The past week has seen further progress on the track relaying project in Birmingham City Centre with rails continuing to be laid along Corporation Street ahead of a planned reopening of the line to Library in the next month or so. The closure of the line beyond Bull Street has been in place since 24th July but now some two months later and we should be on the home straight to a full tram service running again soon.
Although the tracks along Corporation Street weren’t due for renewal at this stage the decision was taken that whilst the Eastside junction was constructed as Bull Street and Corporation Street meet they would be replaced to avoid any unnecessary disruption further down the line. This has seen the old tracks ripped up all the way through the stop at Bull Street, along Corporation Street and towards the Grand Central stop on Stephenson Street. Work has gone all the way down to the track bed which has been renewed ahead of rails being installed. Recently new track has been put in place up to the Corporation Street tramstop.
This 15th September view looks up Corporation Street (away from Grand Central) and shows that new track has been laid on both inbound and outbound lines now. Further work will be required to put the final top surface in place.
Three days later, 18th September, and we look towards Grand Central (the distinctive reflective surface of the shopping centre can be seen) where more rails are now in place on both tracks. Again, more work will be required before services can resume. (Both Photographs by Mark Cufflin)
Will the overhead be removed from Grand Central to Bull Street? Considerable savings could be made by not having overhead at The Delta junction where the new eastside route connects to the existing network.