Ultra Light Rail Partners

2 This Information Memorandum is not intended to be a financial promotion. It does not contain information from a business plan about the company and its prospects. It is intended to provide a view of potential prospects for the lightweight rail industry based on the experience of Parry People Movers Limited and the role it might play in it. If you are in doubt about the contents of this document you should consult a person authorised for the purposes of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 to advise on securities. This Information Memorandum has been issued by Parry People Movers Ltd, company number 2652429, whose registered office is at Overend Road, Cradley Heath, West Midlands, B64 7DD. www.parrypeoplemovers.com 3 PARRY PEOPLE MOVERS LTD INFORMATION MEMORANDUM From early beginnings in the 1990s the effort to Meanwhile at the turn of the Millennium, the continued support and trust of existing design, develop and prove an affordable rail first light rail systems based on European shareholders. This Memorandum pro- technology has attained technical respectability. engineering had been proving very effective, vides the latest information about the com- Step by step, proof of concept exercises, then a but when the huge bills for construction pany, the system and the opportunities demonstration service promoted by James Skin- came to be paid, the Government framed a which it has created which have at last ner’s Sustainable Transport Company, Sustraco, no-go policy - 'Tramways are too expensive produced a fair wind especially in favour in Bristol, and today in everyday service in the - so we must make buses more efficient and of smaller systems. West Midlands. PPM’s Class 139 railcars have attractive instead'. This was a further ham- recently been described by the BBC’s transport mer blow for rail innovation. Second only to the huge amount of money correspondent as ‘the most reliable trains on the that the pathfinding Stourbridge Shuttle national network’. During 10 years in the hands For PPM to proceed against such strong service is saving is the great popularity of PMOL the operator, reliability has been over head winds required determination and a with its passengers. 99.5%. steady nerve – and most important, the The progress of PPM’s technology was pushed The Stourbridge back after 1999. Rail privatisation was accom- Branch line train panied by unprecedented upheaval with spec- service operated by PPM’s Class tacular rail disasters with much loss of life, just 139 light railcars at a time when the public were beginning to ac- reached a total of quire fresh appetite for train travel in the UK. 5 million passen- Combined with a general loss of confidence in ger journeys in domestically-originated technology was this evi- September 2018. dence that Britain was on its way to becoming a PMOL, the Opera- post-industrial nation? tor, marked the occasion by issu- To advance an argument that one of the World’s ing a Certificate to most creative sources of new ideas and techni- 80 year old Jo cal innovation should give up research and de- Aldred, the five millionth passen- velopment leading to new business opportunities ger. is nonsensical. Most nations of the World have railways that were originally supplied by British (photo courtesy of the Express & Star engineers. Why no longer? Newspaper) 4 GLOBAL WARNINGS FIRE AND WATER FORESIGHT INSIGHT ENERGY STORAGE People in Asia, America and Australia have It is generally recognised that to reduce the quantity 'Lack of progress in battery development been experiencing unpleasantly hot, polluted of CO2 and other climate-affecting gases entering has encouraged investigation of other tech- air and widespread life-threatening bush fires. the atmosphere, one of the most effective measures nologies. An alternative way of storing en- A decade ago these would have just been a is to reduce the use of private cars in urban areas ergy is a flywheel .......' theme setting for a disaster movie. They are encouraging people to travel by rail. This will also 18th Report on Transport and the Envi- now daily news stories. Human beings have improve air quality. But to quote from the Na- ronment. Royal Commission on Environ- been ‘playing with fire’ and casualties are tional Technology Foresight Programmes Trans- mental Pollution 1994. mounting. Perversely flood disasters are oc- port Report of May 1996:- curring in several regions simultaneously. Ten All this points to the glaring need for more 'The capital cost of conventional Metro/ affordable rail based public transport. out of the last twelve years have experienced Supertram systems limits them to urban areas ‘global warming’-induced extreme events. If the which have large populations and high density fire does not get you, the water will! movement corridors. A new lighter, cheaper Concerned people can choose two different mode is needed for all those towns which can- Growth of Passenger Journeys on