Concern about the relocation of city centre bus-stops during the construction of the Metro Birmingham City Centre Extension was raised some time ago by users, who were then reassured that this is a temporary measure.
Local bus user Robin Clarke has written, with others, to the Secretary of State for Transport challenging their funding of the extension of the Midland Metro across Birmingham City Centre, because of its adverse impact on bus services and documenting that there has never been any effective consultation of bus-users, but only ten years of misinformation.
Buses will terminate at five new interchanges on the edges of the city centre
Leaflets assert that city centre bus stops are going to be “temporarily” relocated but if this arrangement is permanent, all the most central, most convenient bus stops in the city centre will disappear, with no replacements anywhere close by.
There would be very serious implications for thousands of passengers in this ‘Connected City’.
Backing for Mr Clarke’s apprehensions is given by the Birmingham Mail’s report that instead of buses travelling along the most traffic-choked city centre routes, they will terminate at five new interchanges on the edges of the city centre.
Lack of effective consultation
None of the consultation exhibition locations were anywhere near the affected Corporation, Stephenson, Navigation Streets bus stops. Mr Clarke attended one of these exhibitions which was housed in an inconspicuous bus in grey livery and found that there was no indication the bus had anything to do with loss of bus stops from Corporation Street.
He was given two leaflets titled “Birmingham City Centre. Bus Changes” “…making getting around the city easier.” “Work over the next few months will see some bus services moving on a temporary basis.” The leaflets contained no hint that there could be permanent changes, leading the reader to assume the changes are only temporary.
There have been no notices on the numerous affected bus stops and Mr Clarke has questioned bus users and drivers in recent months, encountering ‘universal unawareness and outrage’ on being informed. On 5th April he recorded a video of such responses at bus stops.
A more unpleasant and inefficient transport experience
He describes the main intended interchange, at Moor Street, as being in the middle of a traffic-infested dangerous busy main road and videoed himself walking quickly from the Corporation Street stops to the start of the Moor Street interchange. It takes at least six minutes to get from the real centre to that location which Centro’s Chief Executive Geoff Inskip asserts is already “right in the centre”.
Anyone wishing to get to or from the important area around Old Square, including the Civil Courts, Crown Court, Magistrates Court, Juvenile Court, Matthew Boulton College, and Aston University, would have to walk an extra half-mile from, and an extra half-mile back to the 37, 45, 61, 63, 82 and 87. Information about these changes can be seen here.
If the bus system is substantially degraded, Mr Clarke expects that many people would give up using buses and resort to using cars instead, increasing congestion; the bus services would then respond to falling passenger numbers by reducing frequency, further discouraging bus usage.
Another concern is the danger posed by hidden rails used for metro/trams for cyclists whose wheels get caught in them. As Mr Clarke continues, cyclists already have a hard enough time without having to focus on the road surface rather than other road-users.
All of these factors would make for a more unpleasant and inefficient transport experience in Birmingham. There would be much more pollution and noise and traffic hazard and city centre bus users would have to walk further and or wait longer for linking buses.
The city’s bus system will be adversely affected, mirroring – or exceeding – the decline seen in Redditch when its bus station was relocated to the far edge of the centre.
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THE TRAMSCAN CAMPAIGN WANTS PEOPLE TO ACTIVELY ASSIST WITH PETITION, PUBLICITY AND THE LEGAL CHALLENGE
This is a foolish campaign which, if succesful, will set back the cause of integrated transport in th West Midlands. The reason we lag behind Greater Manchester is because we’ve dithered for years about extending the Midland Metro and connecting the major Brum station areas. By all means seek assurances about bus stop provision, but opposing the Metro extension sets back the cause of improved, integrated public transport. And to suggest a public body like CENTRO – which is run by the 7 WM councils – is somehow involved in a fat cats’ conspiracy around this issue is frankly paranoid.
Admin:
News of this campaign was posted because it raises serious concerns for bus users – especially those not in good health – who will be required to march long distances to city centre destinations.
The general public will not be at all happy with interchanges located on the outskirts of the city.
