Rather than jobs at any price, do you agree that the wealthy must ensure through their taxes that everyone must have a basic living income to ensure a comfortable standard of living to guarantee decent shelter, food and clothing?
Wednesday, 20 October 2021
MORE DESTRUCTION OF RAILWAY LINES
Saturday 18 September 2021
Dear James Morris,
This is is absurd, scandalous and immoral spending for "bus on rails" trams, First Class Sprint buses, Second Class Platinum buses all on Hagley Road, with cars, trucks, vans and lorries! The authorities are escalating us to catastrophe with greenhouse gases led ecocide.
Never any consultation or the slightest whisper of even giving a nod towards following the correct democratic procedure for councillors to discuss, debate and vote on all this wasteful, stupid expenditure of taxpayers' money.
Derby to Devon via Dudley principal mainline railway continues to get destroyed with two further nibble sized sections being converted to "bus on rails" tramway! Incompetent idiocy is no exaggeration.
Building HS2, Metro and Sprint are NOT green jobs!
Is it really a green, ecologically sound job to be building a high speed railway line for a small minority of wealthy business people to travel between only four English cities and two of their airports? Especially, when everyone else will still have to stick to the more mundane, ordinary, existing but, perfectly fast enough intercity service?
Is it really a green and an ecologically sound job to work on the second most expensive transport mode after HS2, when it simply results in, again only a small minority of people in Edgbaston within walking distance of the tram stop who do have a more direct and quicker service into the city centre itself? Everyone on the 11 different bus routes either have a longer, slower route if they stay on the bus or, they get off and wait for the tram to take them on to Colmore Row on the edge of the city centre.
Is it really a green and an ecologically sound job to be building a First Class Sprint bus line from Walsall to Solihull? Solihull that already has the basic transport modes of bus and train, plus the highly expensive, climate worsening HS2, Metro and the bus that thinks its a tram, Sprint.
Another bleak warning from the UN
RADIO 4 'TODAY' NEWS REPORT
"A UN report says major economies are planning to produce more than double the amount of fossil fuels than would be consistent with meeting a key climate goal.
"Experts from the UN say the amount of fossil fuels that major economies including the UK are planning to extract this decade are incompatible with keeping global warming to safe levels. It was agreed at the Paris Climate summit in 2015 that the average temperature worldwide should not be allowed to increase by more than 1.5 C. With more on the UNEP report, here is Matt Magrath:
"This report says there is a huge and growing gap between the fossil fuel production plans of major countries and the limits that science says are necessary to keep the global rise in temperatures to safe levels. According to the study, coal, oil and gas producers including the US, the UK, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Australia expect to extract around 110% more fossil fuels by 2030 than would be compatible with the 1.5 Celsius temperature rise. Coal production is likely to drop but gas will increase the most in the coming years. The authors say these plans are simply incompatible with the Paris Climate Agreement.
"This report illustrates how far countries have to move to keep the key goal of 1.5 alive is to be realised."
A NASA climate scientist says it was indicative of a wider failure to go into what he called, 'climate emergency mode'. "There is a comforting sense that if there are a bit more renewables, a bit more electric cars and all will be well. We cannot keep saying it is an emergency or saying that it is an existential crisis and then continue to expand the very things causing the emergency in the first place that is just burning fossil fuels."
Tuesday, 19 October 2021
Three VIPs sound off
"They've been calling for it for quite a while", said Evan Davis this evening on 'PM', Radio 4.
"How dare you continue to look away. To think you are doing enough when the politics and solutions needed are still nowhere in sight." Thunberg
"Climate change and biodiversity loss represent a borderless crisis. The solutions to which have been argued about and postponed for far too long." Prince of Wales
"If we don't take action, the collapse of our civilisations, and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon." Attenborough
The Gospel of Public Transport According to St Tim the Sinner!
Hi Lee and Cllr Waseem
I am really sorry to hear, Lee about your dreadful experiences and of what things are like on public transport. Absolutely terrible!
