Snow Hill Station in the 1970s, only for it to be rebuilt to half its former size.  Now, new plans for a new station!
9. Many tens of millions misallocated since 1981 for building a 200 Km, £500 million tram network by 2000.  Yet, only one tramline of 22 Km, finally, may get completed by Christmas with the extension to Grand Central Shopping Centre and station but, still no connection to Wolverhampton Rail Station, as we did have in the days of trains using that line.
10. Electrification started in the 1950s but, still, nowhere near being completed.
11. Nationally, £1 billion spent in the 1990s in privatising our UK rail network instead of modernising it.
12. Network Rail refuses to co-operate with returning local passenger and ICE trains to the Black Country Rail Line, with its extension to Lichfield.
13. Millions squandered in building and then removing a monorail at Merry Hill Shopping Centre in the 1980s but then failing to connect it to the Black Country Line at the Waterfront in Brierley Hill.  The monorail fell short by only 400 metres.  No connection, no passenger trains were allowed on the Black Country Line; therefore, too few shoppers and office workers were using the monorail, so it was quickly closed!  Sheer incompetence by the transport authorities.
14. The West Midlands Integrated Transport Authority, Network Rail and Centro have spent millions over the years writing studies and strategies, plans and policies.  Umpteen glossy brochures have been produced with their expensive intents for the future.  Yet, very little is actually delivered.  It has all resulted in the above scandal stretching over six decades and with no sign of any reform or even small improvement.

Please will you see James and me?

'Booming Brum' says Railnews; Birmingham is a rail desert, in fact

In Brum and the Black Country, there has been 50 years of nearly 50 miles of freight lines that used to have successful passenger trains for 100 years.  This is disgraceful negligence for 50 years.

There are a further 50 miles of urban rail lines in Brum and the Black Country that were closed 50 years ago and now all built on.  Not even one mile was mothballed out of these 50 miles!  This is disgraceful incompetence and thoughtlessness.

Now, we are to see all of one mile of the 50 miles of freight only lines, that is to get a shuttle tram when the full 13 miles of the Black Country Line would give much better value for money, would return it to a mainline instead of a new branch line and, do much more to increase capacity and reduce congestion.

“(The UK) has one of the biggest deficits in the world”  Nick Robinson BBC Chief Political Correspondent on ‘Today’, 8 May 2015

ABOUT TEN TIMES MORE EXPENSIVE FOR TRAMS ON RAIL LINES THAN REINSTATING THE MISSING TRAINS!

Public expenditure for 34 years has been syphoned away, by the West Midlands Integrated (actually, Disintegrated) Transport Authority (ITA), into one very expensive project to put LR trams on railway lines to replace trains and, on roads, to replace buses.

Yet, in 34 years, only one tramline out of the dozen or more that ITA, PTA, Centro wanted, finally gets opened - and, finally completed, in September.  Yet, nearly fifty miles (80 Km) of successful passenger lines for 100 years remain closed and stations demolished.  This is negligence, incompetence and an improper use of public funds; and, serious failures in transport policy and practice.  It needs investigating, stopped and turned round.

It is further compounded by the utter and complete idiocy of now developing and testing Very Light Rail trams on one mile of the 13 miles (21 Km), Black Country high speed Line.  This is the UK’s only north-south line that can easily be reinstated.  It is the most important but wasted asset for 50 years in our national rail network.  It will remain so for the next 50 years by Centro’s and the ITA’s decision to deliberately reduce rail capacity and increase road and rail congestion by this one, stupid decision.

Survey - do you want VLR shuttle trams, LR trams, heavy rail passenger trains on Stourbridge, Dudley, Walsall, Lichfield line?

Charles Loft is author of 'Last Trains: Dr Beeching and the Death of Rural England'.  He said on the BBC World Service on 28 March 2015, "The future of rail investment is in high speed inter urban lines and light rail commuter services and trams."

