Fury as Broad Street trams 'not running until 2022' after service suspended
Westside BID manager Mike Olley slams the entire Metro operation and says cost of tram tracks should include lost business revenue
The brand new £83 million West Midlands Metro tram track from Centenary Square to Hagley Road is not expected to go into service until 2022, BirminghamLive can reveal.
The Westside Phase Two line was due to start running "in December" with hospitality businesses on Broad Street looking forward to a much-needed income boost before Christmas after the Covid-19 lockdowns.
But sources have confirmed to BirminghamLive not to expect trams to reach Hagley Road until the New Year now that
all West Midlands Metro tram services have been suspended for what looks set to be at least four weeks because of chassis cracks.
BirminghamLive understands some trams will still be seen running in the weeks ahead, but they will either be new models being tested, repaired trams being tested or drivers being trained. None will carry passengers.
Read more No trams on Corporation Street which has been left for four months without service
It is almost four months since a tram in service last ran along Corporation Street because the whole track had to be rebuilt by the Midland Metro Alliance from July 25 - October 29.
The track had only been in service for five years and two months after it was opened on May 26 2016 by
Black Sabbath legend Ozzy Osbourne and the official reason for its failure has still not been made public pending investigations.
"We need the cost of the tram network to be properly audited so that it takes into account how much money businesses have lost while it was being built and now while it is not even running at all.
"That would probably double the cost of the entire scheme - and at what price for the city?"
West Midlands Metro routes and costs
After work first began in 2012, the cost of extending the tram line from Snow Hill to Grand Central to Five Ways and from Bull Street to Digbeth will be more than £500 million.
The line from Grand Central to 54 Hagley Road is called
the Westside route
It is 1.2 miles long and has been built in two stages at a combined forecast cost of £149 million.
Phase One from Grand Central to lower Broad Street took 912 days to complete before being opened to the public on December 11, 2019.
It cost £65.98 million to introduce two stops - Paradise Street / Birmingham Town Hall and Centenary Square / Library of Birmingham.
"We need the cost of the tram network to be properly audited so that it takes into account how much money businesses have lost while it was being built and now while it is not even running at all.
"That would probably double the cost of the entire scheme - and at what price for the city?"
West Midlands Metro routes and costs
After work first began in 2012, the cost of extending the tram line from Snow Hill to Grand Central to Five Ways and from Bull Street to Digbeth will be more than £500 million.
The line from Grand Central to 54 Hagley Road is called
the Westside route
It is 1.2 miles long and has been built in two stages at a combined forecast cost of £149 million.
Phase One from Grand Central to lower Broad Street took 912 days to complete before being opened to the public on December 11, 2019.
It cost £65.98 million to introduce two stops - Paradise Street / Birmingham Town Hall and Centenary Square / Library of Birmingham.
Westside issues
As well as road restrictions, problems faced by Westside businesses in the past two years have included coping with the Covid-19 pandemic and the loss of East European workers because of Brexit changes.
Westside BID manager Mike Olley, who cycles 20 miles per day to and from work, said: "The Midland Metro Alliance (track builders) and West Midlands Metro (tram operators) are very good at ribbon cutting and cheesy grin pictures, but what we need are trams running!
"With so many changes to the local road network and problems with West Midlands Railway, we need the tram so that people can get to and from and work and for people to come to have a great time here to keep our employees in work.
Read more: Extremely angry' Corporation Street businesses should get compensation over Metro works
"But there have been so many cock-ups over the years and they haven't taken advantage of the lockdowns to speed things up to help our businesses to get back on their feet.
"The original Corporation Street line was late, then this year they've had to dig it up and relay it and now they haven't even had one service down there since it was finished at the end of October.
"On Friday when it was announced the entire service would be suspended for 'four weeks', I asked if the trams would be running up Broad Street in December and didn't get a reply, another question shoved under their duvet.
"There seems to be endless pots of money going into basic things.
"Yet while all of this is going on - and as someone who cycles to and from work every day - I see how the city's road are still full of potholes.
"Why can't we get anything right and why has it taken almost a decade of actual work to get the line from Snow Hill up to Five Ways and it still hasn't seen a tram go past Centenary Square?
"What on earth are we subscribing to with these huge amounts of public money being spent?
"Yes, we appreciate what they are trying to do, but it's failing miserably.
"What is the real cost of all of this work - you only have to look at the state of Corporation Street to see the effect years of work has had down there on its businesses.
"The lost revenues are immense, there are businesses that have failed, and nobody seems to care.
"All I can say is that I thank the pubic for still managing to get here to support our night time economy irrespective of what has happened to our road network. I really do admire their ability to get here."
Other challenges
Although Westside Phase One from Grand Central to Centenary Square opened on December 11, 2019, Broad Street has had to cope with numerous other traffic changes in the past three years with bus services re-routed as a result.
Paradise Queensway at the bottom end of Broad Street has been closed to traffic since September 4, 2018.
The Five Ways underpass was closed to traffic more than two years ago on June 3, 2019.
In October 2019, a new bus lane was introduced to stop drivers from going up Sheepcote Street towards Broad Street - though thousands have been fined as a result of ignoring it.
In June this year, Birmingham City Council then introduced the
Clean Air Zone charge to limit the estimated number of one-in-four non-compliant vehicles crossing the A4540 Middle Ring Road, which goes across the top of Five Ways Island.
Anyone not exempt and with a non-compliant car would be faced with an £8 daily charge, midnight to midnight.