The ultimate indignity, for skinny people like me who are more skeleton than fat and muscle, are the disgraceful hard plastic seats on Metro. This, when the appearance is of a cushion to sink into, is a shock to my posterior. £4 m for each "bus on rails" tram, too. Compared with £350,000 for an electric bus!
In compensation, it should be entirely free for everyone and not just my age group. No money is a lie when £106 billion is going into HS2 to only travel quicker between the Four Big Cities and two of their airports. And, £15 billion into replacing some trains and buses with trams by 2040 is a scandal.
We have to stop destroying railway lines by turning them into tramways, housing/trading estates and roads - and, at the most enormous expense, too!
We have to stop turning roads into tramways at the most enormous expense.
We have to abandon yet more tram extensions, immediately.
Put passenger trains on the 106 Kms of mothballed or freight-only railway lines in the W Midlands that includes the wasted, partly unused Worcester to Derby railway.
We have to encourage working from home to free up transport corridors for essential office-based and other workers who must use roads and public transport.
We must have every encouragement for short-distance commuting.
You must work in an office as near as possible to your home, if you really cannot work from home.
Able-bodied, healthy workers need to use their bikes, as I did for the last 15 to 20 years of my social work career - for both commuting and on official council business. I got 20p per mile by the time I retired at 65 in 2013 (but not for commuting by bike. But why not, as your reward for using your own energy instead of deepening the climate emergency?) I kept off busy main roads and took quieter, residential roads and cycle-walkways. And I kept fitter.
I now have 6 miles out of 8 miles on traffic-free cycle-walkways and towpaths into Brum city centre from Halesowen. The other two miles are on residential roads.
IN SUMMARY
If you use the car you pay CAZ or ULEZ charge.
If you use bus, train, tram you pay nothing.
If you use e-bike or self-powered bike for work commuting you get paid and, paid more if the bike is 100% self powered, fossil free.
What do you think, Lee?! AND WASEEM - please Sir?!
Monday, 18 October 2021
SO-OO-OO IMPORTANT! The mighty, 22 Kms Black Country Cycle-Walk Mudway!
Dear Judith, Harry and Michael - and copied to my own, much under-appreciated MP, James Morris.
Thanks so much for writing. Lovely to hear from all three of you.
No hard manual labour required - just a persistent, polite, irregular email/phoning of the addresses I've given you; plus your own MPs and councillors - PLEASE!!
MUDWAY TO WALKWAY TRANSFORMED because:
- 22 Kms in length, made up of two unused railway lines with a funny kink in the middle where they don't quite meet!
- Mentioned in our current 'Walk' magazine. Can you find the mention?!
- Connects one city and one town via the delightful village of Wombourne in South Staffordshire.
- Well used in Wolverhampton and South Staffordshire by all kinds of walkers and even some horse riders and cyclists.
- NOT well used in Dudley borough because, in places, it is overgrown and muddy and waterlogged.
- An unrecognised, forgotten, unappreciated, unloved cycle-walkway.
- But all of it could be a business, commuter and leisure route for cycle commuters deserting their cars to respond to the climate emergency. Like I have, literally, for decades!
- Three nature reserves, with two in Dudley borough.
- Two refreshment halts in two old Victorian railway stations.
- One nationally important long-distance footpath, the Monarch's Way, uses part of it.
- One Woodland Trust property, with car park, called Himley Plantation is next to the cycle-walkway.
- One SSSI at Pensnett, Dudley for its nationally famous Great Crested Newts.
- Baggeridge Country Park is nearby.
- Recognised by the Ordnance Survey on their Explorer map as a major "traffic-free cycle route".
- HS2, Metro and Sprint extensions all prove money is in great abundance and grows on the trees that don't get felled for HS2!
Very best wishes for any writing you can do to impress on the authorities how desperately needed it is for it to be finished with a wide, all-weather, free-draining surface. Exactly like the upgrade in Woodgate Valley Country Park in west Brum, now transformed after decades of patient, intermittent requests - by me!
