Action Briefing December 2006 - January 2007
	The Newsletter of Birmingham Friends of the Earth

City Centre Midland Metro Halted

The extension of Midland Metro, the train-sized tram, from Snow Hill to Five Ways, has been halted by the Government.  The decision was made by the Department for Transport who seemed to realise that the cost, already wavering upwards from the £80 million pounds reported in this newsletter a few months ago, did not represent good value for money.
The decision means that buses can continue to run to Corporation Street where the bus stops are well-used throughout the day and evening.  For the promoters of Midland Metro, the extension of the tram system was partly to make it more visible and forming part of Birmingham’s image.  The extension would, for instance, have passed Birmingham New Street Station.
The Midland Metro project has, however, been a political rather than practical transport dream for many years.  The concept walked over the cliff-edge of common sense and kept going.  People have questioned the costs of the studies and designs and consultations and suggested that these have been an almost complete waste of money.  It has been suggested that a tram system should go where trains cannot go so that the stops are outside shops.  Metro lived a fantasy expectation of running on the same rails as trains so the rails are at the same spacing rather than to suit something narrower and suited to streets.  As for Star Trekking their way ‘where no train has gone before’, the one line of Midland Metro uses an old railway that could just have been put back for trains.  Being ‘really a train’ meant that the many potential routes that were studied included car parks next to some tram stops (Park and Ride) despite the two locations on the actual line not working well (mainly through vandalism and car theft).
The expenditure of so much money on studies, the time taken up by individuals and organisations responding to the consultations and proposals, has been a burden on Birmingham that has resulted in nothing useful.  There are reasons for the development of Metro of course.  Amongst the reasons have been the absence of a bottom to the money pit when improvements to local railways were suggested to (the now abolished) Railtrack, keeper of the railway lines.
The fact that no more is to be spent on the Birmingham extension of the Fantasy Transport Network called Midland Metro must be developed constructively.  Birmingham can use some sensible transport spending and all modes can benefit.  £5m for thirty years of night buses anyone ?

John Hall
(The views expressed by John Hall are not necessarily those of Friends of the Earth Birmingham)