to Robin Vincent

Dear Robin

It was great to meet you last night at St Peter's Baptist Church.

What was the name of the film you wanted me to watch, please?

Was it because you felt that my getting that perspective would help my understanding.  I certainly must watch it, Robin.

Why were you wondering if I thought you were racist?  Or, what on earth was that all about?!  Help my recall, please!

You said you were in the Police for ten years.  I was a little concerned that you were proud to mention you had been in the Police.  I have heard the most distressing cases on Radio 4 News in recent months and years.  It gives me no confidence that the Police are as honourable and as upstanding - or even as competent - as I would love them to be.

Far too many gross misconduct cases, miscarriages of justice like Andy Malkinson.  Shoot to kill I don't like either, Robin.

My initial question to Rob was this:

What do you consider the more important issue: The life of the unborn or the life of the born in Gaza, Lebanon and in Judea/Samaria?

How do you account for something like 70% of American evangelicals voting for Donald Trump this month?

Pastor Michael Youssef of Atlanta, Georgia voted for Donald because saving the unborn is his more important issue, according to his interview on the 'Sunday' programme on Radio 4.

Why are the large majority of born-again Christian believers on the side of Israel, regardless of their War of Self Defence on the defenceless non-combatants, must be regarded as yet another War of Aggression, fueled by the Wicked Wild West?

Why is replacement theology denigrated when it is the State of Israel that is acting with impunity and contrary to the wishes of the international world order, certainly, to the Laws of the Sermon on the Mount?

Private Operators and TfWM working in Direct Partnership

Save the money for FFPT.

Use the savings to cut fares and improve services DIRECTLY by filling the bus operators teeth with gold.

Financial inducements DIRECTLY to get them to do what we want.

Full local and regional council control in the 1950s completely destroyed the first tram network and, in the following decades, obliterated much of Beeching's very properly CLOSED, LOSS MAKING LINES, as we all rushed out to buy cars.

Local and regional councils are poor/hopeless at commercial enterprises/investments. Look at Dudley's ghastly commercial LOSSES!

Leave it to the private sector to take the substantial financial risks that comes with bus franchising.

for Leigh Day - FAILURE TO ACT over the UK's biggest finance/transport scandal

1. A brief chronology of events, including dates.

1981  Metro tram network announced, to be rebuilt 20 years after completing the total destruction of the first tram network.  1980s  plan to get 200 Kms, 10  lines by the year 2000.

1990 Merry Hill monorail built but never connected to the Black Country Mainline Railway only 400 metres away.  It should have had its passenger trains returned then but it remains for freight, only.  TfWM/WMCA want  trams, only FIRST, as the only way to get the full train service returned!!!

1993 The Swiss built monorail closed and may still be in use in Queensland, Australia.

1999  First Metro line of 20 Kms opened.  19 Kms on the first mainline railway were destroyed to get the 20 Kms of trams.

2016  Metro tram on the Camp Hill line on the Brum to Bristol mainline railway was abandoned.  Half hour diesel service to be introduced but nothing appeared, so far!  3 railway stations are being rebuilt - very slowly!

2017  West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) Mayor, Andy Street was elected and boosted work on Metro tram expansion, at the expense of trains reintroduced on the remaining 100 Kms of existing, unused or freight only W Midlands railway lines.

2019  Work on the ground finally started to destroy the UK's last principal mainline railway "of national strategic significance" on the former and popular mainline (for 100 years) in the Black Country between London/Cardiff and Edinburgh.  It is called Wednesbury, Brierley Hill Extension (WBHE), aka the Dudley Tram.

2019 WMCA declared a Climate Emergency.  Resolute intention to deepen the Climate Emergency with trams taking over buses and trains continued apace!

Jan 2020  Andy Street announced a £15 BILLION programme of works to build underground and overground tramways to 2040 of 150 miles, 8 lines and 380 tram stops.

2020s  Postponements, cancellations, reprogramming of Metro tram projects after dire financial constraints emerged.