I think I was wrong when I said on Saturday ...
... we, the UK, are not engaged in any war at present apart from our provocative/aggressive Royal Navy sailing in the South China Sea and through the sea between China and Taiwan. Hence:
IS THIS IN ORDER?
Is this latest killing by a Muslim extremist/jihadist/Islamist to do with revenge for our decades of W military interventions, the occupying of holy Muslim soil and, for funding and fueling and supporting Saudi Arabia's war (our friend and ally) killing Yemenis in our latest war?
Another throwback and blowback to Western presence of "hundreds of thousands of US soldiers" in Saudi Arabia in 1991 after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait? (Jeremy Bowen on 'From Our Own Correspondent', Radio 4, 30th September 2021. Worth listening to on BBC Sounds)
We are all at small risk from a tiny minority of Muslims who are incensed by UK military and foreign policy to fuel wars, like the one against Yemen in recent years. It is essential, we are told, to ensure economic growth, to keep our war factories churning out weapons and ammunition and, to keep many in employment.
Admittedly, MPs must be more at risk from attack with their votes and speeches in favour of the arms trade, WMD renewal/expansion and funding and support for Middle East wars by our friends.
No economic health without ecological health
Much talk of the Treasury's use of 'economically illiterate' as a put-down to fend off green public investment calls. Wrong, but has it occurred to them they may be 'ecologically illiterate', & as economics is just 'made up' while ecology is real, that the latter matters more?
Sunday, 17 October 2021
Eccentric game changer - changing a mainline railway into a tramway!
Mayor of the West Midlands and chair of the WMCA Andy Street, said:
The Wednesbury to Brierley Hill Metro extension will be a game-changer for the Black Country as it will help to boost public transport whilst providing much-needed links to the existing rail and bus networks.
There are already links to the bus network with large bus stations at Dudley and at Merry Hill on the route of the tramway. And, a forgotten link to the nearby, half-used railway!
The existing bus route is to be duplicated by a tramway that also uses the Derby to Devon via Dudley principal mainline railway that gets destroyed in the process!!
All for half a billion pounds (£500 m) for only 10 Kms!!
Scotland rebuilt a railway of 50 Kms for only £350 m in September 2015.
The foolish authorities even built a link between the nearby mainline railway at the Waterfront and the bus station at Merry Hill. But, they forgot to extend it, only 400 metres further, from the Waterfront car park, to the principal mainline railway between Worcester and Derby - and, to finish the railway with passenger trains, too!
“An elevated monorail was officially opened at the Merry Hill Centre on June 1st 1991, costing £22,000,000 to build."
"The monorail was broken up in 1996 and sold to a shopping centre in Queensland, Australia." (Google search)
Saturday, 16 October 2021
CORBYN GOES TO COP 26 for his own four events
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is set to come to Scotland to hold an “alternative Cop26”.
Corbyn, through his Peace and Justice Project, will hold four events, three in Glasgow and one in Edinburgh, between November 8 and November 11.
Among the events is a “climate justice cabaret”, bringing together musicians and artists, as well as a panel with trade union leaders and two in conversation-style events.
Code red for humanity
The Islington MP said he would look to “raise up the voices of others” during the tour.
The climate emergency is a ‘code red for humanity’, is a critical warning.
We need radical and rapid change to our dangerously broken and destructive political and economic system.
Our future is being stolen from under us by a coalition of big polluters and big banks, propped up by weak politicians too scared to take them on.
I can’t wait to be in Scotland during Cop26 to add my voice – and more importantly raise up the voices of others – to propose radical and rapid change.”
Linked crises
Corbyn added:
That change must be environmental but also social and economic. Our crises of inequality, climate, Covid-19 and democracy are all linked.
The climate is a class issue at home and an international justice for the world. Those who have done the least harm suffer the most and the first.
That’s why the demands of workers and the global south need to be at the centre of our campaign for climate justice.
Our events will raise their demands through talks and discussions as well as music and art from hugely talented performers.
