No progress on stations

Further to your report regarding new stations in Walsall, West Midlands Passenger Transport Authority chair Gary Clarke says he's "delighted with progress".

The only certain "progress" is that the Council's Regeneration Scrutiny Panel has agreed that an officers' draft report on a first-ever rail development policy for Walsall go out to consultation.

May I point out the following:

There is no new progress on stations for Aldridge, Streetly or Willenhall, nor has there been for some years: there's no approval, no funding, no timetable

for implementation and that's because Centro

previously found no business case for any of these stations.

It is a matter of public record going back several years, and therefore hardly news, that there is a planning consent for a station at Aldridge, and that the land needed for stations both at Aldridge and Willenhall has been acquired.

What was also reported at the time, but isn't referred to in the consultation report, is that current franchise holders Central Trains agreed to extend the Wolverhampton-Walsall service to Aldridge at no extra cost, should the local authorities build a station there.

As CT are about to be replaced by GoVia, it makes sense to try to achieve the same agreement with them, both for the benefit of Aldridge people, and as a means of building the case to save the under-threat Walsall-Wolverhampton service.

But for this to work, WMBC and Centro would need to identify the resources to do it, get the necessary approvals,

and agree an early timetable for implementation. Will they?

The idea of Bloxwich Station being resited also goes back some years, but Centro have no current plans to do this – it's just another Walsall Council wish list item, like a possible fourth platform face at Walsall Station.

Richard Worrall, Former Chair WMPTA, Burrowes Street, Walsall.