 

2.  Confirmation as to what it is you want to challenge.

SCRAP Metro expansion programme and concentrate on getting car commuters, who clog up road space for six hours a day, five days a week and have them use Fare-Free Public Transport to free up road space for essential vehicle users - LIKE BUS DRIVERS!

 

3.  Confirmation as to what it is you want us to do for you (i.e.: what your goals are).

INJUNCTION TO STOP WHBE tram wrecking nature, public open space, housing land and my magnificent guerrilla garden.  Work on the ground starts in January 2025.  NO TIME TO LOSE!

 

4.  Confirmation as to how you would propose to fund any assistance (i.e.: legal aid, ‘no win, no fee’, etc.).

No win, no fee.

Climate and the poor get subordinated to power, privilege and wealth

17 April 2024

Hi Siobhan

Climate and the poor get subordinated to power, privilege and wealth

The first duty of regional government is to protect the interests of the poor and the weak.  You don't do that by spending £15 billion by 2040 on a gross, grandiose, but very nice, 150 miles of tramways when urban railways are unused or partly used and the existing bus network needs car commuters rewarded for leaving their motors at home to travel on a bus, train, tram to work.  This, to free up road space and bring greater efficiency for essential vehicle users.

The second duty of government is to do what it says.  It piously declared a climate emergency in 2019 but then carried on with business as usual.  It was all words and no action apart from the most determined action, from the 1980s, to rebuild the tram network the powerful elite had completely destroyed in the 1950s.  And, what was more, to simply rebuild it on the urban railway network that they had not obliterated in the last decades of the 20th century!  That action, far from mitigating climate breakdown, accelerates climate disaster.  Concrete and steel, heavily used in High Scam 2 and Metro construction, are both very energy intensive and, therefore, accelerate climate catastrophe.

Throughout, integrity and honourable behaviour (the Nolan Principles) are meant to be at the heart of government.

 How the Nolan Principles are applied by the WMCA

PHOTO - the likes of which you have never seen before, I'm pretty sure!:-

 NOLAN cannot possibly approve this two tier practice

Yet, morality is sadly lacking in regional governments as well as national.  The people and politicians are quite happy to support a never ending war of self-righteous defence in wiping out Palestinians because they cannot hit back.  Murdering them, in their case, is morally acceptable and reasonable because of 7 October.  However, it's a very different matter when it comes to attacking Iran for their 300 drones and missiles on 13/14 April or, fighting Russia to the death for invading and attacking Ukraine.

Bankrupt Brum means poverty for more and deepening poverty, too.  Is it, therefore, acceptable to pour billions, in price and in weight of greenhouse gases, into flaunting our wealth in a very fine and prestigious new tramway system of 150 miles, 8 lines and 380 tram stops, as the WMCA wants?

Best wishes

to Leslie K

Very many thanks, Leslie for your encouragement and support.  Wonderful!  You are the first - almost!

I do need to be fair on all the political parties by writing here, that every one of them, including the Green Party (strong in Solihull!) have been in agreement with Metro trams ever since I started writing in opposition to rebuilding the tram network on the two surviving mainline railways, only 20 years after the councillors and officers had destroyed the first tram network.

Labour's Cllr Phil Bateman and former PTA/TfWM Chair, Richard Worrall, who still attends Transport meetings at Transport/Tram HQ as a member of the public now, were the leading lights for starting Metro in 1981.

Solihull, already well blessed with buses and trains, is getting the lot - HS2, Metro and Sprint - the full slate!  The subsidy for trams is also many times more per passenger per Km travelled than for buses.  SEE:

 Bus/tram subsidy 22/23.pdf

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

Please work on Ian Courts who knows me and on Bob Sleigh who also has met me.  They are both happy with Andy Street's £15 BILLION (Jan 2020 figure) to 2040 for 150 miles and eight lines of Metro tram expansion.  Both Ian and Bob are longstanding and leading members in the WMCA and are on the full Board, of course.  They are VIP decision-makers who should be stopping this scandalous misuse of taxpayers' money.  But they are doing nothing.  Unless you can persuade them, please Leslie.  The 15th Nov is largely a rubber stamping exercise, I fear.  You, Ian and Bob need to please cancel, scrap, withdraw the WBHE Phase 2 finance package BEFORE Friday, please.  Phase 2 must not proceed.  Andy Street's Metro review request of 2021 or '22 seems never to have been done, either.  Scandalous!