1. Do you know if, in the 19th and/or 20th centuries, we have ever had express trains on the existing but, part, still unused Oxford, Worcester, Wolverhampton Railway Co line (part is now the empty Black Country Line)?
2. If so, did we also have a local train service on this same line?
3. In the 21st century, is it feasible to put both express and local trains back on the Black Country Line from Stourbridge Jct, through Dudley, Walsall and on to Lichfield?  Is it possible to have regional and national passenger trains in the daytime and freight trains at night?
4. Or, should we be putting Very Light Rail, instead of Light Rail Metro on that line because "light rail investment provides the basis for restoring heavy rail services at the appropriate time" - letter to Tim Weller from Tom Magrath, Passenger Services Director of Centro, dated 18.9.2000.
5. As we are now seeing Beeching rural rail lines being reopened (48Km in depopulated southern Scotland at £10 million per mile), do you agree that it is even more essential that we have the Beeching urban rail lines reinstated with trains and stations?  There remain nearly 80 Km still not concreted, bricked or tarmaced over in Birmingham and the Black Country and still no stations have been rebuilt at Winson Green and Handsworth (areas of chronic deprivation, including being deprived of their stations) after 50 years.
6. Do you want the Beeching urban rail lines reopened for trains or, do you want them, instead, for Metro LR trams at about, on average, £100 million per mile in Brum city centre - at about ten times the cost of reinstating what we had for about 100 years?
7. Why is Birmingham City Council jumping the queue and getting further Metro extensions ahead of all the policies, plans and strategies that certainly, at one time, stated that Metro Line 3 (on the Black Country Line) was to be next after the tram line to Hagley Road, Edgbaston?
8. In an age of a continuing huge deficit, supposed austerity and, severer public spending cuts now due, how do you justify the spending that is so extravagant but still misses out on making full use of our rail assets or even misses out on building the much needed rail tunnels at Grand Central?  And the Black Country still misses out completely -  apart from getting the £25 million for one mile of VLR and, the short extension of £54 million to, finally, bring Metro One to the one remaining rail station in Wolverhampton!
9. How come the electric trams of old ran on roads (instead of buses) but most of the new ones in Brum and the Black Country run on many more miles of rail lines than roads (replacing more trains than buses)?
10. What is your individual list of rail spending, in order of priority, please?  If increasing rail capacity and reducing rail/road congestion is the number one priority for you, how does this work out in your spending wish list, in order of priority?
11. Or, do you feel, we can only ever have everything that is on offer from the rail authorities, regardless of any order of priority, their competence or, of more decades of the Black Country missing out?
12. A second rail service used to run from Stourbridge Jct.  It CAN be re-opened.  What do you want on it - VLR, LR, heavy rail freight, heavy rail passenger services?  If you agree with Charles Loft, at the head, what should go on our Black Country Line?  He said, "The future of rail investment is in high speed inter urban lines and light rail commuter services and trams."  For 100 years, the BCL was inter-urban, it seems, running between Oxford and Wolverhampton.  Dudley to Wolverhampton and Dudley to Birmingham are both now built on - yet another example of failure/idiocy by our leaders and chief officers who should have advised the members better.

More on inheriting the earth

I heard Stephen Simcox speak this afternoon on the subject, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."

I did speak to him at the close of the Tuesday talk to make one or two of these points.  He is welcome to come back at me, again, of course:
1) That he seemed proud of his 27 years of military service, having mentioned it twice, I believe.  Perhaps, rightly proud.
2) I thought it was inappropriate for him to tell us so much about the work of a Roman centurion.  I felt that he was somewhat carried away by his background and work in the military and, therefore, that explained all the details.
3) I would have liked Stephen/Steve to have mentioned that Jesus was a man of non-violence and NOT a man of violence.
4) From my reading of the Jesus of the Gospels, it is unacceptable for any true disciple to want to inherit any part of the earth - let alone the lot!  But we have inherited so much, with our so good and perfect Western and Christian European empires in recent centuries.  And, we 'Christians' inherited the earth by militarism and certainly not meekness!
5) I think all of us Christians should have the meekness to understand that we belong to the earth (NOT that the earth belongs to us); that we are part of Nature; and, that it is none of our business to even begin to contemplate that we could  start owning the earth - but, of course, only on the Lord's behalf to make it better for Him and His return!
6) For me, having any kind of authority or power over others is not in line with the Jesus of the Gospels who rejected any such earthly power and dominion in the Temptations and throughout His ministry.  Our modern day Caesars need to exercise their power and authority with extreme caution and wisdom.  Preferably, only with the clear mandate of the General Assembly of the United Nations.  Our modern day Christs should stay well out of it!
7) I hope that you will not ask Stephen to deliver the talk on "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God", although it might be fascinating to hear what he has to say.  No doubt, he would say that the modern day centurions of our angelic British armed forces in Afghanistan, Iraq and countless other countries we have fought in, every single year, over the last 101 years, are the true peacemakers!
8) I do take and understand that Steve did do sterling and exemplary work during his time in the military, especially in Bosnia and Rwanda - if violence was no part of it.

