The Department for Transport have confirmed their full support for the further extension of Midland Metro through Birmingham City Centre to Edgbaston. The government have pledged £59.8 million towards the project which combined with the £84 million already secured will fully fund the line.
The extension will run for 2km from Grand Central with new stops built at Town Hall, Centenary Square, Brindley Place, Five Ways and Edgbaston. Initial works have already started but with full funding now in place it is hoped that work will soon be able to start in earnest. Despite the fairly short length of line due to be constructed it is not expected that trams will start running until 2021.
One of the main features of the line will be the lack of overhead wires on certain sections to minimise the impact of the historic city centre and iconic buildings. For these sections trams will run on battery power; the first Urbos 3 – 18 – is currently in Spain being fitted with these batteries and is expected back in the UK in the early autumn.
The news of the funding was confirmed by Transport Minister, Paul Maynard MP, during a visit to the West Midlands: “Midland Metro is already a success story, with passenger journeys up over 50% in the year since the extension to Grand Central opened in 2016. This new extension will be a further boost to Birmingham businesses, will make travelling to work easier for commuters and will increase access to some of the West Midlands major leisure venues. But just as importantly, it will help ease the pressure on the roads as it will provide an alternative for getting in and out of the city centre. This is a vital project and one which we are delighted to be able to support.”
Other funding for the project is coming from the West Midlands Combined Authority (£59 million), Birmingham City Council, Greater Birmingham Local Growth Fund Pot, Greater Birmingham & Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership and developers.
Good news. But four years to build a mile and a bit of line, most of it without overhead, seems excessively slow progress, considering it has been planned for years already. It is a shame that projects in the UK take several years to be authorised (if they are not cancelled after the long wait, as happened in Leeds – twice) and then even longer to be completed. I believe in France the process is much faster.