Many thanks and best wishes.  By the way, I voted for Andy on all three occasions - 2017, 2021 and 2024 - even though he was desperate for Metro expansion.

Over £1 BILLION to destroy UK's last principal mainline railway "of national strategic significance" = SCANDAL

11 Kms of tramway for £660.8 million PLUS cost of Wednesbury to Flood Street 5.5 Kms = over £1 BILLION total = idiocy and incompetence when the railway is

 "of national strategic significance".pdf

and is now a tramway, a VLR test track, VLR/BCIMO HQ, a cycle-walkway and fresh air!

 40 short statements never corrected or even challenged

June 2023 cost of 11 Kms WBHE tram was to be £650 m from https://www.expressandstar.com/news/politics/2023/06/06/wednesbury-to-brierley-hill-metro-extension-cost-rockets-650-million/

November 2024 cost for the last half to be built is now £660.8 m from Flood Street to Merry Hill Shopping Centre, according to https://governance.wmca.org.uk/documents/s20364/Wednesbury%20Brierley%20Hill%20Metro%20Extension%20Phase2.pdf

and para 10.4 that shows, Flood Street to Merry Hill alone is £660.8 m for 5.5 Kms.

DO NOT APPROVE THIS MADNESS ON FRIDAY 15 NOVEMBER 2024 WMCA BOARD MEETING

Tim Weller

Why HS2/Metro/Sprint thinking should be anathema to all right thinking people

Hi Carol - thanks so much for writing.  Lovely to hear from you and of your concern.

Why HS2/Metro/Sprint thinking should be anathema to all right thinking people

These mega projects reflect how society feels so entitled, already but wants ever more!

£15 BILLION to 2040 (Jan 2020 figure) for 150 miles, 8 lines and 380 tram stops for Metro expansion.

These three projects reflect our greedy and selfish idea of entitlement - of our right to have them - whatever the cost.

We can afford these luxuries, so we are going to have them.  When we already have plenty!

Metro trams are a lovely, greedy, luxury that I take every opportunity to travel on.  I travel from home in Halesowen to Wolverhampton via the bus and then the tram from Edgbaston Village.  But Metro expansion, that you fully support, is deepening the Climate Emergency by taking money that should be going to the poor to insulate and future proof their homes.  And to help with their food and energy bills.

HS2/Metro/Sprint are all deepening the Climate Emergency by very high greenhouse gas (GHG) emitting concrete and steel in the construction of all three.

Deepening the Climate Emergency in this way, too:

There are lots of unused or freight only railway lines that we will not use because we want to give the money to trams instead at the most colossal expense in price and in weight of GHG emissions as well as being many times more expensive per kilometre to construct then if we simply rebuilt the stations and put the trains back. Climate justice and social justice mean we must cut back on expenditure that makes the Emergency even worse.

PHOTO, below

You see the climbers and trees, of mostly my vertical guerrilla garden, and a small part of the 400 metre long, Dudley No 1 Canal embankment which are wiped out with the concrete and steel tramway viaduct, costing over £100 m for the 400 metres of Climate catastrophe concrete and steel:​

 Overview contrast.jpg

​My guerrilla garden cannot be relocated to another site and this is just one of many sites that I have beautified and greened up over the decades!  My other main site that I have worked on since the 1990s is at Frankley Services Northbound.  The owners, Moto, give their passive permission, as the owners do at Merry Hill SC.  Do take a look at both, Carol.

