Trams could be running to Brierley Hill from 2023 after confirmation of £250 million worth of funding which will enable the extension from Wednesbury to be constructed. The money will be coming from the Transforming Cities Fund which was given to the West Midlands for transport infrastructure with Mayor Andy Street confirming it would be used towards the Midland Metro extension.
The extension will mainly run on a disused heavy rail corridor leaving the current Midland Metro network at Wednesbury Great Western Street and will be approximately 11 kilometres (of which 7 kilometres will be on the rail corridor) with 17 new stops (including four proposed) constructed. The line will deviate from this route to access Dudley Town Centre, Merry Hill and the Brierley Hill terminus. It is planned that new stops will be provided at Golds Hill (provisional), Great Bridge, Horseley Road, Dudley Port, Sedgley Road, Birmingham New Road, Tipton Road, Station Drive, Dudley Town Centre, Flood Street (provisional), New Road (provisional), Cinder Bank, Pedmore Road, Canal Street (provisional), Waterfront, Merry Hill and Brierley Hill.
Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands, said: “The Midland Metro extension to Brierley Hill is the WMCA’s priority transport project and the £250m from government means we can now get underway on a project that is shovel-ready. The importance of this extension is difficult to overstate. It will open up sites for housing and regeneration and reconnect Dudley and Brierley Hill to the rail network for the first time in decades. Perhaps most importantly, it connects the DY5 Enterprise Zone to the network and supercharges proposals to create thousands of jobs in Brierley Hill. This has been a long time coming – many decades in fact – but because of the WMCA presenting a compelling case to Government, we are finally able to start work, subject to board approval. We now begin looking at the next projects we want to fund, with the extension of the Metro to Eastside to connect with the HS2 station at Curzon and the reopening of the Camp Hill line very much in our sights.”
Vegetation clearance work was started on the line back in January and it is hoped that full construction of the line would start in 2019, with a four year construction period. Part of the route may be built without overhead – investigations are continuing into the feasibility of this – and a new depot will also be built to accommodate the extended fleet of trams.
Good news – but the line was authorised in 1988 and it’s taken 29 years to get the go-ahead to build it. That will mean 31 years before construction starts and 35 years from authorisation before it starts operating. An astonishing delay.
Well it is British after all