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Midland Metro

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Peter Mugridge

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There is no facility to buy before boarding at any Midland Metro stop, except JQ and Hawthorns but there is no obligation to. You buy your ticket from the conductor on board.

I must be thinking of Nottingham then; that's another system I've been to recently.
 
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radamfi

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I must be thinking of Nottingham then; that's another system I've been to recently.

They used to have ticket machines on Midland Metro and you had to pay before travel, but the machines were removed a long time ago. The reverse has happened in Nottingham.
 

Seacook

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The lunchtime BBC Midlands news programme today reported problems with "near misses" where people are wandering across the tracks at Bull Street apparently ignorant of the fact that there are trams travelling along them. Paying too much attention to phones and too little to surroundings was given as one of the causes.
 

Bungle965

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Failed tram also this morning causing problems. Although the reliability of the trams seems to have gone up they still seem to be suffering with the odd failure.
Sam
 

Peter Mugridge

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The lunchtime BBC Midlands news programme today reported problems with "near misses" where people are wandering across the tracks at Bull Street apparently ignorant of the fact that there are trams travelling along them. Paying too much attention to phones and too little to surroundings was given as one of the causes.


Happens everywhere I'm afraid - but it's more newsworthy when tramways are involved; I doubt they'd show the slightest interest in reporting the exact same things happening where cars are concerned. I see it happening day in day out and we don't even have trams in Epsom!
 

baz52

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Nice vidio of the trams Martin, much better going into Birmingham city centre proper, and looking forward to when its all complete in early 2016,
 

baz52

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Great to the midland metro works re-commence after the christmas and new year holidays.
 

Hophead

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Brief article on the BBC website today.

And a TV feature tomorrow:
Inside Out West Midlands has a full report on the history and reintroduction of trams in Birmingham on BBC One, Monday at 19:30.​

These days, of course, i-Player gives us all access wherever we are in the UK.
 

davetheguard

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Are there any details (or rumours) locally about when the tram might start running to & from New Street? Is there much work still to do?

I must admit to being quite incredulous that an opening date can't be given well in advance and then stuck to. Surely that's what project management is all about?. The new routes in Nottingham were only announced a day or two beforehand; are we likely to see the same in Birmingham too?

Thanks in advance for information anyone can give......
 
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Caught one yesterday from bull St. I was surprised to see that there is no direct connection to snow hill anymore. Walking only from either bull St. Or St Paul's. Not sure whether that is a step in the right direction.
 

Techniquest

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Snow Hill stop is being built on the new line, it's still a fair way off but equally FAR closer than New Street.

Snow Hill Station is hardly far from Bull Street's tram stop, I think platform to platform it only took 6 minues!
 

edwin_m

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Are there any details (or rumours) locally about when the tram might start running to & from New Street? Is there much work still to do?

I must admit to being quite incredulous that an opening date can't be given well in advance and then stuck to. Surely that's what project management is all about?. The new routes in Nottingham were only announced a day or two beforehand; are we likely to see the same in Birmingham too?

Thanks in advance for information anyone can give......

I think the Nottingham situation was that they were running a full service without passengers, just waiting the final OK on various things, and they decided they might as well open to the public as soon as that happened and earn a bit of revenue without costing them any more. There may also have been contractual penalties tied to the amount of delay in opening.

As I understand it Birmingham is very different in that there is some work still to do on the stops, which will almost certainly also be followed by a significant period of "ghost" running.
 
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sprinterguy

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Is there much work still to do?
The Wolverhampton bound platform of the Corporation Street stop is largely complete now, but the New Street bound platform is still a building site. The contact wire/trolley wire (whatever the correct light rail terminology is) still needs attaching to the registration arms for much of the length of the Wolverhampton bound line on Corporation Street/Stephenson Street, but also on the lower reaches of the New Street bound line where it turns onto Stephenson Street: There's what I assume is a temporary neutral section keeping this section electrically dead near the top of Corporation Street where the tram lines curve round to the current Bull Street terminus.

From what I recall last time I was leaving New Street station that way there is still a lot of work to do on the New Street tram stop.
 
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Robertj21a

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Surely this must attain some sort of record for the longest timescale achieved for a tram extension, particularly in view of the very short distance involved !!.
 

Techniquest

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There was certainly a lot to do at New Street on Saturday, although the city-bound platform (ie, next to Grand Central Kitchen) was getting nearly done with its shelter.

I would guess it'll be finished by the end of the month.
 

WatcherZero

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£650,000 saving from not installing catenary.
Cost of installing batteries at least £4.15m and need to be replaced every 7 years.
 

Techniquest

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Interesting idea, if it'll help make further extensions more viable then it'll surely be worth it long term.

Centenary Square, trying to place where exactly that is, but it's not that far by foot from New Street station if it is the bit I'm thinking of. It may be opening in 2019, but we're still waiting on the bit to New Street yet ;)

The eastwards extension will certainly be an interesting one, as indeed will Edgbaston. The extension to Wolverhampton bus/rail stations will certainly be more than welcome for far easier connections between tram, bus and train.
 

sprinterguy

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Hmm, other than the restricted clearance sections mentioned on the proposed Eastside extension, I can't see that the benefits of catenary-free operation of the Midland Metro outweigh the costs.

The street furniture for the catenary on the New Street extension is, in my view, pretty unobtrusive anyway, and the installation of the catenary masts, where required, and headspans didn't seem anywhere near as disruptive as the heavy duty work required to relocate utilities and lay the track.
 

