Lack of City Centre destinations
£15m Wolverhampton Metro extension to the Bus & Rail Station, with two years of road works and inconvenience? Why are we wasting money on this? Can someone please explain?
£5m can pay for 10 UK built electric minibus and the facilities required to operate a city centre service every 5-10 mins during the working day.
This City Centre bus link will be a showcase route showing Wolverhampton is commited to Zero Carbon emissions. And will link the Rail & Bus Stations to Market Street(Dudley Street shops), Art Gallery, Mander Centre, Beatties, Markets and the Wulfrun Centre. Places people actually want to go. And unlike the trams, the route can be changed to meet demand without having to spend millions of pounds in consultation and months/years digging up the streets.
Trains not Trams
The Metro carries 4.7 to 4.9m passengers a year 75% are former bus users. The last time 5m were carried was back in 2005/6. There has been an increase in passengers to 4.9m in recent years which coincides with WBA promotion to Premier League and the truncation of the 79 bus route linking Wolverhampton to Birmingham, meaning The Metro is the only direct route for this corridor. The average passenger journey is 6.5miles on a line that as 12.5 miles long.
The Metro takes you to places that could be reached far quicker and cheaper if it were by heavy rail.
Wolverhampton High Level, Priestfield, Bilston Central, Moxley, Wednesbury Parkway, Dudley Street Guns Village, West Bromwich Central, The Hawthorns, Soho and Winson Green, Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham Snow Hill.
Such a line would offer the following services
- London Midland Locals/Semi fast: Shrewsbury > Wolverhampton > Snow Hill > Stratford/Leamington.
- X-County: Manchester > Wolverhampton > West Brom > Snow Hill > Reading.
- Chiltern: Marylebone > Snow Hill > West Brom > Wolverhampton > Shrewsbury.
This would give Virgin competition on Euston services bringing down fares. In 1983 (30 years ago) BR Wolves>Euston services were only 6mins slower than what Virgin can manage today.
Centro Philosophy
Case example. In an ideal world, travelling between Telford and Bilston could be achieved using a local service from Shrewsbury to Snow Hill. The journey from Wolverhampton to Bilston Central would be 5mins and 30secs. On leaving Wolverhampton, the train travels along the Stour Valley (quadrupled) to a new link line, over the Steel Terminal, to former Didcot & Chester formation, then down a 1 in 60 gradient, under Bilston Road, into Preistfield Station.
But Centro say: Why would you want a direct rail service to Bilston from Telford when you have The Metro, which is far more convent. Look, all you have to do is get off your train from Telford to New Street at Wolverhampton, walk 260m, utilising the nice new footbridge which allows you to climb three flights of stairs for a beautiful view of Wolverhampton (there is a lift if you want to wait for it) to the new tram stop we are building outside the station. Once at the tram stop you only have to wait up to 6mins for a lovely shiny new Spanish built tram to whisk you away to Bilston in 9mins time. Total journey time from alighting your train at Wolverhampton Interchange : 13 to 19 mins. What could be simpler than that? Transport integration at its best!
But Centro, the train from Telford, which was built in Derby, UK, could have been a DIRECT service to Snow Hill, and would arrive at Bilston in 5mins after first calling at Priestfield. No need to get off the train at Wolverhampton. Do people really want to climb over a footbridge into the sky and wait 6mins for a tram? When they could be where they want to be - in Bilston - in a tad over 5mins by rail? Centro, why are you making our lives difficult? Is there a through ticket from Telford to Bilston Central Metro stop?
Ah, say Centro, but thats why we need this tram link, because we want to run Tram Trains to Walsall joining the railway at Heath Town Junction. Trams from Walsall to New Street in Brum just think of that! Rapid Transit on par to Manchester!
So Centro, you want to convert 106 miles of local heavy rail services to Tram Train? The majority of the WM rail network, unlike that in Greater Manchester, is actually important to GB not just the WM. Why not just convert 12.5 miles of Light Rail to Heavy Rail and link it in with the existing 106 route miles isnt that easier, more convenient, thus creating more travel opportunities to more destinations - even outside the WM? I thought that was the whole point of Centro's West Midlands Local Transport Plan v3: to create new transport links to help regenerate the local economy? With the link in place I could catch a train DIRECT from Wolverhampton to Solihull, Leamington even Marylebone. Use rail for the big hops, buses for the short hops. Why are you trying to make The Metro do everything forcing passengers to waste more time and money than necessary?
The Future = Depressing
With Line One converted to heavy rail this will provide more opportunities to travel to/from this area using public transport. And, thats only HALF the story. Just think of all the possibilities that can be achieved with freight (once this corridor has been converted to heavy rail) and the businesses that could be attracted to the brown field sites that festoon this road congested area.
But no, instead we have this transport cancer called The Metro. Sitting there, going nowhere, eating money, stopping future development in rail passenger/freight services that are not just important to the WM, but also to the wider country too.
