Spend money on train upgrades
Kevin Chapman, of Campaign for Better Transport, wants further extensions of Metro trams on what is left of the Beeching closed railway lines. Yet, Chris Grayling, Secretary of State for Transport said, last Wednesday, that the Beeching closed lines should have their trains back and not Metro trams that will block the return of the Grayling trains.
Bizarrely, Andy Street and the local transport bosses only want the ‘bus on rails’ trams through rundown Dudley town centre and on Dudley's mainline railway, in order to get the much more useful regional and national trains back!
Millions of pounds must be spent on the ‘passive provision’ for trains to return when they start building the Metro tram line on our nationally important, mainline Black Country Railway in 2019. Even when the trams are running on only 6.7Kms out of the wasted, unused 56Kms, that still leaves a wasted 49.3Kms of our 120Kms main line railway between Worcester, the Black Country and Derby, alongside or near to traffic choked motorways and roads.
An official £343m plus cost overruns for a short, local tram service in order (supposedly) to finish the 120Kms principal main line railway with national trains is stupid. Especially, when the slow and phenomenally expensive trams will block the new commuter and regional train services through Dudley borough and its new attractions that are already next to Dudley's unused main line station at Castle Gate. Just do the trains at five times per kilometre more cheaply and finish the railway!
Kevin's mass transit is already there with buses and trains. We need to make the most of them. Train and car use are rising but bus use is declining. The correct responses are obvious.
Tim Weller
Halesowen