PHOTO:  The same canal embankment.  All wiped out and very much more for £261.4 m (see below) to destroy the embankment:​

 6 glorious white trees.jpg

​

I think you councillors and MPs need to think again because the money now going into Metro expansion in the W Midlands, as well as for the West Yorkshire tram network, takes money away from HMG's 'Restoring Your Railway' section at the DfT.  SEE:

https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/43m-spent-by-dft-on-restoring-your-railway-projects-that-hang-in-the-balance-06-11-2024/

Tram expansion is stopping our remaining railway lines from getting their trains back.  What a waste!  No more 'Restoring Your Railway' because you good councillors and MPs prefer tramways built on railways and bus routes.  Extraordinary.  And we are all so entitled, wealthy and well provided for, compared with the Global South!

FROM: https://governance.wmca.org.uk/documents/s20364/Wednesbury%20Brierley%20Hill%20Metro%20Extension%20Phase2.pdf

" ... on the delivery of the Metro extension Phase 2b totalling £261.4m.

Phase 1: Wednesbury to Flood St., Dudley

Phase 2a: Flood St, Dudley to Waterfront Business Park

Phase 2b: Waterfront to Merry Hill Shopping Centre

Phase 2c: Merry Hill Shopping Centre to Brierley Hill Town Centre

"Since rewriting and submitting the FBC and the SAF appraisal in May 2024 it is noted in this report the total projected cost of Phase 2a, 2b of the WBHE project remains at £654.9m."   END OF QUOTE

For another £261.4 million for only a maximum ONE KILOMETRE (1 Km) of the route from Waterfront to Merry Hill, is SCANDALOUS!  And it is deepening the catastrophic Climate emergency instead of urgent mitigation, that is still not seen (apart from my house that is a warm home).

The £15 BILLION to 2040 (Jan 2020 figure) for ourselves in the W Mids, is taking money away from returning passenger trains to our freight lines and, both to the other forgotten, empty, wasted railways in our region.

You councillors, led by Cllr Phil Bateman in the early 1980s and Richard Worrall, turned your Bilston railway station into a shuttle tram stop with Metro.  Bilston was on the mainline railway from Snow Hill station to Shrewsbury via Wolverhampton Low Level station.  It is now a popular tramway.  But it was a popular railway and could have had its trains back in the 1980s instead of waiting for the trams when the tramline eventually opened in 1999 - and TRAINS for a fraction of the price, too!  And, it was a lie that it would reduce congestion on the parallel A41.  It has not because it took bus passengers off the road and not car drivers with their polluting cars.  What a deception by members and officers at the time - and it's still going on with WBHE!

The full scandal is recorded here and Bilston is mentioned.  Can you find it?:​

 40 short statements never corrected or even challenged

​​

 4 reasons why we all love trams

​

Very best wishes

We all stick our heads in the sand and hope for the best!

For 200 years, we have known that burning finite fossil fuels emits global warming gases.  Out of sheer self-interest we need to act more sensibly and show a lot less greed and selfishness and much more self-restraint.

to David G

Dear David - not once, since the 1990s, has Railfuture given me any support whatsoever - just total disapproval - askance at my impertinence - from beginning to end.  It really IS such a glorious giggle!!

Every councillor, since 1981 when tram rebuilding began, AND Railfuture have gone along with Metro taking over trains and buses, without a murmur or, hint of disquiet.  One good Railfuture man, in about 2000, called Centro's bite sized chunk policy of putting Metro on the 120 Kms Black Country Railway as "nibble sized".  That was the nearest any of you got to criticism, would you believe?  Pathetic.  Shameful.  You have all been fast asleep, pushing up Zzzz's on the miles of empty sleepers!

Your committee must look at tram proposals because the money now going into Metro expansion in the W Midlands, as well as the West Yorkshire tram network, take money away from HMG's 'Restoring Your Railway' section at the DfT.  SEE:

https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/43m-spent-by-dft-on-restoring-your-railway-projects-that-hang-in-the-balance-06-11-2024/

The £15 BILLION to 2040 (Jan 2020 figure) going into 150 miles, 8 lines and 380 tram stops for ourselves in the W Mids, is taking money away from returning passenger trains to our freight lines and, both to the other forgotten, empty, wasted railways in our region.  SEE your own brochure:​

 Raillfuture text 01.pdf

​​

 Raillfuture text 02.pdf

​and,​

 Railfuture's full map.pdf

​Does the Railfuture committee approve of the Black Country and the Staffordshire/Derbyshire section of the principal mainline railway between London and Edinburgh being turned into HR use, LR Metro use, a 2 Kms VLR test track, an extended 20 Kms cycle-walkway and fresh air, David?

