Big City Plan’s £15m transport boost by 2015

A NEW way of travelling around Birmingham city centre could be in place as early as 2015 at a cost of £15m.

That’s the aim of Gary Taylor, chairman of the Broad Street Business Improvement District, and the man spearheading the campaign to launch the ‘Birmingham Sprint’ transport initiative.

Mr Taylor, speaking at the launch of the Big City Plan’s ‘Vision for Movement’ masterplan, said it was a realistic timetable to work towards to implement phase one of the Sprint.

It would coincide with the rebuilding of New Street Station and the extension of the Midland Metro between there and Snow Hill.

Phase one of the route would run from Five Ways to Walsall via Broad Street, Centenary Square, New Street, Moor Street, the HS2 Station once opened, Aston University, Newtown and Great Barr.

It proposes to use rapid transit vehicles, which are similar to buses and trams but have multiple doors and require no overhead cables.

Popular in America and France, they run on existing road surfaces, reducing the need for much of the infrastructure work.

• PICTURE GALLERY: Making sense of Vision for Movement

Mr Taylor told delegates: “We need a more connected city. Some journeys in Birmingham are clearly too long to walk.

“The Birmingham Sprint is the Metro’s little sister. It has priority over other road users. Why shouldn’t travel in our city look like it does in a European city?

“The Metro extension will be delivered by 2015, Vision for Movement identifies the first phase of the Birmingham Sprint route in the same time frame.”

The launch of Vision for Movement at the ICC was the next step in the Big City Plan, the blueprint for the regeneration of Birmingham over the next 20 years.

Other aspects to the transport proposals include better signage, a ticketing system similar to the Oyster card in London, more cycle lanes, improve pedestrian access such as car free zones and wider pavements and a greater priority to public transport.

Charlotte Crossley, chair of Birmingham Future’s city centre committee, said: “The coming together of private and public sectors in partnership to deliver world class transport is great news for Birmingham.

“The vision goes a long way towards laying out a deliverable, interconnected transport network that will make getting around the expanded city core easier and more efficient.”