Thursday, 7 October 2021
My 2nd resolution to Left Unity
Dear friends and comrades
Is there room on the agenda for Sat 16 Oct to talk about this suggestion, perhaps?
RESOLUTION AGAINST greedy, unnecessary, vanity projects but, the funds used instead, to pay for levelling up by raising the attractiveness of public transport. Especially, for those with mobility issues who must have the most help and top priority, every time.
That this branch of Birmingham and W Midlands Left Unity condemns the proposed Brum to Leeds E arm extension of HS2 and the extension to Manchester from Birmingham.
We are united in wanting it stopped along with all other extensions of W Midland Metro and Sprint buses that are horrifically expensive to further boost greenhouse gas emissions; make for a First Class and Second Class public transport provision; and, worsen public transport by introducing more changes and delays between train, three kinds of tram, Sprint buses and Platinum buses.
This is called multi-modal transport by Mayor Andy Street but means, in fact, a multi-modal mix up mish mash that results in a slower public transport journey as now seen on Hagley Road, Five Ways underpass and Broad Street in Birmingham.
We resolve that Andy's £15 billion to 2040 for Metro tram extensions in the W Midlands must go, instead to extend the region's Fare-Free Public Transport to the young and middle-aged to end that discrimination against them and, as the antidote and carrot to the stick of Brum's Clean Air Zone charges.
END
I think that we have everything to gain in publicity and in getting noticed by the media if Mike feels able to pump out our resolutions to all and sundry! Persistence and patience will eventually pay off in giving us a higher profile and more attention. It may take years, though!
Could this go on the agenda for a week on Saturday, please, Mike?
Tim
Thursday, 30 September 2021
It's official. It's magic. If it sounds too good to be true ...
HS1 was £54 m/Km when it opened in 2007.
HS2 is, so far, £191 m/Km over its full 555 Kms, at £106 billion.
Quite some difference! Nearly 4 times more expensive per Km to construct today than HS1, when it opened 14 years ago.
This, below, is from the official HS2 website and my correction/rebuttal is in glorious bold blue! My research shows that HMG/HS2 and its promoters are exaggerating so seriously with their misleading spin that they are lying. READ ON as to why I say that and tell me what you think, please. Am I wrong/mistaken? Tim
How HS2 creates more rail capacity
As a brand new railway line, HS2 is the best option for taking the pressure off the existing network. It takes the pressure off the existing intercity lines by flying past all the stations travellers on the intercity trains want to stop at. It adds extra capacity where it is needed most. To benefit London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds, ONLY. Building HS2 frees up a massive amount of space on the existing railway by placing long distance services on their own pair of tracks. But you still have to have the same level of service for those same long distance services. Nothing is gained! Once HS2 is operating, services can run much closer together, meaning there can be more rush hour trains, helping to relieve overcrowding. Only if the existing intercity trains are slowed. And that gives the intercity stations a worst service.
Once the full network is operational we expect HS2 trains to carry over 300,000 passengers a day. HS1 to Europe has 6,000 passengers a day. HS2 is future proofed, by making sure the network can grow with increased demand. High Scandal 2 is a scam, a deception and nicely accelerates the runaway greenhouse effect for our ultimate downfall.
ONE HORRIBLE HISTORY OF TRULY, TERRIBLE, TRAGIC TRANSPORT:
17 November 2021
Dear Carol - and copied to my constituency office for them to start putting right my criticism, here.
I was the man in your breakout group yesterday evening who used his self-powered bike for commuting and for social work visits for the last, nearly 20 years of his career in Brum. The car was occasionally used when it was icy or snowy in the mornings.
Five workers (includes the MP) in my constituency office have never shown any interest in any of this scandal, below! All have looked the other way. I would like Unison and the SWP to do very much better, please.
Regional Transport in TfWM's much loved bite-sized chunks!
This is a much shortened version of my 'ONE HORRIBLE HISTORY OF TRULY, TERRIBLE, TRAGIC TRANSPORT', written last decade:
BUSES
Basic and should be the first choice if you cannot walk, cycle or, must rely on mobility transport.