And fat cats’ conspiracies in local and national government – though not mentioned in this post – are frequently in the news and ‘a matter of record’, not paranoia.
There are concerns about access to the interchanges and pitfalls regarding the planned circular routes. There are currently only two planned, the 16 and 24 which means buses from the south will be terminating in Moor Street with no connectivity across the centre. Bad for bus users from the south, also not good for users of Digbeth Coach Station. There needs to be a service or two doing the “reverse” of the circular proposed for the 16 and 24 However, Mr. Clarkes campaign, is misguided and foolish.
Any “legal challenge” that Mr. Clarke wishes to pursue will fail. All Centro will need to do is point the Judge to the Transport and Works Act Order issued in 2004 and the extensive public consultation that had been done prior to that, including a public inquiry involving a planning inspector. The plans to take buses out of Corporation Street have been on the table for many years.
In any event, we need to compare our city with Manchester, who have had a light rail system for 20 years, to expose the real “scam”. Manchester City Centre is much bigger. Their Metrolink system has been a catalyst for regeneration. The West Midlands started planning it’s light rail system in the mid 1980′s at the same time as Greater Manchester. Greater Manchester now has a comprehensive Metrolink system covering the whole county. In comparison we have one line. The real “scam” is that the West Midlands has wasted millions of pounds on studies, unfeasable schemes (remember the underground proposals), have failed to engage the public and have not tackled vested political interests head on, while Greater Manchester have got on with it.
Outcome: while the bus service in Greater Manchester leaves a lot to desired as it does in the West Midlands (thanks to bus deregulation and Nicholas Ridley) they have a high quality tram network which would be the envy of many European cities. They managed to attract new jobs and investment in (the likes of the BBC) and are on the road to a low carbon economy. We’ve haemorrhaged jobs out of the West Midlands for many years and are still wedded to the car.
What do we want? A high quality urban transport system or one where we are choked by gas guzzlers? Do we want to enlarge our city centre and encourage more people to live and work in it, or do we want to keep the urban wastelands we see around the edge of the city centre?
“Foolish”, “paranoid”, “misguided”.
I too can quickly type cheap dismissive adjectives but how about some actual facts?
I should first point out that the article here did not represent the legal case at all accurately.
Nowhere do either of these two critics above answer the evidence presented in the Letter Before Action (which they could download from the linked http://www.tramscam.com site). That Letter shows the proof of (a) total lack of consultation (and only consultation before the 2005 decision, and specifically to bus users on the loss of bus routes counts for this purpose).
“West Mids Campaign” here claims there was lots of consultation on this, and that:
“All Centro will need to do is point the Judge to the Transport and Works Act Order issued in 2004 and the extensive public consultation that had been done prior to that, including a public inquiry involving a planning inspector.”
How about you read our Letter before making yourself out to be so expert? None of the documents preceding the planning inquiry even mentioned the possibility of loss of bus stops or loss of bus routes. There was extensive consultation of others about other issues but conspicuous dis-consultation about that key issue. Our Letter listed all the documents, which consistently insisted that the only impact on buses would be improvements improvements improvements (plus several documented porkies for good measure).
Go on, show me the documents that Centro are going to show to the judge. We have already shown in the Letter the docs that we are going to show to the judge, which demonstrate ten years of systematic misinformation and zero consultation.
Even Centro’s OWN detailed report on the BCCE consultation made no mention whatsoever of consulting bus users or consulting on loss of bus stops or bus routes. And quite rightly so because there was none, only propaganda misinformation and evasions.
Again, on whether the extension would be positive or negative for Birmingham, the facts have already been presented in the Letter Before Action. You can obsess all day with the notion that having the latest fancy metro is the key thing, but the bus network is far more important and cannot be modified to a rail system. Even the council’s own internal 2005 report admitted the surface route down Corporation St would have seriously negative impact. Why were they wrong?
You go on about Manchester. But the Corporation Street in question is not in Manchester so Manchester facts cannot tell us how to assess the impact. How about comparing instead with London which has loads of buses streaming right through the centre and not a jot of on-street rails anywhere in sight? Oh, of course London is an economic failure area right?