What is the policy of your branch of Railfuture on what is going on, please?

What do you, personally, want done, David?

Please will you accept my invitation to view the imminent destruction of Dudley No 1 Canal embankment at Merry Hill SC?

Last month, Anne Shaw, Director of TfWM told a Dudley Council committee that work on the ground in extending the tram from Flood Street to the Waterfront/Merry Hill begins in January.  We have no time to lose.

These are my visit highlights 

 Visit highlights

I would like to show you, in the hope that you may then send this off:

Please select, copy, paste and send to customerservices@tfwm.org.uk

"SAVE MERRY HILL SHOPPING CENTRE AND IMPROVE CONNECTIVITY FOR STOURBRIDGE

"It is so important that we get a business case written for the alternative, cheaper option to keep Metro trams away from the extensive destruction planned at Merry Hill.

"Please ask for the business case to be written for either the Stourbridge Shuttle on the railway line or, for the trams from Dudley town to connect with the national railway network at Stourbridge Jct.  An electric bus could connect the tram or the Shuttle with Brierley Hill High Street and the shopping centre.  The tram straight through from Wednesbury, via Dudley to Stourbridge Jct would mean no change, no delay from tram to Shuttle in Dudley town and, therefore, be a quicker public transport journey.

"The important thing is to save Merry Hill's nature, landscaping, public open space, the housing land and my vertical guerrilla garden."

Best wishes

Tim

from Peace and Justice Project

This US presidential election result is a grave concern for the planet, marginalised communities, refugees and Palestinians trying to survive Israel’s genocide. Trump's abhorrent rhetoric must be resisted at every opportunity and our movement must succeed where the arrogant Democratic establishment failed.

We must organise globally, stand in solidarity with those targeted by the awful politics of fear and division and build an alternative of hope and unity.

READ THE BOLD, if short of time or inclination. I have serious concerns, even though no-one seems bothered

INSTRUCTIONS FOR LEIGH DAY, SOLICITORS - and for the W Midlands Combined Authority (good not bad) Governance Officer, Dan Essex.

Dear Dan and Leigh Day Solicitors - I am NOT copying in Helen, Laura and Anne, so please Dan discuss this with those Top Decision Makers.

I have serious concerns, even though no-one else seems bothered

I expect I am the only one who writes to the TfWM/WMCA about these matters.