Important but missing essentials

Missing words/ideas

Replenish

Sustain

Non-violence/non-aggression

     even, Non-intervention - unless with the clear mandate of the General Assembly of the United Nations to intervene in a peacekeeping mission

Distinguishing marks of which world faith?

no homosexuals in position of leadership

no abortion

no physician assisted suicide

no stem cell research

no killing of cells, foetuses

no physician assisted suicide for the elderly terminally ill, even with their informed consent and when they have full capacity and the

pro-life only for the unborn

pro the armed forces whenever the state says it is right to attack, invade and occupy other nations

Does Christian belief ever fall out with science?  It has done in the past over the age of the earth and its shape as a sphere and not as a flat surface.

God given truths are true for eternity.  Scientific truths are only true until the next theory is proved and verified and the work peer reviewed in a recognised journal.  Scientific truths are only true for as long as the evidence allows or the truth remains substantiated.

Values are:

too right wing when the life and teaching of Jesus is very left wing

not Sermon on the Mount compliant

personal salvation predominates instead of Jesus Christ as role model dominant

humanity is expected to exploit, consume and control nature, the earth and life support systems

The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof actually means that the Lord’s people own the world and can do with it as they want.  Only the Lord's people have the divine right to rule, on behalf of the Creator, over the rest of His Creation. In other words, the earth belongs to them, rather than they belonging to the earth - a fatal misconception in the Bible, a flawed book.

28 January 2015 ITA mtg flyer

End 34 years of apathy, drift, indecision, fudging and failure over Midland Metro trams.

You wanted a dozen tram lines throughout the West Midlands.

They have NOT been built - anywhere!

One tram line, on almost all of a passenger rail line that you should never have closed, is very poor performance.

GET A GRIP AND RAISE YOUR GAME, LEADERS.

Reject today's report for a review of Metro - more time wasting.

STOP wasting our taxes.

Instruct your officers to scrap Metro and to work on URGENTLY re-opening our urban passenger rail lines and rebuilding the stations.

STAND UP to Network Rail and order them to co-operate with you.

Send a delegation to see George Osborne and Patrick McLoughlin to get them to make the funds available for something worthwhile, at long last:

45 MILES OF UNUSED OR UNDERUSED DOUBLE TRACK RAIL LINES IN BIRMINGHAM AND THE BLACK COUNTRY MUST BE FULLY USED - for commuters and inter-city passengers.

Position statement on rail re-openings

The VLR project to go at the former Brierley Hill Steel terminal site on Moor Street, with the extra 1 Km of line, instead of preventing, for ever, the return of inter-city and local trains to our last remaining, UK north-south, high speed line.

There is no need for Dudley Council and ITA/Centro to shuttle passengers to the high speed line in the neighbouring borough (Dudley Port in Sandwell) when, in so doing, they destroy their own high speed line they are using to shuttle the passengers the one mile.

They should use their own high speed line (Stourbridge, Dudley, Walsall, Lichfield) to increase rail capacity and to reduce road and rail congestion.

Please get down to, urgently re-opening all our 72 Km of former passenger lines in Birmingham and the Black Country, instead of keeping them for freight only and for LR and, now, VLR tram projects that never, ever materialise.

Where is the morality in your policy of keeping unused, double track rail lines, devoid of trains and stations, alongside bumper to bumper commuter traffic?  This is literally the case in Dudley and Birmingham.  This is your long term strategy and has been for decades.  Will you change it, please?

For me, it is a scandal that we are spending £100 million per mile for Midland Metro extensions in Brum city centre and £54 million per mile for Wolverhampton but, only £10 million per mile for the return of passenger trains, rail structures and stations (the 29 miles costing £294 million for a rural rail line reopening, this September) in southern Scotland!!  What on earth is going on in this supposed age of austerity, of prudent use of depleting resources and of frightening, human caused climate change?

Am I right in thinking that all UK rail groups support your policies, plans and priorities?  Please give me their names.

Why was there no public consultation over VLR (while still keeping LR) for the Black Country inter-city Line?

Trains Back on the Tracks - Briefing Paper

BACKGROUND BRIEF:

Please could you consider using your position and influence to help to re-open the Black Country inter-city Rail Line?

Could you help to re-open our Dudley borough's, mothballed, 13 miles (21 Km) inter-city and local train line and, to stop the present plan to use one mile of it to shuttle passengers' to the inter-city line in the neighbouring borough?  The present plan will destroy forever, what was, for about 100 years, a successful passenger line!

SUMMARY:

Did you know that in 34 years, the West Midland councils have opened only one Metro tram line out of a dozen or so that they wanted and spent much taxpayers' money trying to get?  Did you know that that one line finally gets completed this year?

Did you know about the 72 Km of freight lines in Brum and the Black Country that all had passenger trains for 100 years until 50 years ago?

