Birmingham City Council have urged the Department for Transport to tell them once and for all whether they will give the go-ahead to the city centre Midland Metro extension. The business plan for line has now been at the DfT for approaching two years and yet it seems that a decision is still not any closer to being made.
Cllr Len Gregory, cabinet member for transportation, said: “It would be helpful to everyone in Birmingham if the government could make a decision one way or the other about the metro. It is about time ministers came clean and said what is really going on. We want to make Birmingham an international city and the idea of a monorail has to be looked at. It would certainly put us on the map. We are not blinded by dogma and we will look at any effective scheme to take people quickly between the city centre and the airport.”
The initial extension plan is for a link from Snow Hill station through the city centre to New Street station and then onto Five Ways, but the plans have stagnated in the last few years with the government’s apparent reluctance to approve light rail schemes.
As mentioned in the quote above from Cllr Gregory initial plans are now being looked into for a monorail to serve the city centre and Birmingham International Airport – but this would only be looked at if the Metro plan was kicked into touch permanently. A meeting between the city council and Neil Maybury, Birmingham Business Focus director, is due to take place in the coming weeks to discuss this Monorail.
The monorail plan would cost an estimated £280 million and would link New Street with the Airport in 16 minutes. The proposal was originally developed by Birmingham Business Focus but a new company – Greater Birmingham Monorail – has now been set-up to develop it further.
It remains to be see whether the Monorail scheme is more pie in the sky (remember Birmingham’s plans of a few years ago for an underground railway system) or whether it really does have the legs to help solve congestion in the city centre.
Source: Birmingham Post