1. Only Albert Thomas, Richard Worrall and I use our right to attend your committee meetings as members of the public.
2. However, we are not allowed to say a dicky bird.  And, Albert and Richard are allowed to go straight up on arrival, I believe but I have to wait until just before the meeting before I am escorted up from reception by your good self.  This is to minimise my chances of approaching an officer or member to spill the beans!
3. At the end of the meeting, I am then quickly ushered out and away from the VIP top brass on the Committee - by your good self, Dan once again!  Officers and members must NOT be tainted by my (Trump) garbage.
4. Yet, Albert Thomas told me to "Fuck off" when I asked him to remind me of his name last Monday 4 November.
5. Before Covid, when he was Council Leader of Wolverhampton City Council and the Transport Lead, (name forgotten!) told me to "Stick it up your arse" when I invited him to take a leaflet from me.  Ignorance and intolerance are rife.
6. Many or, certainly, too many of your councillor members on all the WMCA committees and boards change once a year.  This means that no sooner do they get up to speed with their brief, than they are moved off altogether or, go on to a different committee or board.  Or, get voted off in a yearly election.
7. The members are meant to check, challenge and question.  However, many also hold down jobs or, are old geezers like me who are well past our prime.
8. Therefore, how do you expect us to read the most voluminous reports of great erudition, witten in professional jargon and in much detail?
9. In the summer, the seven leaders were presented with a 500 page report on bus franchising, I believe.  The Coventry leader, I think it was, said he would take a look at it in his summer holiday - by then too late.  The decision to continue the expensive process was agreed by the Seven (or, is it Eight with Richard Parker?) at that same full Board meeting!
10. Had the seven leaders actually agreed for the 500 pages to be written and the long, expensive process to franchising be started?
11. Or, was it an initiative started by your top officer(s) to make sure the W Midlands was not left behind by go-ahead Greater Manchester, with no approach to even a single Council Leader?
12. After 43 years of very well-intentioned endeavour started by your continuing and respected member, Cllr Phil Bateman, how is it we are still fragmenting two regional mainline railways into part tramways in a densely populated conurbation that needs important railway lines used for railway trains?
13. Understandably, I think, I am very angry that my 1990s vertical guerrilla garden, with the passive permission from all the owners of Merry Hill since the 90s, is soon to be wiped out, buried by your £100 million, 400 metre tramway viaduct.  It also destroys the rest of nature, public open space and housing land at Merry Hill.
14. The sensible, cheaper and less Climate damaging alternative is to keep the tram, from Flood Street, Dudley town centre, on the former principal mainline railway to connect with the national railway network at Stourbridge Jct.
15. Your Top Director, Anne Shaw is saying that work on the ground (planning started in the 1980s!) will finally start in January 2025, to take the Dudley Tram off the railway line into the Waterfront.  Or, is this a euphemism for bringing the tram into Merry Hill, at even greater expense of taxpayers' money and even more tragic, unnecessary destruction?  As in these PHOTOS.  These trees, and much else on either side of the photo, get wiped off the face of the earth by the 400 metre, Climate worsening concrete and steel tramway viaduct:
    
     6 glorious white trees.jpg
    Most of the trees, below are my planting and tender care over the decades.  Nearly all will be lost:
    
     Overview contrast.jpg
16. I am now approaching Leigh Day, the solicitors with expertise in these matters, to seek an injunction from a Court of Law to put a stop to the Dudley Tram wreaking havoc on the land between the main car park at Merry Hill and the Dudley No 1 Canal.
17. The beautifully landscaped Level Street roundabout is also obliterated by the Dudley/Merry Hill tram because a further double track tram viaduct has to be built over the top of it.  See top right hand corner in their PLAN, here
    
     WBHE plan for Merry Hill.jpeg
18. I am prepared to spend a maximum of £10,000 of my lifetime savings for judges to put a stop to the idiocy that trained, professional transport planners have been intent on since the 1980s.
19. About 1980 was when BBC 1's 'Tomorrow's World' first alerted me to what Climate scientists had been reporting since the 1820s.  Yes, the 1820s!  Do your research, as I have, if you don't believe me.
20. On Monday, 4 November, Anne reported to the meeting that she was "moduly agnostic" over the public transport mode that is chosen to be used to take over from buses.  In other words it could be any mode out of heavy rail (HR), light rail (LR), Very Light Rail or Ultra Light Rail (eg, Stourbridge Shuttle).
21. Why does a "bus on rails" (UK Tram Promotion Group at your own  HQ!) have to be used at all when we already have TRAINS for railway tracks and BUSES for roads?  USE THEM!  And, remember, Anne is "moduly agnostic", ie, she doesn't mind which transport mode is used - anywhere.
22. NO!  I think she should get it right - regular buses and trains, from now on, at least as good as the average on the mainland of Europe.
23. Don't spend £15 BILLION by 2040 (Jan 2020 figure) on 150 miles, 8 lines and 380 tram stops in the West Midlands when your accelerating Climate Breakdown has just been seen in Valentia, Spain.  And, fast melting glaciers in the high mountains of the planet!