Do you not think that they need top priority over tram lines with which the councils have failed to deliver any (apart from the one on a rail line they should never have closed) over these last 34 years?

Do you not think that chronic road and rail congestion at and around New Street Station could be alleviated by re-opening the Black Country Rail Line for inter-urban and local trains through the heart of three Black Country boroughs?  Ideally, extending it to Lichfield, of course, on National Cycle Route 5.

Why not take some of the pressure off Grand Central/New St Sta?  In this way, the councils would improve the passenger experience in giving us the choice, in the Black Country, of going to London and Scotland by either the Black Country or by Brum.  We would have a direct connection to the south and north of the UK by going via the Black Country boroughs on our own reinstated inter-city line!

Did you know that all of that continues to be lost with 34 years of light rail Metro trams (never achieved) and, now VERY light rail trams being introduced as a shuttle service on only 2 Km of the 21 Km Black Country Line?  Below is a map to show the 72 Km of freight only lines and missing stations in our congested conurbation.  Read more in my 'Horrible History ...'.

 Absent trains, stations.JPG

 One horrible history ...

Increasing rail capacity does not need to wait until 2026 and HS2!

Many thanks if you feel able to help - and, to help us all to get around with a little less congestion on our road and rail networks!

Tim

Righteous Israel; unholy, wicked Palestinians

All your e-mails you send me show Israel in the best possible light but the Palestinians in the worst possible light.  Israel is always so holy and angelic, always on the side of the Lord and the righteous but, the Palestinians are on the side of the devil and are evil incarnate.

Is this not misleading?  Is it not unhelpful and simply creates more bitterness and hatred by some towards Israel?

Should we not be looking at our own behaviour in the Christian, democratic West and be a little more self-critical, a little more ashamed and, certainly, repentant?

Do you not think you are somewhat biased?

The Scriptures tell us "thinking of others as better than ourselves"  Phil 2 v 3  Is there not anything that Israel and the Israelis can do to improve relations with the Gazans and Palestinians?  

How sad that Israel cannot live in peace and harmony with all their neighbours.  Israeli terrorist gangs first attacked Britain in the 40s, followed by the IDF attacking Egypt and Jordan in the 50s, 60s, 70s then Lebanon and now Gaza with war threatened against Iran at any moment.  Apart from the members of NATO (with so much warfare in far off lands since 1945), no other country in the world has such an abysmal record of threatening death and destruction and, actual killing and warring against their neighbours.

What is the matter with us?

e-mail to Cllr Tahir Ali, responsible for Birmingham transport

Did you know that in 34 years, you and your predecessors have opened only one Metro tram line out of a dozen or so that you wanted and spent much taxpayers' money trying to get?  Did you know that that one line finally gets completed this year?

Did you know about the 72 Km of freight lines in Brum and the Black Country that all had passenger trains for 100 years until 50 years ago?

Do you not think that they need top priority over tram lines with which you have failed to deliver any(apart from the one on a rail line you should never have closed) over these last 34 years?

Do you not think that chronic road and rail congestion at and around New Street Station could be alleviated by re-opening the Black Country Rail Line for inter-urban and local trains through the heart of three Black Country boroughs?  Ideally, extending it to Lichfield, of course on NCR 5.

Why not take some of the pressure off New Street Shopping Centre and Station?  In this way, you would improve the passenger experience in giving us the choice, in the Black Country, of going to London and Scotland by either the Black Country or by Brum.  We would have a direct connection to the south and north of the UK by going via the Black Country boroughs on our own reinstated inter-city line!

Increasing rail capacity cannot wait until 2026 and HS2!

Did you know that all of that is about to be lost with VERY LIGHT TRAMS being introduced on only 2 Km of the 21 Km Black Country Line?  Read more in my 'Horrible History ...'.

ANOMALY, ABERRATION, ABSURDITY!

PLEASE COVER THIS TRANSPORT ANOMALY, ABERRATION, ABSURDITY:

Capacity on our West Midlands rail network is still being denied and road and rail congestion is deliberately worsened, because:

50 years of 72 Km of double track rail line in Birmingham and the Black Country but NO passenger trains and stations.  The previous 100 years saw passenger trains and stations on ALL these lines.

Now, 21 Km (of the 72 Km) of a fast and local train line are to be destroyed to shuttle passengers for all of 2 Km on this line, from Dudley Castle Hill, to the next inter-city line in the neighbouring borough.  We are STILL not allowed to use our own nationally vital line but can only be shuttled to the nearby one that crosses ours at Dudley Port in the borough of Sandwell!  Our 21 Km Black Country inter-city Line runs from Stourbridge Junction, in the borough of Dudley, through the demolished Dudley Castle Hill station, onto the West Coast Mainline station at Dudley Port and then to Walsall.

