In Focus: Making tracks
Like many others I was surprised that in a Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) dominated by how money could be saved through various cuts a large chunk of cash had apparently been found down the back of someone’s sofa and allocated to extending the Midland Metro ‘tram’ service from Birmingham’s Snow Hill station to the nearby New Street station.
There’s no doubting that the region’s transport plans were given a major boost by the CSR. If I was being pedantic I might suggest that the announcement that the government remains committed to redeveloping New Street Station had already been announced, but a renewed commitment to High Speed 2 was very welcome.
But the Midlands Metro extension decision caught everybody cold. Birmingham does indeed have some very real transport issues but they mainly relate to how you get people around an extended city centre - from Five Ways to Digbeth, say, or from the Jewellery Quarter to Chinatown. Plans for a rapid transit vehicle system looping around the city have been worked up by Gary Taylor of Argent amongst others and would seem to offer a reasonably priced and quick solution to some of this problem. I’m hopeful it will be given serious consideration by the powers that be.
But the Metro extension seemed to be dead in the water when transport secretary Philip Hammond refused to commit to funding the scheme (backed by the previous Labour administration) in the summer.
And it has to be said that there was no great clamour for it to be approved anyway because it seems to be tackling a problem that doesn’t exist.
I’m not the fastest walker in the world but I can do New Street to Snow Hill in about seven to eight minutes. And that walk is through shop-lined streets and the cathedral grounds. It is not a difficult or unpleasant journey. The signage could probably be better for people who don’t know the city but that’s hardly a reason to cause a huge amount of disruption in the city’s business district by extending the Metro.
People who come into Birmingham on the Snow Hill line from the south can get off at Moor Street for the shops. Those who come in from the Black Country on the tram already know the route from Snow Hill to New Street. Which begs the question: who is this aimed at?
As an instinctive Keynesian I’m all in favour of trying to stimulate the economy via a programme of big infrastructural projects - and indeed this extension will provide much-needed employment in the construction sector - but surely such large disruptive schemes need to meet a recognised need.
I’ve yet to meet anyone who can explain to me why there is a need for this project. Indeed many Metro users would argue that an extension is much more necessary at the other end of the line: the long hoped for extensions to Brierley Hill and Stourbridge and a loop around Wolverhampton city centre.
The best that we can hope for is that the Snow Hill-New Street project creates momentum and that will help to get other - more necessary - projects off the ground.
Comments? Andy Coyne, Insider
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