The buildings which once stood at Dale End in Birmingham City Centre and were in the way of the proposed route for the Eastside West Midlands Metro extension have now been fully demolished. Once containing a McDonald’s demolition work on the parade of buildings started in October 2022 and are now just a pile of rubble.
The Birmingham Eastside extension is due to run between the delta junction at Bull Street/Corporation Street on the current city centre line and High Street Deritend. It will provide connections to both Birmingham Coach Station and the Curzon Street HS2 station. The HS2 station connection is where there are problems with the full line opening at any time soon as work on the West Midlands Metro here can’t start until HS2 work is finished – and this isn’t expected until 2026 at the earliest. As a result no opening date for this extension is not even being estimated.
Consideration is being given to opening part of the route, however. This would see a temporary stop opened next to Clayton Hotel which would allow Moor Street Railway Station and Birmingham City University campus to be served. But no final decision has been made on this as yet.
Back to Dale End and the parade of shops at King’s Parade have now been fully demolished. Work first started in October 2022 and over the past eight months good progress has been made on removing the buildings. Once the rubble has been removed (and its planned to recycle most of it by crushing it and then reusing it in other areas of the project) it will then be possible for the tram route to be seen and for eventually tracks to be laid.
Where once there were shops, now there are none! Dale End and its rubble. (Photograph by Mark Cufflin, 8th July 2023)
Meanwhile, work continues on Lower Bull Street to lay the track for the extension. This is the scene showing more rails getting ready for installation. (Photograph by Mark Cufflin, 10th July 2023)