Every bus stop must have step-free access for mobility transport from pavement to bus. Done for trams. Must now be done for buses. NO EXCUSE.
Five Ways underpass and Broad St are now blocked, from 2022, to most if not all buses. The buses remain pushed out into narrow, crowded back streets crammed with parked cars. So no incentive for them to switch to buses.
FFPT = Fare-Free Public Transport. The carrot to bribe active motorists to leave their infernal cars at home. AIM: to empty the roads for real essential car users who cannot possibly walk or cycle. Wealthy people like me have had it, unjustly, for 13 years. But no money to give it to those who really need it - the workers.
FFPT is the carrot for the stick that is CAZ that must remain.
Use regional FFPT for all to end the discrimination against the young and middle-aged who don't get it.
HS2 = High Scandal 2 for the most expensive to construct high-speed line in the world, say high-speed train experts.
THEIR AIM: To give better railway connections - this is off the government website - to 25 stations and 30 m Brits. Yet, it goes so fast (224 mph) it only stops at 3 stations and 2 airports plus the station you jet off from. So how do they work out that HS2 gets you to 25 stations for nearly half the population? A LIE.
TRAMS = Metro. Metro One turned a mainline railway between Brum and Shrewsbury into a tramway, in 1999 between Snow Hill and Wolverhampton.
Metro Two destroys the UK's very last principal mainline railway over only 10 Kms between Derby and Devon via Dudley.
Metro Three was to go on the Grand Central, Kings Heath, Bristol mainline. Now stopped.
For 40 years the emphasis has been on rebuilding the tram network on the railway network. One-eyed, all your eggs in one basket, lopsided, transport provision. Always CARS, a few trams, NEVER TRAINS; so about 100 Kms of railway lines were lost but 106 Kms remain wasted or used only for freight.
TRAINS = One principal, mainline station remains but can never be used again - in Wolverhampton city centre. This is because of trams and roads going on the Snow Hill to Low Level mainline.
In the 1970s, Snow Hill station with 8 platforms was demolished and rebuilt with 4 platforms.
The trams, running from 1999 meant still, to this day, only 3 platforms are in use.
100 Kms of Black Country and Brum railway lines used to run homes, offices, shops and road vehicles down them - truly bizarre. Using them for their intended purpose - TRAINS - is still unheard of!
Still no stations for Kings Heath, Moseley and Balsall Heath because Metro trams get priority.
CEMENT
Makes concrete but making cement is very high in greenhouse gas emissions.
Concrete is essential for replacing buses and trains with tramways. What is the point, then?
Concrete is intensively used in HS2 construction.
Steel manufacture, for the rails, is also very high in greenhouse gas emissions.
EVERY £1 spent (on almost everything) = greenhouse gas emissions = climate breakdown = runaway greenhouse effect = earth becoming like uninhabitable venus = THE END
CYCLING
Mobility scooters must have top priority on dedicated cycle-walkways. More active travellers on bikes must give way to them and to walkers.
It is essential they turn the nation's most unedifying but major 22 Kms Black Country Cycle-walk Mudway, between Dudley, Wombourne and Wolverhampton, into a facility that can be used throughout its length for business, commuter and leisure use. ESPECIALLY FOR THOSE WHO CANNOT DO ACTIVE TRAVEL and rely on an all-weather, smooth surface that is free draining - for their transport.
E-SCOOTERS
Mobility scooters must have top priority.
Essential to get around on if you can't do active travel under your own steam - fossil fuel free.
WALKING
Walk if you can, to allow those who cannot walk to use their cars and other mobility vehicles.
TOWPATHS
Brum's are now fine. The rest of them now need doing in the other 6 council areas to enable mobility scooters and buggies to use them. With walkers and cyclists giving way to them.
COST
Scrap the £15 billion of greenhouse gases to 2040 to convert some buses and trains into underground and overground trams.