“….do we want to keep the urban wastelands we see around the edge of the city centre?”
That actually ties into why this scheme has been promoted and pseudo-consulted on so misleadingly.
The buses go to where people actually live and work. (Unlike the metro, the buses can be easily re-routed to adapt to reality.) The Metro line for a large part goes through downturned urban wasteland areas. So certain people who already have a lot of money can buy that depressed land super-cheap and then wait for the Metro extension to push up the land values and make them an unearned fortune. Meanwhile the bus users have their lives made much harder but so what they don’t have any big money anyway so they don’t count. That’s beside the peculiar fact that Centro do own the metro but don’t own the buses. And of course there’s always much bigger bribes for approving some fancy expensive construction operation rather than for turning it down. So it’s easy to see reasons why there’s been the extensive pseudo-consultation and evasion as documented in our Letter Before Claim.
There’s also going to be the slight problem that the hoped-for economic recovery and property boom isn’t going to happen and so the urban wasteland will remain wasted anyway until someone solves the impossible mystery of recreating “growth” from nowhere.
And meanwhile too many people enthusiastic about transport issues are “enthusiasts” for anything on rails rather than realists.
“integrated”, “modern”, “high quality” etc?
Let’s look at the embarassingly visionless facts!
Thanks to 19th century politics there just happened to be two separate rail companies that built lines from Brum to Wolves. And one of the routes then became “disused” aka a pleasantly off-road bike trail (hence seriously underprofitable folks!).
Then a neat idea came up: “Let’s construct a really joined up integrated transport system for the whole of Birmingham on the basis that that 19th c. disused corridor through nowhere-much already existed. We could easily build that first bit, then the momentum would be there to extend through a tunnel then along Hagley Rd.”
“Who knows, in a few yrs time we’ll even have a comprehensive system of metros doing the roller-coaster slopes to Dudley Rd, or up Priory Rd, or all round the Hawkesley and Weoley Castle estates (etc), I mean it isn’t unrealistic in any way…(as we’ll have retired on the profits already) …”
Meanwhile both Nat Express and Black Country Buses have already got some hybrid-power buses operating. I suggest that’s some real future transport tech there, with flexibility built-in.
Two quick questions then I’ll shut up.
1. Show me in ANY of the documents cited in our Letter (or any others), show us just where and in what words they consulted bus users or consulted on removal of buses or stops from the Corporation Street corridor. Well you can’t because they didn’t.
2. If the extension of the Metro down Corpn St was such a good idea, why did they go to such extreme lengths to avoid any consultation of bus users or about the loss of bus routes, and why the other tricks detailed in our Letter? Answer – because it was so clearly not a good idea and would be firmly halted by any honest consultation.
I’m open to all proposals of proving us wrong (in which case I have plenty more exciting things to get on with instead).
I would suggest Mr. Clarke makes an appointment with Centros solicitor and goes through the extensive evidence that was provided to the inspector prior to the TWA inquiry; this would have included various consultations and exhibitions that were held prior to 2004. Had Centro not conducted these, then the Inspector would have not granted the order.
Note also that Centro as a “public body” has to conduct consultations with the public at large, not specifically bus users.
During the inquiry, an objection was made by Travel West Midlands (now NXWM). The Inspector granted the order for the route down to Broad Street, subject to adequate alternative provisions being made for stops for bus services. Whether what is proposed is “adequate” is a moot point, but it is clear that if you are going to put a Metro line down Corporation Street the buses and traffic that use it have to be diverted somewhere. Note that NXWM are happy with the arrangements. There is also the possbility of putting some limited bus services back into Corporation Street once the Metro work is completed.
Had the City Council, Centro and the former transport chief Len Gregory got their ducks in a row and got on with the job it is likely that the extension would have now been built, the trams would be running and we would be wondering what all the fuss was about. Instead we’ve seen dither and now the prospect of a futile legal action, for which the only people who will win will be the lawyers.