WMCA involvement in Lebanese/Palestinian slaughter

Dear friends

W Midlands businesses are selling/giving/subsidising drones and weapons of war to our partner, friend and ally, Israel to murder/kill/maim up to 50,000 children, women and men in the area of the unHoly Land since the 7.10.23 atrocity.

Israel, part of our Wicked, Wild West, is out of control.  And we are letting them get on with it.

What is the WMCA doing to stop it?

Why are you not issuing a statement/press release condemning our murderous behaviour and distancing yourselves from it?

What grants and moral support do you give to the despicable, disgusting W Midlands arms trade?

Or, are you guiltily silent?

Stolen Transport describes ...

 ... how so well-intentioned public transport modes like 'Hi (there) Speedy 2 fast-to-stop at stations and isolated from HS1', Metro "bus on rails" trams and the Sprint bus that "thinks it's a tram", all take money, time and officers away from addressing the leaky, energy wasteful homes of the people at the bottom of the heap.  It's those above them who unintentionally forget them and concentrate on the flash, high-prestige projects they benefit from.

Lowest incomes continue to lose out as those at the top sort out their grandiose, luxury but climate-intensifying HS2, Metro and Sprint.

This double phenomenon takes us away, even further, from reducing our ultimately deadly greenhouse gas emissions.

MP essentials

Dear Sarah and TfWM Customer Services team - please correct me if I'm wrong in any detail, here:

1950s - first tram network destroyed in favour of diesel buses.

1981 - rebuilding the tram network of 200 Kms was born, inspired by Cllr Phil Bateman who continues as a respected Wolves councillor to this day.

YET ...

Over 43 years, with £100s millions being spent, only 23 Kms were achieved by this year and a further 700 m, over seven slow years of work on the ground, to connect the tram to the bus station and railway station that would never have been necessary if the TRAINS had been reinstated.

In 43 years​, ​I believe, no wasted but existing railway lines in the region have had their trains back​, apart from the short tunnel between Snow Hill Station and Moor St Station. Yet, £100s millions ​h​ave disappeared down the plug hole on ​23 Kms of trams​, 19 Kms of which are on the first mainline railway destroyed between Snow Hill and Wolverhampton!!

The second mainline railway is even more important - running between London and Edinburgh.  It is now broken up into heavy rail, Light Rail Metro trams, a 2 Kms Very Light Rail test track and its HQ building, a 20 Kms cycle-walkway being worked on, and fresh air!

All this while congestion/pollution worsens on nearby motorways and main roads - even crossed by the forgotten, principal, mainline railway.  Bridges and underpasses built for TRAINS that they then forgot all about!

All with public money that is needed for the NHS/social care, concrete crumbling schools, water supply problems and ancient Victorian prisons crammed to bursting point!

All this waste of our taxes when Highly Speedy 2 fast to stop at stations, needs £66 BILLION, at least, to finish it off at Euston!

to Timothy Huxtable, Chair of TDOS at WMCA

Dear Timothy

Thanks very much for your thoughts on the matter.  Much appreciated.  Some questions to try and pin you down!:

THE PROBLEM

Car use rising as oil reserves reduce and the Climate Emergency continues apace.

Car users want free/cheap parking and more roads but, there is never a cry for regional Fare-Free public transport for all to benefit non-car users who do the least to ratchet up Climate breakdown and resource shortages.

The decision-makers are car users and so, without realising it, are unconsciously biased towards their own mode of transport rather than biased in favour of low incomes without a car and needing buses.