Scrap High Scam 2 construction beyond, north, of Brum.
Spend on low greenhouse gas emitting activities - as above.
Spend for a healthier, more sustainable and very minimum finite fossil fuel use future.
Best wishes
'WARMING TO CYCLING' in our ever hotter greenhouse!
Dear Keir - my response in blue to yours in black.
This sounds like a really great opportunity, and it’s good to hear that Dudley Council are supportive.
This is such an important and major 22 Kms Black Country Cycle-Walk Mudway that THREE councils are responsible for the state of the route. Dudley's section is worse but all three councils and the West Midlands Combined Authority need to work together to raise their standards and, to get their priorities sorted. This scandal has gone on for quite long enough.
However, unfortunately as an organisation we’re not generally in a position to lobby combined authority leaders on what specific schemes they should invest in – we think this is better left to local campaigners who are connected to the area, and have the expertise to know what investments would be most worthwhile.
There is no interest and no support from local campaigners, apart from David Cox who has told me, earlier this year that he will join me in cycling the route. David told me that the first step is to get an NCR number for the 22 Kms. Not even that has been done by the cycling/walking organisations or by the authorities! Ridhi Kalaria, at Sustrans, knows all about the 22 Kms mudway since she interviewed me when I stood as a declared candidate in the election of the W Mids Combined Authority, earlier this year. But there is no action from her, either!
David and Ridhi are meant to be promoting cycling in the UK to help us all get out of the deadly hot greenhouse we are turning planet earth into. BUT, EVEN A SIMPLE ACT OF NEGLIGENCE, LASTING DECADES, CANNOT BE PUT RIGHT with an all-weather, wide surface on this business, commuter and leisure route alternative to the infernal car!
Adam Tranter is the Cycling Czsar for Coventry. But no reply, interest or support from him, either! He does have the ear of the WMCA but total silence, apathy, nothing. Absolutely no-one is at all bothered! So we all sink in the mud and mire of our own making as the planet goes to pot. And only Greta Thunberg has the guts to say anything. And Insulate Britain and XR, to act.
While the scheme you mention sounds great, Cycling UK couldn’t lobby for investment in this without also identifying all the alternative schemes potentially needing funding, and assessing these against each other, and unfortunately we just don’t have the resources to do that on a local level across the UK.
This 22 Kms existing route is of national importance. It must have your national organisation vigorously promoting it to insist that the WMCA and the three councils finally ACT.
Stourbridge Cycling Club has not replied to even a paper copy to their clubhouse address, appealing for their interest and help for a shockingly poor facility they do know all about. Yet, once again, nothing! Our only national organisation, CYCLING UK, really should be taking an interest in this national disgrace that is the 22 Kms Mudway through three councils and one Combined Authority area in the heart of Britain.
I would suggest the best thing to do, if you haven’t already, is to try to get in touch with David Cox from Bike West Midlands (david.cox.1@cyclinguk.
Sorry that I can’t be of more assistance. But you CAN make all the difference, Keir - along with Duncan Dollimore who rang me a couple of years ago about our major, nationally important mudway. Promote it and CYCLING UK get all the credit, glory and praise for succeeding.
Best wishes
Tim (Weller)
Wednesday, 29 September 2021
Borders Railway v Metro tramways
There are big differences between the Borders Railway and ours:
On the Borders Railway structures: “42 newly constructed and 95 in need of refurbishment”.
Nothing like this is required for the Black Country Main Line. All of these new structures were done for rural, depopulated southern Scotland. This was a huge amount of work but much less work is needed for OUR railway in our urban, densely populated Black Country.
For them, the line was not fully safeguarded, I have been told. Buildings had to be demolished. Ours is safeguarded and no buildings need to be demolished.
£133 m/K for the Eastside Metro extension in 2021; £7 m/K for Borders Railway in 2015. Scotland's train tracks will last but our tram tracks get replaced after 5 years. A scandal, a scam, a disgrace. Yet, no-one bats an eyelid!