We, in Dudley are STILL not allowed to have our own direct connection to London, Bristol and Scotland!  We are being forced to go via either rail and road congested New St Station in Birmingham or to go via Wolverhampton.  What IS the sense in that?

PLEASE COVER THIS SCANDAL!

Oddities galore from very odd and dud, Dudley Council!

More ODDITIES from Dudley borough:

1. The Muslims were palmed off with a shabby, old, Victorian school as their Dudley Central Mosque on Castle Hill, Dudley.  For many more years than ten, as was reported on BBC Radio 4!
2. At the bottom of Castle Hill is Station Hotel but, NO inter-city station for 50 years!
3. For the previous 100 years passenger trains from all over the UK called at Dudley Castle Hill Station.
4. The transport officials and councillors in Dudley now want this inter-city, double track line to be a test track for a Very Light Rail tram to be developed by Warwick University.
5. When tried and tested on this forgotten but nationally important line, it will shuttle passengers to the Virgin trains at Dudley Port station on the West Coast Mainline.
6. But, Dudley people don't want a DIRECT connection with London and Scotland that they used to have - for about 100 years!   How strange is that?
7. As far as I am aware Dudley, for about 50 yrs, has had the only major roundabout (30 metres in diameter) in the UK, that is totally tarmac with not even a single weed growing on it.  How very negligent not to landscape it!
8. 5 or 6 years ago it was moved, all of one or two metres, with one approach lane blocked to widen the little used pavement.  But they must have known it would slow left turning commuter traffic (with only one lane instead of the previous two), on its way to the M5 and Birmingham!  How very odd to deliberately increase congestion and carbon emissions!
9. How peculiar for Dudley to build a monorail at Merry Hill Shopping Centre but not to connect it to the Beeching closed national rail line that should have been re-opened at the same time.
10. Not surprisingly, the monorail never got its rail passengers from all over the UK and has been closed for years.
11. Only Cllr Les Jones (interviewed by Eddie Mair on Monday, 23 March on 'PM') seems to have shown any concern about re-opening our 72 Km of double track, freight only lines in Brum and the Black Country, all of which had passenger trains for about 100 years - until the bizarre Beeching cuts axed many train services even in growing urban areas.
12. Dudley no 2 Canal in Leasowes Park supposedly 'restored' at a cost of £200,000 but then, the job was done so incompetently, it could only be partially filled with water because, if filled to the top, the whole high canal embankment might collapse!  The whole job was supervised by, and the responsibility of, an engineer at Dudley Council.
13. Dudley Southern Bypass was opened in the 1990s but, even then, there was never a cycle/walkway built alongside the new road for zero carbon travel!  How very negligent and odd is that?

One Vision for over 3,000 miles of Canal Towpaths

Dear all

I have finally got down to reading this excellent piece, below, by Robert Latham.  Sorry to take so long!

I agree with everything he has written and there is nothing more I could possibly add, apart from underlining the following:

1. We cannot go on for ever building more motorways and high speed rail lines to help us get about as the population, travelling and consumption rises.
2. Therefore, turn your attention, Ian, Anne, Graham and Andy (and all UK colleagues), to the more than 3,000 miles of towpaths that need to be widened (where this can be done) and 
   be 
   free of raised bricks, puddles, mud and vegetation.  Plenty there to keep you all happily pouring over your desks, faces lit up by your computer screens, for the next 500 years, at the present snail like progress!
3. On the Dudley no 1 Canal in Brierley Hill and on the Oxford Canal, great sections of the towpaths have gently subsided beneath the waves.  But, little ever seems to get done to put things right and when it does, it takes a very long time (eg, 
   Brum to Wolverhampton 
   Mainline Canal towpath near Soho Loop, Brum.  At least, it was widened).  
4. Stand up to the heritage lobby on CRT and at English Heritage.  Go for updating, as Robert pointed out must have been done when gas lighting was replaced by the new fangled electric lights in Netherton tunnel.
5. Upgrade all the towpaths to make them feasible for responsible shared use for all 21st century people.
6. The loose chippings are totally unnecessary, make cyclists skid and eventually, it seems, get pushed into the bottom of the canal, anyway.
7. Spend the cycling £62 million for Brum in this way, above - please!

Best wishes

Tim    

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Robert <birmingham_spider@gmx.net>
Date: 8 January 2015 at 10:33
Subject: Re: [Cttee] West Midlands Customer Service Survey
To: Ian.Lane@canalrivertrust.org.uk, Push bikes Committee Email <cttee@pushbikes.org.uk>


Hi Ian,

I was rather deterred from answering this as it appeared to be a question about customer service, but seeing Roy's reply has encouraged me to respond with my own thoughts.

What I would like to see CRT do is bring the canals into the 21st century instead of maintaining them in a state of post-industrial decline.   Canals on the continent are very much in use for their original purpose (freight), whereas here they are viewed as some sort of living museum, albeit one that is based in some indeterminate time that never existed.   Having no knowledge of freight transport I'm not able to comment on how you could encourage freight on to the canals, but I am a tow-path user.   The tow-paths were of course originally used by draft horses, but they haven't been seen on the tow-path for many decades, if not a century or more.   Yet any attempt to make the tow-paths suitable for 21st century users is met with strong resistance.   One particular bugbear that is raised time and again is hoof grips on bridges.   It is sort of understandable why we might want to maintain the historic brickwork, though much of it is very badly worn.   However, the construction and maintaining of new hoof grips is highly problematic for 21st century users.   I've watched people with push-chairs slipping and tripping on late 20th century hoof grips whilst trying get over bridges.   For cyclists they are not just unpleasant, but also they make it very difficult to control a bike.   Sometimes they force cyclists on to the wrong side of the path, putting cyclists at risk of a head on collision.   Put simply, they are a health and safety issue for modern tow-path users.   Yet CRT strongly resists replacing them with a modern grippy surface (which, ironically, has been used on part of the Bordesley Junction bridge).   Always the "heritage" flag is waved and the request is dismissed.   Yet if I suggest that diesel pumps and pump-put stations should removed on the grounds that neither were present when narrow boats were horse-drawn, that is met with a stony silence.

We have the same problem with the tow-paths away from bridges.   Modern tow-path users need a smooth, durable surface such as bitmac or low-rolling resistance concrete.   What has been chosen is spray and chip, on "aesthetic" grounds, and there is a resistance to sweeping up the loose gravel.   This has simply created a dangerously poor surface for cycling, and in terms of aesthetics, it just looks like end-of-life concrete.   Yet there are sections of canal not used as cycle routes that have beautifully smooth bitmac, and I see no rush to cover them with loose chippings.   On the continent cycle paths are built along canals, out into the countryside and even through nature reserves, and they are built using bitmac or concrete.   Whilst the canals are strips of green, they were built as industrial infrastructure using the latest and best materials.   So why is CRT trying to maintain a look of dereliction?

Roy mentioned the Netherton tunnel.   This was initially lit with gas lighting, and then upgraded to electric lighting powered by a water turbine.   Both would have been state-of-the-art.   When the upgrade to electric lighting was proposed, was someone insisting on keeping the "heritage" gas lighting, or even no illumination at all?   If they were, did anyone listen?   Obviously not, so why does CRT listen to those who want to block progress rather than those who want to update the canals as our forefathers did?

This insistence on keeping the canals in some ill-defined past *is* deterring people from making use of the canals.   Making them more suitable for 21st century users would encourage greater use, and thereby strengthen the position of CRT by making it a provider of modern infrastructure.

To be clear, I'm not advocating the widespread destruction of historic features, many of which are beautiful, but rather making small adjustments to them so they are useful in the 21st century.   Where something has gone beyond its natural life, then there is the opportunity to replace it with something completely new.   New might require the complete removal of a feature.   What is the point in keeping an unexceptional, decaying, steeply arched bridge over an arm that has been filled in and built on, for example?   All that bridge is doing is creating problems for 21st century users.

So to summarise, try to maintain the appearance of that which is beautiful, but ensure the canals can become a useful piece of infrastructure once more.

Regards,

Robert Latham.

Dudley CAN have a direct connection with London and Scotland!

Please try and persuade Khurshid that Dudley having a direct connection with all parts of the UK, as we used to have for about 100 years, is more sensible and advantageous than having a tram shuttling passengers between Dudley Castle Hill and Dudley Port on the West Coast Main Line and then having to go via Brum or Wolverhampton to other parts of the country.  Additional points:

