The Anonymous Widower

Walking The Route Of The Midland Metro Line One Extension

I’ve walked the Line One Extension of the Midland Metro between New Street and Snow Hill stations before, but I’ve never walked the proposed extension as far as Five Ways. I took these pictures on the route.

The Extension was planned to be opened to Centenary Square in 2017 and to Brindleyplace, Five Ways and Egdbaston later. Nothing much seems to be happening past New Street station, except for some utility works, which must be sorted before tram tracks and station are put over the top.

The walk is fairly easy, but the last section around Five Ways and to Five Ways station was designed using Birmingham’s 1960s philosophy of deling with traffic and pedestrians, that I’ve seen going to Birmingham City several times – Pedestrians should be channelled into dangerous areas, so they are run over and killed. This would of course make it less likely a driver will damage his car, by hitting one.

Birmingham could do a lot worse than extend the tram to Five Ways. Some of the running routes would be challenging and Birmingham’s many drivers would probably object, but if they want more visitors to the City, surely it is a price worth paying?

I do wonder about the costs of extending tram lines, as opposed to building new ones. Obviously, some costs like new trams and getting power to the trams will be minimised, but you’ve still got the costs of actually putting in the rails and divering utilities.

July 31, 2015 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Birmingham, Driving, Walking, West Midlands Metro