Every £1 spent = more greenhouse gases = escalating climate catastrophe = ecocide. And that is not funny.
"VLR is much cheaper."
"VLR is much cheaper."
Yes, indeed. Very much cheaper but we are now having the break up of public transport into:
- Very Heavy Rail (VHR), High Speed train on its dedicated tracks to connect only four cities and two airports - for your 1st class VIP passenger;
- regular Heavy Rail (HR) train for your 2nd class riff-raff passenger (me) on intercity, regional and commuter trains;
- Light Rail (LR) Metro tram;
- Very Light Rail (VLR) tram test track (on the Derby, Dudley, Devon mainline);
- Ultra-Light Rail (ULR) tram (Stourbridge Shuttle. Proposed extension to connect with VLR at Brierley Hill on the Derby, Dudley, Devon railway.).
- 1st class Sprint buses.
- 2nd class Platinum buses.
- Hydrogen fossil fuel buses (so what's the point? Only cleaner air, of course. But, why not stick to electric buses from more and more renewables as they roll out?)
Everything with rail in the name means more steel, more cement, more finite minerals/resources exhausted, more deadly greenhouse gases to change the chemical composition of the atmosphere. This is all good for economic growth but not good for life support systems or for the bleak prospects in store for us humans!
Excitement for all things new and hydrogen and HS2!
Yesterday's David Middleton Sustainability Conference was excellent for its well-chaired meeting, fine speakers and discussion groups.
However, it was notable for green organisations and groups wanting anything electric, anything hydrogen and for one person I spoke to who was strongly in favour of HS2.
Electricity generation comes very largely from finite fossil fuels, as does hydrogen. Nuclear power is another favourite for some. Yet, that may also emit more greenhouse gas emissions in its construction than what it saves when it eventually is up and running and giving electricity. Is that true?
Which renewable gives the least greenhouse gas emissions in its construction?
Monday, 27 September 2021
METRO BLUNDERS GALORE!
THIS IS WANT THE TOP OFFICERS HAVE TOLD ME:
You've got to have Metro through Dudley first, as the catalyst for reopening the Worcester to Burton on Trent railway.
The construction for Metro has passive provision for commuter and regional trains to be added later. Yet, only some railway bridges are being strengthened to carry heavy railway trains at a later date!
THEIR INCOMPETENCE:
Building the Derby to Devon via Dudley railway line and then forgetting to finish it between Stourbridge and Burton on Trent with passenger and freight trains - and the stations, too!
Dudley/Sandwell to Brum buses get pushed out of Five Ways underpass and Broad Street to have a longer and slower diversion on narrow roads with parked cars. The "bus on rails" trams get the underpass and Broad Street, instead!
No money to correct the discrimination against "hard-working families" who don't get the regional Fare-Free Public Transport (FFPT) that old crocks like me have had for 13 years!
But, more money than sense for converting buses and trains to Metro "bus on rails" trams. At 10 x per Km more expensive to construct, than rebuilding the 50 Kms Borders Railway through the hills of southern Scotland.
Engaging with HS2 expert, Shannon (DfT)
Dear Shannon
This is a lie: "By freeing up space on existing lines, for new local train services, passengers and freight, HS2 helps ease congestion and over-crowding."
You cannot free up space on existing lines when you will still need to serve all the many intercity stations that HS2 does not stop at! The present intercity service will have to be maintained.
"HS2 services will also release capacity on existing lines"
This is a lie. It is another way of saying that there will be more room for passenger and freight trains on the existing intercity line. Yet, HS2 is a dedicated line that stops at only 4 terminus stations and two airports. It shoots past all the intercity stations that will still want intercity trains stopping!
"By freeing up capacity on our current railways"
This is a lie. It certainly does NOT free up capacity when it ONLY gives preferential treatment for those travelling between the four Big Cities and two of their airports. ONLY they get less overcrowding and a more opulent, luxurious style of train travel. Levelling up for the top bods, the public school boys and girls who run the country for their class.
Tim Weller
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