Transport in Birmingham

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Due in part to its location in central England, Birmingham is a major transport hub. Public transport in the city is overseen by the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive whose public brand is Centro/Network West Midlands.

1 Railways
2 Buses and Coaches
3 Roads
4 Air
5 Canals

[edit] Railways

[edit] Mainline Services

A large number of railway lines from all over Britain meet at Birmingham New Street, which is a central hub of the UK rail network and has regular train services to all of the major cities in the UK. Trains to London Marylebone station can also be caught at Moor Street station or Snow Hill station, though Snow Hill's London services are due to be diverted into Moor Street station in 2009.

A redevelopment of Birmingham's New Street Station is on the cards for 2011. The £350 million scheme will transform the station, introducing an imposing glass roof to enable light to flood onto the new concourse in a project called the Birmingham Gateway.

[edit] Local Services

There is also a substantial network of rail services within Birmingham and the West Midlands county, operated by Central Trains and supported by Centro/Network West Midlands, among the main lines is the Cross City railway line, which operates from Lichfield through Birmingham New Street to Redditch. A similar rail service operates from Wolverhampton through New Street to Coventry. A study of capacity of New Street Station found that there was adequate capacity for the existing and planned services for a few more years. What was less obvious was the footnote stating that this assumed a number of minor improvements on the local network including the Bordesley Curve and the Benson Road Chord. The improvements would divert some existing and proposed services into Snow Hill and achieve a Snow Hill Network (identified by the WMAMMS). The Local Transport Plan wants more trains but does not promise the money (www.westmidlandsltp.gov.uk).

[edit] Midland Metro

The Midland Metro, a light-rail tram system promoted by Centro/Network West Midlands, currently connects Birmingham to Wolverhampton via West Bromwich and Wednesbury. Further expansion in Birmingham City Centre has been approved but funding from Government was declined in November 2006. One of the next routes sought, through Dudley, is not universally popular as it would make what is currently a straightforward railway reinstatement from Stourbridge to Walsall into a complex and less useful project. There are currently plans to extend the system across Birmingham and the West Midlands.

[edit] Possible underground system

In the early 1950's, the government planned to protect essential communications by building a series of hardened underground telephone exchanges. Construction of the Anchor exchange in Birmingham started in 1953 with a cover story was that a new underground rail network was being built. Work progressed until 1956 when the public were told the project was no longer economic; instead Birmingham got its underpasses through the city to help relieve congestion. Nobody had realised that an underground exchange and tunnel system 100ft below Newhall Street had been completed at a cost £4m. The main tunnel that was used is about the same dimensions as the London underground, running from Anchor to Midland ATE in Hill Street, from there the tunnel continued under New Street Station and on to the exchange in Essex Street.[1]]

More recently, the Conservative-Lib-Dem alliance running Birmingham City Council proposed an underground system as an alternative to expansion of the Midland Metro. A £150,000 feasibility study was conducted, looking at the benefits and drawbacks of a state-of-the-art, £3 billion underground system serving the city. The rug was pulled from taking it further in 2006,because of the costs.

[edit] Buses and Coaches

Local bus services in Birmingham are largely operated by Travel West Midlands which operates a large network based on a range of services operating along main roads out of Birmingham (there are few Cross City services) and the Birmingham Outer Circle bus service, the longest urban bus service in Europe.

Most of the network is operated on a purely commercial basis, however services in evenings and on Sundays are supported by Centro. 'Independent' operators provide a range of services, either in competition to Travel West Midlands or under contract to Centro. Smaller operators include Diamond Bus (Now part of the Go-Ahead Group), Zaks, Central Logistics and Chase. Longer distance bus services are operated from Birmingham. First Wyvern (formally First Midland Red) operates services to Worcester and Redditch. Arriva operates several services to Burton upon Trent and Tamworth in Staffordshire. Warwickshire County Council also funds a frequent service to Stratford-upon-Avon operated by Stratford Blue.

Birmingham also forms a major hub in the National Express coach network, whose headquarter is in Birmingham and operates services from its coach station in Digbeth. This is due to be redeveloped by 2008 after plans to build a replacement coach station next to Snow Hill Station were abandoned due to a breakdown in discussions between National Express and the City Council. Birmingham also has a Megabus service to London. The companies flagship NXL Shuttle service operates to London as well as frequent services to the London airports, Manchester, Leeds, Nottingham, Leicester and Bristol among others. Many of these services are cross-country services operating from north to south, Birmingham provides an interchange between these services.

[edit] Roads

The M6 motorway connects Birmingham to London and the south, and the north-west of England and Scotland. Junction 6 of the M6 is also one of Birmingham's most famous landmarks, and probably the most famous motorway junction in the UK: Spaghetti Junction, officially called the Gravelly Hill Interchange. Other local motorways include:

The A38(M) which links Spaghetti Junction to the city centre
The M40, which connects Birmingham to London and Oxford
The M5, connecting Birmingham to the south-west of England
The M42, which connects Birmingham to Tamworth and the East Midlands
The M6 Toll, which enables through traffic on the M6 to bypass Birmingham and Wolverhampton.

Other major roads passing through Birmingham include:

The A34 from Manchester to Winchester
The A38 from Mansfield to Bodmin
The A41 from London to Birkenhead
The A45 from Birmingham to Thrapston (formerly to Felixstowe)
The A47 from Birmingham to Great Yarmouth
The A4040 Outer Ring Road

Birmingham became known for its numerous road intersections, tunnels and overpasses. However, over the previous decade, the council has been removing these. Possibly, most notably, Masshouse Circus which was known as a "concrete collar" due to its profile of being elevated preventing development beyond it.

[edit] Air

Birmingham is served by Birmingham International Airport, which has flights to Europe and New York. The airport is served by the railway network at Birmingham International railway station. Train services are provided by Virgin Trains or Central Trains on contract to Centro/Network West Midlands.

Frequent bus services will also operate from the airport to Coleshill Parkway railway station on the Birmingham - Leicester railway line when it opens in early 2007. This link will improve access to the East Midlands as well as providing further links to North Warwickshire and South-east Staffordshire

The airport also has 3 major bus services serving it. These being the 38 (Birmingham - Olton - International Airport), 900 (Birmingham - International Airport - Coventry) and the 966 (Erdington - International Station - Solihull Station). The majority of bus services are run by TWM (Travel West Midlands)

[edit] Canals

Although it has no major river (the Rea, on which the City was founded, is now little more than a culverted stream, and the Tame, which only passes through the northern suburbs, is not navigable), Birmingham is at the hub of the country's canal network.

There are 35 miles (60 km) of canals within the city, of which most are navigable. Birmingham is often described as having more miles of canal than Venice. This is technically correct (Venice has 26 miles), however, Birmingham is far larger than Venice [2], so the latter has a far higher concentration of canals; and the type of waterway is very different.

Extensive regeneration of the canals has taken place since the 1980s, from dredging them to enable the smooth passage of narrowboats, to the massive investment in and construction of canalside living accommodation. Similar development is planned for the Eastside area in Digbeth.

Canals in Birmingham include: