The issue of permanently relegating bus-stops to the city’s outskirts has provoked lengthy comments. John Tyrrell points out some advantages of a Metro:.
“In 2004 when I was Cabinet Member for Transport I tried hard to move the Metro forward with far wider scope. Proposed were lines to Great Barr, Fiveways and beyond including Hagley Road, Eastside etc.
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“I use trams, trains and buses and I have to say the latter is the poorest not only in image but in comfort and reliability (time keeping etc.).
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“I use park and ride at the Hawthorns and often have to make a change at Moor Street and walk to New Street. I admit I need the exercise, but as I get older, or have heavy cases to deal with I could do with integrated transport ie the tram linking with New Street. You could have a bus service, but that means lugging heavy cases twice, and it’s difficult getting them on to buses.”
Even supposing (falsely) the trams have such great merits, it makes not a whit of difference to the far more routes that are served by the buses. There is no way you are going to get tram services to for instance the new Mega-hospital, Weoley Castle, the Hawkesley Estate, up and down Dudley Rd or War Lane, to name just a few.
No way can the metro compare in terms of the regular stops in or near people’s roads. Buses can be very flexibly instantly re-routed to where they’re actually needed, whereas metro requires a big bribe-lubricated “investment” each time instead. That’s the real reason why
certain people have been so enthusiastic about it and yet never bothered to consult the bus users, indeed have been going out of their way to misinform them instead as our website documents.
Furthermore I’ve travelled on the metro myself and can confirm that the talk of how superior it is is just more propaganda blurb. Far from rolling smoothly through the streets, all along the on-road end at Wolverhampton there is loud shaking and grinding and rattling and squeaking. And in the fast sections very loud wind noise. The fares are high and poor value and you can’t use all-day bus tickets or the railway cards.
As for bus unreliability you haven’t seen nothing compared to the chaos that’s planned for the crossings and junction at Moor St, the reliability will sink without trace with the entire system in daily logjam.
Anyway Mr Tyrrell, how about answering those questions. Why have Centro completely avoided any consultation on the removal of buses or any consultation with bus users? (Oh go on show me what words in what documents show this consultation, answer there was none.)
And do you Mr Tyrrell personally consider it acceptable to force this change on the bus users without any of the required consultation first, indeed not even having the common decency to inform them first. We’re all ears for your answers here……
(Oh, hang on, you were cabinet member for transport at the time the lethal Moor St “bus mall” had to be abandoned due to the catastrophic death rate. But of course, you still need the profits so we’re onto round two there now….) Centro 1, consultation 0.