Disappointed and dissatisfied

‘Crucial plans to massively upgrade rail links for freight traffic’ across the North of England are set to be abandoned, leaving freight bosses “disappointed and dissatisfied”, The Yorkshire Post reported.

[EXCLUSIVE: Anger as plans to electrify north’s freight network are scrapped | Mark Casci | Yorkshire Post | Thursday 06 December 2018]

Officials at the Department for Transport (DfT) have let freight bosses know that they will only put forward plans to electrify the route between Leeds and Manchester for passenger trains, with plans to apply the same improvements to freight trains set to be scrapped for the foreseeable future.

The recommendation – given by the DfT’s internal Board Investment and Commercial Committee to Transport Secretary Chris Grayling – comes after more than two years of campaigning by the freight industry.

On September 18, the Beleben blog pointed out that de-scoping Transpennine North electrification down to a ‘Cispennine’ scheme between Leeds and Huddersfield, made no sense.

Money which could be spent on electrifying the Standedge and Calder Valley railways, and fixing bottlenecks in Manchester, is being squandered on HS2, and the equally absurd ‘Northern powerhouse rail’ project.

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Five things you might not know about Rotherham

#1

The Chapel of Our Lady stands at the middle of the medieval bridge that served as the main road into the town until the start of the twentieth century.

#2

Masborough was the main railway station for Rotherham from 1840 up to 1987, when most trains were re-routed via the reactivated Rotherham Central. From Masborough to the town centre directly is a ~20 minute walk.

#3

In January 2018 thirteen of the sixteen Ansaldo Midland Metro T69 trams were sold to Booth’s of Rotherham, for recycling.

#4

The current metro mayor of Liverpool has a surname which is a homophone, and near-homograph, of Rotherham. A fear of words which sound the same is called homophonophobia, a fear of words which are almost spelt the same is called quasihomographobia, and a fear of foreign words which sound the same is called xenohomophonophobia.*

#5

The launch of Britain’s first ‘trial’ tramtrain service, from Sheffield to Rotherham Parkgate, on 25 October 2018 was marred by a collision between a Stadler Supertram and a truck.

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* = Fun fact

Most transparent shortcomings

According to West Midlands mayor Andy Street’s “Renewal Plan“, he aims, or aimed, to be the ‘most transparent mayor’ in Britain.

But at the time of writing, the “Mayor’s Expenses” page on the website of the West Midlands Combined Authority gives no information about mayoral expenditure. Nor does there seem to be any diary of Andy’s past or future meetings, etc, on the site.

Unfortunately, these transparency shortcomings extend well beyond the mayor’s office, to the Combined Authority itself.

Scheme if you wanna go faster

At the Tory conference in Birmingham this week, chief secretary to the Treasury Liz Truss suggested an increased motorway speed limit of 80 mph (128 km/h) should be ‘looked at’ again. Her view is there would be “productivity improvements” from motorists “wasting less of their lives driving”.

[The Mirror, 30 September 2018]

In 2011, then Transport Secretary Philip Hammond, now the Chancellor told the Tory conference the 70mph motorway limit was “discredited”, as he confirmed plans to consult on allowing it to rise to 80mph.

How well are motorway speed limits correlated with the productivity of a country, or its road safety? Would there be even more productivity, with a 90 mph limit?

The ‘raise m-way speeds for productivity’ argument has several parallels with the ‘build HS2’ one.

The government’s position – that HS2 and Northern powerhouse rail offer ‘significant’ productivity benefits – finds resonance with supporters of those schemes.

But many of those selfsame supporters object to ‘productivity benefits’ from higher m-way speeds, because [insert contradictory argument of choice here].

TfWM bus competition conundrum

In 2011, the Competition Commission announced that the UK local bus market was not competitive enough, with little in-the-market competition. Local transport authorities, were being asked to consider “partnerships” with new operators to increase bus competition in their local areas, the BBC reported.

Fast forward to 2018, and the Transport for West Midlands local transport authority is developing partnerships to reduce bus competition in its local area.

The plot to build a station at Darlaston

With the Combined Authority having acquired a plot for a station at Darlaston, passengers could be buying tickets and riding trains between Walsall and Wolverhampton by 2021, Rob Mayor reported.

However, ‘more work needs to be done on the feasibility’, according to Andy Mayor (Andy Street).

Darlaston and Willenhall are two of nine new stations proposed for the West Midlands county by the Combined Authority. Most likely, they would be served by just an hourly shuttle between Walsall and Wolverhampton, and an hourly service between Wolverhampton and Birmingham New Street.

Because Darlaston town centre is some distance for the railway, most local public transport journeys would continue to be done by bus, and the value of the new stations is more totemic than real.

No doubt the case for Willenhall and Darlaston would be much better, for longer journeys, if a frequent (4 to 6 trains per hour) service could operate between Wolverhampton and Birmingham. This could be done if the Benson Road curve were built, and trains ran via the Soho loop, into Snow Hill station.

Benson Road ought to be the #1 priority for railway investment in the West Midlands, but the Combined Authority has a very different view.

Soho loop line, showing location of possible new stations and the Benson Road curve (none of which are supported by the Combined Authority)

Layout of the Camp Hill chords

In February 2018, West Midlands mayor Andy Street outlined revised plans for a restored local service on Birmingham’s Camp Hill railway, to better connect the suburbs of Moseley and Kings Heath with the city centre. In the initial phase, the difficult-to-construct Camp Hill chords would not be needed, as trains would run into and out of New Street station.

But in a later phase, following construction of the chords, the Camp Hill local service would be re-routed into Birmingham Moor Street, as part of the ‘Midlands Rail Hub’, the “flagship plan to future-proof the Midlands’ rail network for generations to come”.

In the view of the Beleben blog, the practicality of the design for the Camp Hill chords favoured by Midlands Connect must be in doubt. If they actually could be built, what would they look like? Unsurprisingly, there are no scale diagrams, and no artists’ impressions. Like the ‘Piccadilly platforms 15 and 16’ in Manchester, the Midlands Rail Hub appears to be an expensive and ineffectual scheme, which ought not to go ahead (and probably will not go ahead).