People are questioning why the Midland Metro 1,300-yard extension to New Street is so important and many are asking what will come next.
Despite the fact that the newest £128 million extension covers a journey that can be walked in five minutes, its importance is much grander.
It fits into an extensive plan to connect from Wolverhampton and Brierley Hill in the Black Country to Birmingham Airport and the HS2 station in Solihull, which wouldn’t be likely without transit through Birmingham City Centre.
City MP Gisela Suart said: “connectivity throughout the city core must be improved to encourage investment and give commuters an alternative to cars.”
Mrs Stuart said: “At long last it’s here! They need to keep linking the city up – this is only the start. The whole of Birmingham needs much better inter-connectivity.”
The newest link unlocks the doors to these extensions following preliminary work which has already commenced on taking the Midland Metro further along New Street.
A scheme to open a new stop at Centenary Square by 2017 has been proposed following the completion of Broad Street, Digbeth will become the next focus.
The Midland Metro substructure feed into wider plans for HS2. By 2026, the Curzon Street Station and Adderley Street Park and Ride is foretold to be functional.
However, the stops in Eastside will be functional before then, by 2021 – Adderley Street, Fazeley Street, Curzon Street HS2 Station and Moor Street Railway Station.
Funds are still pending and the dates have been penciled, but there are major plans being made to take the trams to service a greater part of the seven metropolitan districts of the West Midlands.
The trams will also go on to Brierley Hill, near the Merry Hill Shopping Centre, Birmingham Airport, Interchange HS2 station and Coventry Railway Station in time.
