Background to the Birmingham Metro plans
Mar 16 2009 by Patrice John, Birmingham Post
The Midland Metro has been running in Birmingham and the Black Country for the past ten years.
Centro, the West Midlands Passenger Transport Authority, first bid to extend the Midland Metro in 2006 with the aim of running routes from Snow Hill through Birmingham city centre to Five Ways, and then from Wednesbury to Brierley Hill.
In the original bid there were also longer-term plans for tram lines from the city centre to Birmingham International Airport and the NEC, Quinton and Great Barr; and a Black Country route linking Walsall to Wolverhampton, Willenhall, Wednesfield and Wednesbury.
The original business case for this extension was prepared ahead of bidding for monies from the Transport Innovation Fund (TIF) which was linked to congestion charging.
The Government invited councils to come up with plans for congestion charging, and in return Birmingham would have received almost £2 billion which is thought would have been used to fund the extension of the Metro.
When the City Council and Centro decided against the congestion charge they were unable to bid for TIF and plans for a Metro extension were put on ice.
Now they have re-submitted a bid for the extension of the Metro via the West Midlands’ Regional Funding Advice to government.
The document is a response to government’s request that the region provides advice on investment priorities.
A list of schemes has been submitted to government for the period up to 2018-2019.
These tell the Government what projects the region believe £1 billion a year of public investment would be best spent on.
The new plans for the Metro extension include a scaled-down Birmingham city centre route which will only run from New Street to Snow Hill and not on to Five Ways.
A Centro spokesman said this was because of the creation of the Big City Plan by Birmingham City Council which is currently exploring the redevelopment of the city.
For this reason the route for the Metro is still to be decided on in line with Big City Plan priorities.
Plans for the Birmingham city centre extension include high-capacity Midland Metro trams to deliver an increased frequency in and out of Birmingham.
It is hoped this will increase passenger numbers from five million to eight million and generate up to 2,000 jobs.
It will run along a viaduct in Upper Bull Street, along Corporation Street and then down on to Stephenson Street.
The Metro is said to cut congestion and a journey from Birmingham to Wolverhampton takes 30 minutes.
There are 23 stops along the Line One route which serves Handsworth, West Bromwich, Wednesbury and Bilston as well as commuter traffic between Wolverhampton and Birmingham.
