A Trip to the Village
Yet…. realisation may be setting in. Ridding Birmingham of the most polluting vehicles is a start. Improving the public transport alternative is paramount. So why is the extension of today’s modern West Midlands Metro tram system such a milestone? After all, it’s only a measly three stops…
Trams are attractive, in a way buses struggle to compete with. Extending Brum’s Metro “up the road” to Five Ways is something the city’s bus users have been able to ride forever. Yet, there is something significant about traversing Birmingham city centre on a tram. It says that we’re serious about an effective public transport alternative to the car.
It’s been a long time coming. Birmingham has long had an image of “car city”. Once you’re stuck with that perception, it’s very difficult to shrug off. Add to that the trauma of the pandemic and a series of unfortunate issues with buses, trains and the trams themselves – unsafe cracks have seen the withdrawal of the the Metro on more than one occasion in recent times. Damage has been done to the confidence of those using public transport in the city-region.
Now, as we climb out of Covid, the eyes of the world fall onto Birmingham, as host city of the Commonwealth Games. The Metro needs to showcase what is good about public transport – and it needs to be visible. And just in the nick of time, it has reappeared, gliding right through the city’s streets, with a new link to the West side of Birmingham.
A trip from Wolverhampton, through the industrial Black Country, into Birmingham city centre and out to the other side was therefore a must – as the new terminus is “Edgbaston Village”.
There has been a fair bit of comment on this chosen name. Quaint, it may seem, although the end of the line is amongst office blocks and a giant Morrisons , which doesn’t conjure up a “village” feel. Yet, I like it. “Edgbaston Village” is actually a “thing”. It’s a name given to a small area of development in this part of Birmingham, which should see improvements in the coming years. And it sounds much nicer than “Hagley Road” – which was the original name given to this stop, and still visible on tram stops along the line showing the coming extension.
Travelling through the heart of the city, first via Bull Street (near Snow Hill Railway Station), then down Corporation Street and “Grand Central” (for New Street Railway Station), the line then travels up hill to the Town Hall and onwards towards the Library, where the terminus was previously located. The new bit then involves mixing it with local buses up Broad Street, famous for it’s entertainment and night life (and gateway to the canal network) before swooping underneath the major Five Ways traffic island to terminate just on the other side, on Hagley Road.
It’s not quite finished. Integration with adjacent bus services is via a bit of an untidy yellow sign. There is a bit more work to be done to tidy up the finished effort.
The full-length journey I made from Wolverhampton was popular, with several people standing. The Metro is clearly popular, although the frequency is still slightly below what it was pre-covid – currently between 12-15 mins whilst more trams are brought back up to spec.
But the story is that the tram is finally back in the heart of the city – a very visible reminder that mass transit in city centres is often best done by systems that are attractive, high frequency and effective. Bus routes come and go. Railed tram systems have something of a permanent feel to them.
That isn’t to say that other modes don’t have a part to play. High quality bus services have crucial part to play – and we’re fortunate to have a network across the wider region that – despite it’s own recent challenges – has the basis of a good, solid system for many years to come. Improving the image of the bus is vital too. “Sprint”, as a concept aims to build on bus priority with reliable, fast links – and not for nothing has it been dubbed “Metro’s Little Sister”. Building tram lines is an expensive game, so real improvements to bus are vital – trying high capacity articulated vehicles in addition to proven quality double deckers adds to the attractiveness of public transport. If perceptions of buses as slow, passenger-unfriendly modes of transport can be challenged with simple to use, high frequency, reliable services, all the better. Integrating all of this is another challenge. I’m fascinated by the concept of MaaS – the clumsily-named “Movement as a Service” idea that you don’t necessarily need to own and run a car – you can bring bus, rail, tram, cycle, e-scooter, taxi and car hire under one umbrella. Seeing this operating under one app in Helsinki, Finland is inspiring. Can we do this in Birmingham and the surrounding city-region? We surely don’t have a choice if we’re serious about cutting emissions and congestion – electric cars on their own won’t solve everything.
So why is extending the tram service three stops such a milestone? Now in my 50s, I’ve been interested in West Midlands public transport all of my life. Only now does it fell like we’re starting to actually get somewhere. It’s been painfully slow progress. Politics inevitably gets in the way. Vested interests play their part. But we have to push on with providing a real alternative to private motoring. Making that effective, reliable, and – actually – visually attractive to look at, has never been so important.
Keeping extending the Metro, bit by bit, mile by mile, is crucial to this vision. It’s too easy to criticise – I could have spent this entire blog belly-aching about how long this has taken, the problems with the trams themselves, the naming of the stops themselves. It’s time to move on, celebrate our public transport – yes, with all of the problems we’ve faced in recent times – and give our city-region a network to be proud of. Whenever I travel to another world city, I look at their public transport system. I’m sure most have their challenges, but many inspire me, because they just work, moving thousands of people seemingly effortlessly around. It feels part of the city fabric.
And so should Birmingham and the West Midlands’ transport network. Edgbaston Village is just another leg on that journey.
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