“I would suggest Mr. Clarke makes an appointment with Centros solicitor and goes through the extensive evidence that was provided to the inspector prior to the TWA inquiry; this would have included various consultations and exhibitions that were held prior to 2004.”
I would suggest you read the documentation I cited before penning a pseudo-comment that pretends it doesn’t exist. As our Letter Before Claim makes clear we went to exhaustive lengths in search of evidence that bus users had been consulted or that the issue of removal of bus routes had been consulted on. Instead we found consistent misinformation including false assertions such as that all other transport would be allowed “easy passage” or just that there would be “improvements”.
“Note also that Centro as a “public body” has to conduct consultations with the public at large, not specifically bus users.”
Note more usefully our quotation from the official directions which state that there should be exhaustive consultation of ALL affected parties. In this case the bus users are the MOST affected parties – yet you think it doesn’t matter that they have been systematically bypassed. Which shows your personal agenda rather clearly there I suggest.
“Note that NXWM are happy with the arrangements.”
So what? NXWM management are just part of the transport industry clique. They are not in any way representatives of the bus users, with hundreds of whom we have talked face-to-face in recent weeks. I suggest you go round to the Corpn St stops yourself, actually talk to the people you consider so unimportant and see how long you last before more than a few people get seriously angry at the clap you are talking here. But you wouldn’t have the nerve, just as mighty Centro are now too shy to appear on radio WM in case we ask the wrong questions of them. Why that, please tell us?
Mr. Clarke what exactly is your agenda? How long have you been campaigning against the Metro? We want to see a high quality, integrated, public transport system encompassing all modes (bus, rail and light rail). It’s clear some strides have been made but the current situation is far from desirable. Are you happy with current service being offered?
Have you actually read through the TWA application (available at Centro for inspection with the supporting papers?)
Why are you happy to put hundreds of thousands of pounds of council-tax payers money at risk in legal fees, money which should be being spent on improving local public transport? If the application fails as expected will you be paying the legal costs?
There are deficiencies with the plan on the table, particularly with the provision of the circular services. The way for these to be resolved though is through entering into dialogue with Centro and the bus companies, rather than through the courts.
I use the bus, and would have the nerve to go down Corporation Street and talk to bus passengers. But, in the interests of fairness, would you have the nerve to talk to long suffering peak-time passengers on the Birmingham – West Bromwich – Wolverhampton Metro service who travel in cramped conditions every day and explain to them why their longer trams and improved Birmingham City Centre service which they’ve been promised for 15 years should be delayed yet again?
Also, bear in mind that buses used to use New Street up until the 1990′s. New Street has now been pedestrianised and is used for a multitude of events (e.g. the Farmers Market, Arts, Exhibitions) and is a much more pleasent thoroughfare than it was when it was open to traffic. Corporation Streets quality would be improved by the Metro – currently altough “buses only” there is often a free for all with other traffic. There is a very strong possibility that some bus services, with much improved vehicles would be restored to Corporation Street once the Metro works are completed.
Sorry Mr “West Midlands Campaign” (who sadly can’t put his name here), but you seem to be playing a cracked record.
>”Have you actually read through the TWA application (available at Centro for inspection with the supporting papers?)”
If you had taken the trouble, as ALREADY pointed out to you above, to read our freely available Letter Before Claim, you would know that we have gone to great lengths to read ALL the available relevant documentation. In respect of the TWA application documents you would know that they make NO MENTION of any removal of buses from streets (other than a stupendously hard-to-find and stupendously opaque reference to “all traffic except” in Schedule 6 Part VI Table V of the lengthy lego-technical Order itself (which normal people would never read let alone understand). But that’s presumably good enough “consultation” for you.
>”There are deficiencies with the plan on the table, particularly with the provision of the circular services. The way for these to be resolved though is through entering into dialogue with Centro and the bus companies, rather than through the courts.”
The way these should have already been resolved is by Centro actually informing people what they were up to, doing the honest consultation that’s legally required. But they chose to make a ten-year operation of MIS-informing instead, as documented in our Letter Before Claim. Why that, Mr “Campaigner”?