• The ultra-light rail tram (VLR) idea appears to be a project at Warwick University in Coventry from the Warwick Manufacturing Group, there.
• It still has to be developed, tested and then to pass all the H&SE requirements before it can come into public service on our major inter-city line.  This will take years from past experience with the Stourbridge Shuttle. 
• It will be a refinement of the 3/4 mile tram that is the Stourbridge Shuttle - ideal for that short branch line but NOT on a nationally important, last remaining, unopened, north-south, double track line!
• There is no other (opened or unopened) north-south line between road and rail congested New Street Station in the east and the Hereford-Shrewsbury line in the west.
• The VLR would stop, for ever, inter-city trains using the Black Country Line, once more
• One mile, for now, for the tram between Castle Hill and Dudley Port and then extensions in small bite sized chunks.
• The bite size chunks strategy failed to get Light Rail Metro (LR) trams on this same line.  Now, Khurshid wants VLR trams as well or instead - and, using the same failed strategy!
• Khurshid and his predecessors failed in 34 years to get LR Metro between Wednesbury and Brierley Hill - a distance of 7 miles.  Now Khurshid is trying with getting VLR trams on only one mile!
• His plan will cost £20 to £25 million; mine will cost under £200 million, even with £10 million spent on Parkhead rail Viaduct in Netherton (figure from Toby Rackcliffe of Centro).
• My figure is based on the £300 million for the 48 Km (29 miles) line from Edinburgh to the middle of nowhere in southern Scotland (a small community at Tweedbank) - I exaggerate not!  It re-opens in September.
• This is a big enough scandal in its own right when we constantly get passed over for even a 7 mile tram on this former 13 miles inter-city line!
• Khurshid's plan is for one mile; mine is for 13 miles.  Therefore, mine is better value for money! 
• Bridges, one viaduct and one tunnel (all of which cannot be widened) prevent shared use of VLR and heavy rail inter-city trains.
• For about 20 years, DfT, PTA/Centro and Network Rail official transport policy - in every single document - was for freight trains, only on the full length and LR Metro on the seven miles middle section.
• Now, all of that is over-ruled by Martyn Holloway, Head of Traffic and Transportation in Dudley Council, advising Khurshid that every single strategy and study, policy and plan - written and poured over for years by transport officials - can be walked all over!
• Martyn should have known that the far more sensible and suitable site for the VLR project and Innovation Centre is the vacant Brierley Hill Steel Terminal site on Moor Street and using the mothballed, 3 Km, Pensnett branch line.
• The VLR tram then road running to the Waterfront and Merry Hill and, a second line road running to connect with the Stourbridge Shuttle at Stourbridge Town interchange.
• There has never been any public consultation over this weird and wonderful idea from Khurshid and Pete Lowe.

Not the meek, but the brave, the bold and the violent will inherit the earth (Matt 5 v 5)

The brave, the bold and the hard men go out, explore, conquer and claim land as their own.  Very cheeky but, so typical of us lot!

James Cook (1780s) claimed New Holland (Australia) for Britain: "an illegal theft of a continent from its indigenous people" (Vanessa Collingridge on 'Timewatch' 19 March 2015)

Why were those indigenous people so ungrateful that they never thanked their lucky stars that they were discovered by the White Christian nations?
The brave, the bold and the tough claim for themselves what they find, then colonise and turn them into their peoples, their slaves.
The brave, the bold and the get-up and go make their own empire and maintain their control by coercion, force, violence, killings, warfare.

I think, our grab and brag ways around the globe can be likened to an octopus with its tentacles reaching out to every corner of the planet to claim land and people for ourselves.  Our Empire was the biggest and best for the worst behaviour humanity has ever seen.

Jeremy Paxman, in his TV series on the Victorians, with their fast expanding empire, quoted a saying of theirs, "Grab and brag; occupy and fortify"!

The brave, the bold and the violent will control the earth's resources and get what they want.
Those who inherited the earth fully supported the Arab Spring and the replacement of leaders they no longer liked. 
The brave, the bold and the violent will spend four years trying to overthrow their enemy, President al-Assad of Syria.
The brave, the bold and the violent will overthrow the democratically elected Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.  The new military leaders got a slap on the wrist from the United States of the World for their undemocratic ways.  
The brave, the bold and the violent will oust the elected, pro Russian, President Viktor Yanukovych in Ukraine to put in their pro Western man, Petro Poroshenko.  Killing protesters in a revolution to get a leader sympathetic to the West!
The brave, the bold and the violent will take ever more land in Judea and Samaria to house the fast growing State of Israel.
The brave, the bold and the violent will stamp out any chance of there ever being a state for the Palestinians.

Only the meek share land with their neighbours.
Only the meek allow themselves to be governed by whoever.
Only the meek allow themselves to be incorporated into a Fascist state or a Communist state or an Islamic state without fighting back, violently.

