Insider Media Limited

My blog last week on the extension of the Midland Metro from Birmingham Snow Hill station to New Street station provoked a voluminous response. I’m not egotistical enough to think this is because it was a superbly incisive critique of a government initiative that many of you, like me, think will be expensive and disruptive and will do little to alleviate transport problems within the city.

No, what it reflects is how important people think transport solutions issues are to the future of the region’s largest city and its surrounding areas.

I’m writing this on the day before the launch of Vision for Movement which brings together Birmingham City Council, transport organisation Centro and the various BIDs (businesses improvement districts) to tackle problems relating to moving people around an enlarged city centre.

But I’ve picked up enough market intelligence (or informed gossip, if you prefer) over the last week or so to be hopeful that the rapid transit vehicle system idea - think things that look like trams but are on wheels - may be given the go-ahead. Gary Taylor, of developer Argent and Broad Street Bid fame, is the man most closely associated with this scheme and he is to be congratulated for his vision and perseverance.

The idea of having such vehicles nipping around the periphery of the city and linking up its disparate parts is an exciting one and would, I’m sure, give everyone a boost because there’s no doubt that forward momentum has been lost in the city centre - largely as a result of the prevailing economic conditions - and seeing something new, innovative and ambitious will make us all feel better about the place in which we work and live.

I think such a system will also make the outlying parts of the city centre more attractive to investors who would have a much clearer idea of connectivity. The feeling of being cut off is never an appealing one for property developers and the like.

And for visitors to Birmingham - increasing all the time with political conferences, business conventions and industry events being won for the city - a quick way of getting around the city centre is not an unreasonable expectation. It is scandalous that cities the size of Nottingham, Sheffield and Newcastle have intra-city transport systems fit for the 21st century whilst Birmingham has nothing.

But let us accentuate the positive. Things are at last starting to happen. The eyesore that is New Street station is being sorted out and good things are happening with regards to Moor Street station and the route down to London Marylebone and High Speed 2.

If only we could get a few of the larger development projects moving we might enter the new year with a new sense of optimism (in relation to the city centre anyway).

I’m also pleased that Birmingham City Council has re-affirmed its attendance at the MIPIM development and inward investment show in Cannes next year even though other councils - including Nottingham - have pulled out. MIPIM may appear like a bit of a junket from the outside but it is the best event of its type in the world and it will take just one inward investment win or one commitment from a major developer or property investor to make the money spent on wining and dining and posh hotels look piffling by comparison.