>”I use the bus, and would have the nerve to go down Corporation Street and talk to bus passengers.”
So what? I actually HAVE talked to hundreds of the bus users and consequently actually know what they think of Centro’s scam, rather than armchair “campaigning” about it. And told people my name and contact details in the process.
Meanwhile you anonymously assert that you too would have the nerve to talk to the bus users in Corp St. But more to the point tell them how Moor St is “right in the centre” and going to be such a great improvement. What a hollow joke, when you don’t even have the courage to put your personal name to your propaganda efforts here, and the little Centro mouse is too frightened to speak on Radio WM in case I come along and bite it with some obvious questions.
Turning to your second reply, Yes, New Street is wonderful. That’s precisely because it hasn’t got a whopping load of trams barging through it which would certainly put paid to those markets and exhibitions.
>”There is a very strong possibility that some bus services, with much improved vehicles would be restored to Corporation Street once the Metro works are completed.”
Really? Can we have some official evidence of this notion rather than just the unaccountable rumour-mill of Mr “Campaigner” here. Why hasn’t the entire thing been worked out in advance anyway. Oh, wait a minute, it already has, you’re just continuing with the misinformation that’s already gone on for ten years. The actual documents contradict your anonymous rumour here, they emphatically make clear (in suitably obscure places and obscure words admittedly) that the buses will be removed from Corp St and not brought back again.
And, Mr “Campaign”, why haven’t you answered those two simple but very pertinent questions above (at 29th April)? And nor has the shy Centro mouse.
Anwser: because they lay this scam bare, that’s why. Pretend they aren’t really there….
Birminghan is a horrible, backward thinking city. Sorry but it is, people are great but the ones in charge have given it no respect and simply improved where someone else suggested. Do your own research and shape the city for it residents and future. Lifelong Brummie here, desperate to get out of this hole.
Has it not occurred to any of you folks that Birmingham is, effectively, the CINDERELLA city of the UK? For its size and population (the city still has more inhabitants than the official populations of Liverpool and Manchester COMBINED!!) , it sure has BY FAR the worst public transport infrastructure of any ‘million’ city in the west of Europe. It’s frankly an embarrassment. I mean, it’s all very well doing away with the highways, underpasses, concrete collar ring roads and making the streets greener and LESS accessible to cars, but remember, the planners seem to have overlooked TWO intrinsic – some would say, glaring – facts:
1) that all the displaced traffic has to go somewhere else – because car ownership isn’t exactly decreasing is it? For example, if you’re going to remove the old inner ring road from the map of the city, then for goodness sakes, upgrade the middle ring road (now simply the city ring road) to cater for the traffic being diverted to use this main orbital/distributary artery.
2) you need to equip the city with a half decent (I say half, because that’s all the city of Birmingham can even aspire to the way things are right now) public transport infrastructure first – which it clearly hasn’t done even after all this time of mass dithering and consultations. What good has all that done for our image exactly? New Street station is getting a new CONCOURSE for its increased passengers but NO extra platforms or tracks – no logic in that whatsoever (we’re the only major city station to go along THAT particular route then…). It’s taken 20 years to extend the Metro by one pathetic kilometre of track, whilst Manchester has built – or is building – five new lines… as for the buses….. don’t even get me started.
So where, exactly, is the proof in the pudding of that great Big City Plan then?? It’s a load of utter codswallop as ever….
How is it that we have been simply sitting by for the last two, THREE, decades even, and putting up with all of these half-hearted measures without any serious SUBSTANTIAL investment being afforded our city year upon year upon year?
LIke Adam above says, our city is going backwards. It’s like it doesn’t seem to possess the courage of its convictions to lift itself out of its perpetual mediocrity – and public transport is just one aspect of its complete and utter lack of ambition.
It’s things like this that make me feel truly ashamed to be a Brummie, you know. No wonder so many people laugh at our city…we don’t seem to ever do ourselves – or our image when it comes to decent infrastructure – any favours.