The meek go for more subtle ways to fight back - if they can.
Only the wise and meek Judeo-Christian West maintain democracy and capitalism and introduce education for girls, cricket and voting for Afghanistan, after 13 years of warring on the Afghans (I mean the Taliban - those vicious Muslim extremists who will not accept our good and perfect Western ways - like our demon democracy that is not even based on fair votes!)
Only the wise and meek Judeo-Christian West have their massive arsenals of weapons of mass destruction to stop them being attacked by the Russians, the Communists and the Muslim extremists.
Only the wise and meek nations stop other nations from acquiring weapons of mass destruction - if they possibly can.
Only the wise and meek Judeo-Christian nations imposed sanctions on Russia for taking back Crimea after 60 years but, not on themselves for war crimes on Gaza and, before that the years of war of aggression on Afghanistan and Iraq - of course not; silly me to even think such a thought!

Only the meek put out their tentacles in taking for themselves land around the globe and, in the years of this century, exhibiting: Guantanamo Bay, rendition, torture, coups, aggression, illegal unnecessary wars and, now, drones to do our killings for us without fear of our heroes taking any casualties. They get away with it because they are the rich and powerful nations that are part of the Christian, capitalist, democratic, pleasure-seeking, freedom-loving West.
The supposedly meek, Judeo-Christian Western powers, have indeed inherited the earth.

Unfortunately, over these last 101 years of UK wars somewhere around the world, first Christian Western powers threw their weight around in the Middle East and, then, the Jewish people in the State of Israel since 1948, have all set a very bad example to the Muslims.  Some of them have, finally, flipped to form Islamic State.  We have sown the wind and are now reaping the whirlwind.  We opened Pandora's box.  Our violence, I think, bred their violence.  Revenge leads to yet more revenge.  The radical Muslims have finally learnt our violent, coercive, death-dealing from drones, ways.  Except, we are all safe and secure in our homes, as long as we don't go anywhere near the Muslim majority countries.

EVIDENCE:
Letting the Arabs (Muslims) down after the Christian nations' war of 1914-18.
Yet, the Arabs were fighting on our side thanks, largely, to Englishman, T E Lawrence.
France and the UK were given the Mandates to rule certain countries in the Middle East.  The UK was given Palestine.  We quickly threw in the towel when Israel's terrorist gangs got to work and the State of Israel was soon born without the agreement of a single, surrounding Arab nation.

The State of Israel was born and remains growing in strength and size out of warfare and victory from aggression and land grabs.

It also helped to salve our conscience over doing so little to stop the Nazi genocide in Poland and Germany in the 1930s and 40s.  The House of Commons showed itself to be anti-Semitic in the '39-'45 war.

(How do Christians interpret that catastrophe for the Jews, from a theological perspective?  eg: Exile for Israel from the Promised Land to Babylon when they disobeyed the Lord God.  They were also without their Promised Land from 70 AD to 1948.  1900 years dispersed around the world?  1900 years of exile?  What brought that about?

Was it a really big disobedience to Yahweh that brought about the attempted genocide of His Chosen People by a formal and long-standing Christian nation in the 1930s and 40s?)

WHY IRAN IS NOT IMPRESSED BY AMERICA, ISRAEL, UK

The Christian nations' record in the Muslim Middle East has been disastrous and reprehensible:-

Us lot - the supposed meek and mild of the earth - are much, much more guilty of the most terrible discrimination, expulsions and persecution of the Jews than any Muslim peoples down the centuries.

Yet, the Muslim countries have been our Number One target since 1838 (First Afghan War to 1842, Wikipedia).

The Suez Crisis of 1956, when UK, France and Israel ganged up against Egypt to get back the Suez Canal under their ownership.  Even the United States was horrified and, with Russia, condemned it!

The overthrow of President Mosadeq of Iran over his nationalisation of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.  We put in our own man - the Shah of Iran - to secure our influence and his country's co-operation with the Christian, freedom-loving, democratic upright West is Always Best.

The shooting down of the Iranian airbus by an American warship.  The Lockerbie downing of our American airliner followed later in the same year.  But we never learnt the lesson.  Never made the connection!

We Brits fought four wars in Afghanistan and failed to win decisive victories in a single one of the wars!

In the first, the entire mighty British Army was wiped out, apart from one very lucky survivor in 1842!

This century's fifth war, lasting twenty years, was catastrophic for the Afghans - even as we ignominiously sneaked out with our tails between our legs.  ("What are foreigners, like them, doing coming to the UK in small boats?  It should never be allowed."  After we messed up their land, too!!)

No wonder, after this despicable record of illegality and war crimes, Iran calls America and Israel the Great Satan.  Quite right, too.  I'm ashamed of my country's behaviour.

TIM WELLER