Britain’s ways to react:- a) Make a lot of noise carrying not meet the requirements for a supertram but most energy-efficient Rail Service - The placards, blocking roads, demanding that which still have problems to solve in their cen- Stourbridge Shuttle ‘something must be done’ b) Actively getting tres'. (Conclusion reached 24 years ago!) involved by supporting remedial activities. Introduction of a regular weekend operation and a 10 minute frequency daily service on the Stourbridge Branch boosted passenger journeys sharply after 2010 on the heavy rail service which was around 300,000 a year . Prioir to that in the 1990s when the two major transport reports were commissioned by the British Cabinet, but the concept of hydridisation using flywheel energy was considered by some as whimsy or a Victorian throwback. However, since the flywheel powered Class 139 began uninterrupted 18 hours each day service, passenger numbers have continued to grow and now exceed 600,000 journeys a year. 5 CONTENTS Contents Page Urban Transport – An Outstanding Need 6 Parry People Movers’ Vision 7 AFFORDABLE RAIL PIONEERS The case for Tramway Innovation 8 People-Friendly 10 What’s Coming Next? 11 Routes to Light Railway Markets 12 Other Emerging Prospects: Town & Country Lines 13 Key Manufacturing Partners and Collaborators – Clayton Equipment 14 Severn Lamb 15 Other Key Collaborators 16 Priority Engineering Research and Development 17 Professional & Strategic Collaborators: PMOL 18 Ultra Light Rail Partners: First of A Kind Project 19 Planning the Product Range: Contemporary Context 20 Planning the Product Range: Heritage Context 21 PPM Bounces Back 22 Directors, Associates and Close Advisors 23 From left to right: Phil Evans, Pre Metro Operations (see page 18); Cllr Beverley Nielsen, Ultra Light Rail Partners (see page 19); James Skinner, Sustainable Transport Company, and John Parry, Parry People Movers Limited 6 URBAN TRANSPORT - AN OUTSTANDING NEED The facilities and conveniences brought to us by modern technology have transformed life in the home, in the office, in the factory, on the farm and on holiday, but there is one field in which it is the absence of progress which is remarkable. Urban transport is not only as unpredictable and frustrating as it ever was but the damage it is causing to the environment (including the aban- donment of towns and urbanisation of the coun- tryside) and the threat to people's health are becoming unacceptable or even intolerable. And this at a time of unprecedented consumer ascen- dancy, when unexpected levels of service, including standards of hygiene, have never been higher. Model of a Clear Zone in a town where internal transport is entirely provided by nil emission modes including PPM light railcars 7 PARRY PEOPLE MOVERS' VISION Helping the Victims of Success Post Millennium Britain is on the move. Led initially by the more successful London-centric areas in Southern England and increasingly in the North West growing population, urban employment, opportunities and car use meant traffic congestion was growing and no matter how design improvements were changing the internal experience of bus travel, the journeys the vehicles were making were being increasingly hampered by traffic congestion. This Present day daily tedium of the bus journey to In 1994 PPM mounted an early demon- resulted in a continuing massive decline in bus use work stration of lightweight tram technology in- with no other alternative but using the car. cluding installing a special portable track Later, once the rail network began to settle down, The Problems for Buses commuters began using rail more and more for their High quality bus services do It is relatively far more difficult for bus not enhance property values journeys to work. As a consequence, despite con- drivers than tram drivers to maintain stant investment to increase capacity, suburban accurate journey times The Solution from PPM train services have become overwhelmed. Station The market has realized that the need car parks are crammed with cars overflowing onto Bus operating costs per passenger are exists for a much smaller, simpler and surrounding streets. higher than trams and the vehicles need to be replaced more frequently affordable form of rail technology to fill Urban dwellers are the victims of success. Their in the gaps. The planning and regula- Passengers pay higher fares on trains salvation will come in the form of a method of trans- tory authorities are also aware of this but still choose to travel by rail port which is safe, quick, reliable (normally gets need. The company’s position is far there on time) and causes no harm to the environ- Large, non-fixed-track vehicles are un- further forward that it was 21 years ago. ment. The technology of buses as vehicles has suitable to operate in pedestrianised This is as a result of technical maturity been massively improved over the years, but with- streets.

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