1. As Chair of TDOS do you have any say in recommending to your Committee that they might like to vote to stay in line with Manchester and keep the £2 single fare cap?
2. You wrote, "the local centres need to be connected by a form of public transport that works for passengers and is value for money". Do you see the bus as the cornerstone of public transport that could be much cheaper and work better for everyone?
3. Is your Committee able to recommend less money going from Capital (Metro expansion, for example) and more to Revenue to follow Manchester's example to keep fares as low as possible?
4. Eventually, regional Fare-Free Public Transport as I have had for nearly 17 years because of my age?
5. Do you think we should get the two main public transport modes as least as good as the average on the mainland of Europe?
6. Does having a multitude of rail modes (HS, HR, LR, VLR, ULR) detract in any way from getting bus and train as popular as they were before the advent of mass car ownership?
7. Could cutting down on car commuting with a similar rise in bus use be a useful measure of success?
8. How do you think this should be done?
9. Financial inducements from Capital expenditure to Revenue and charging motorists (the car commuters) who fail to register as essential vehicle users to avoid the road use charge?
10. Has CAZ been a success in any way?
11. Has CAZ reduced car use by a percentage or two, do we know?  Or, even more than that?
12. Will you press for the Dudley Tram to stay on the mainline railway to connect it with the national railway network at Stourbridge Jct?
13. By your agnosticism, why are you supporting the TfWM line that the tram must go into Merry Hill SC to give the owners an entirely free asset that makes them even wealthier?
14. Could a free electric bus from the Canal Street Hart's Hill tram stop be a more useful option to get tram passengers into Brierley Hill High Street and to Merry Hill?
15. Or even, reinstate the 1990s monorail?!  Why was it never connected to the railway that could have been re-opened then with commuter, regional and intercity TRAINS?

Best wishes

Those with too much ...

Those with too much, might perhaps give to those with far too little.  Plus safe and legal routes to reduce the numbers of them seeking refuge with US LOT who caused their flight in the first place!

In 2016, can the rich nations and individuals who have so much wealth that much is wasted, give some of it to those with nothing (except war/environmental decline and disasters) so that people will not have to flee to the countries with everything (except war/env degradation)?  Israel in relation to Palestine, even?

Israel's genocide and an end to the arms sales that enables its campaign of terror and horror would certainly help!

No Limits to Health

FOR CYCLISTS, WALKERS, RUNNERS, HORSE RIDERS AND (definitely) THE LESS MOBILE

I attended your excellent event yesterday at Halesowen Library, about the early 20th century, black cycling hero, Marshall 'Major' Taylor.  THANK YOU for putting it on!

Would you support the upgrading, in Dudley borough, of their much neglected mudway section of the UK's major, 20 Kms Black Country Active Travel Route that was built decades ago and is so popular in South Staffordshire and Wolverhampton?

I believe it is the UK's longest, urban-rural-urban, business/commuter/leisure, cycle-walkway.

It runs from the canal towpath at Merry Hill Shopping Centre to the canal towpath at NW Wolverhampton and is part of a circular route via the Brum to Wolves Canal towpath and the flooded, pot-holed, towpath in the Netherton Tunnel.

PARTIAL MAP that does need upgrading, too - I know!  Only the Dudley section is a mudway and is dire, dismal, disappointing:-

 Disgraceful Dudley BC Cycle-Walk Mudway 01.pdf

There are two car parks on the route, on either side of Wombourne, too!  SEE:-

 Disgraceful Dudley BC Cycle-Walk Mudway 02.pdf

SAVE MERRY HILL SHOPPING CENTRE AND IMPROVE CONNECTIVITY FOR STOURBRIDGE!

Please select, copy, paste and send to customerservices@tfwm.org.uk

"SAVE MERRY HILL SHOPPING CENTRE AND IMPROVE CONNECTIVITY FOR STOURBRIDGE!

"It is so important that we get a business case written for the alternative, cheaper option to keep Metro trams away from the extensive destruction planned at Merry Hill.

"Please ask for the business case to be written for either the Stourbridge Shuttle on the railway line or, for the trams from Dudley town to connect with the national railway network at Stourbridge Jct.  An electric bus could connect the tram or the Shuttle with Brierley Hill High Street and the shopping centre.  The tram straight through from Wednesbury, via Dudley to Stourbridge Jct would mean no change, no delay from tram to Shuttle in Dudley town and, therefore, be a quicker public transport journey.

"The important thing is to save Merry Hill's nature, landscaping, public open space and the housing land."

Invitation always stands to come on my Trail of Treasure Treats to see 'Secret Merry Hill'.  Any day; any time.

 Visit highlights

THANKS!