TH172341

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Well it could be after April that we see the last part of the extension open - must win the award for slowest extension ever.

https://www.centro.org.uk/about-us/...g-for-next-leg-of-city-centre-tram-extension/

I'm still of the opinion that the money put into all this would've been better spent on sorting out the Camp Hill Chord lines which would provide new services to Kings Heath etc. and allow some New Street services to use Moor Street.
 

Techniquest

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Well my best guess still remains to be in time for Frothmas shopping season 2016...

Hopefully the new bit will open soon, I think everyone on here is getting impatient in waiting for it to open, myself included!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Now I've read it, after a lunch break, there's some interesting bits to take away from the article. Which I copy and paste below:

Spring opening for next leg of city centre tram extension

The go-ahead for a series of crucial safety checks has been secured, paving the way for a spring opening of the next leg of the Birmingham city centre tram extension.

Centro, the region's transport delivery body, has been given the green light by Network Rail to run essential overnight testing of the electrical systems along the new Midland Metro route on April 23.

The granting of the 'possession' will ensure that the Metro's electronic systems do not interfere with those controlling trains using New Street Station. The work will also check that Network Rail's systems do not interfere with the Metro.

Centro's Metro programme director, Phil Hewitt, said: "The only way we can carry out this work is by getting a possession, when no trains are running, from Network Rail and we are grateful to them for speeding up the process and cutting the length of time you usually have to wait.

"This is a crucial piece of work because once done it clears the way for us to carry out the final testing, commissioning of, and staff training for the new extension. Once that process is completed we can start running trams down to New Street Station."

Trams returned to the streets of Birmingham for the first time in more than 60 years in December when the Midland Metro started running to a new stop in Bull Street.

But work to complete the remainder of the route along Corporation Street and Stephenson Street to New Street Station was suspended for eight weeks in the run up to Christmas to provide a more attractive environment for shoppers. Work restarted in the New Year.

Jonathan Cheetham of Retail Birmingham, the Business Improvement District for Birmingham city centre's retail area, welcomed the announcement.

He said: "We are delighted that this next phase has been achieved and we look forward to seeing trams arriving at Grand Central. This development is good news for the city and traders."

The industry standard timescale for possession is a minimum of 13 weeks but Network Rail was able to confirm the Metro date sooner, speeding up the potential opening of the new extension.

The £128m project, which includes a fleet of 21 new trams and a new maintenance depot at Wednesbury, is expected to boost the West Midlands economy by more than £50 million a year and create 1,300 new jobs.

The Midland Metro system, which runs between Birmingham and Wolverhampton, serving locations such as the Jewellery Quarter, West Bromwich, Wednesbury and Bilston, will deliver more than three million people a year directly into the heart of Birmingham's main shopping district.

Meanwhile work has already begun on extending the route on from New Street Station to Centenary Square with services expected to start running in 2019.

Funding has also been earmarked to take trams further along Broad Street, past Five Ways and on to Edgbaston.

The route of another extension through Digbeth has also been finalised, running from Bull Street via Albert Street and on to the forthcoming HS2 high speed rail station at Curzon Street.

From there it would go along New Canal Street and Meriden Street into High Street Deritend, stopping at Digbeth Coach Station and the Custard Factory. It is anticipated the line could be open by 2023.

Good to hear work has begun on taking the route onwards to Centenary Square, although I'm not convinced it will need 3 years to construct!

I must say I would not have considered any possible interference between Network Rail and Midland Metro, bring on the possession in just over 2 months. Good chance if training is done quickly we could see the extension ready for the May half term break. Of course we could do with seeing construction finished at Grand Central and Corporation Street stops, the former seems to be taking forever!
 

TH172341

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I hope it's done by May for the half term break as well - it'll be good to see it done at long last I must say.

Slightly seperate note but wonder when the platform level work will be finished at Grand Central. Saw one of the skylights last time I was there - going to look far better once that's all done!
 

Techniquest

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Aren't they still doing work on platform 12? I don't know when they're due to finish the work on the platforms at New Street, but hopefully soon.

We'll see how it all goes, but the final stages are nearly here!
 

baz52

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Well good news as already said above and hopefully will open and up and running im going for either the 5th or 15th may 2016, and pleased to see that work restarted on the Snow Hill metro stop this week, the tram shelterd beeing built, and also the ones at corporations st, and New st, too working on those too, I wonder if the tram shelters are finished say by the end march or sooner, might be an idea if possible to test the trams upto as far as the corporations st tram stop, for some driver training and help people get used to seeing them on the route also.
 
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Aren't they still doing work on platform 12? I don't know when they're due to finish the work on the platforms at New Street, but hopefully soon.

We'll see how it all goes, but the final stages are nearly here!

P12 is due to be closed until next month and the navigation St access is also currently closed. P1 - 5 are finished. 6-11 all have some work to complete
 

Robertj21a

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Well my best guess still remains to be in time for Frothmas shopping season 2016...

Hopefully the new bit will open soon, I think everyone on here is getting impatient in waiting for it to open, myself included!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Now I've read it, after a lunch break, there's some interesting bits to take away from the article. Which I copy and paste below:



Good to hear work has begun on taking the route onwards to Centenary Square, although I'm not convinced it will need 3 years to construct!

I must say I would not have considered any possible interference between Network Rail and Midland Metro, bring on the possession in just over 2 months. Good chance if training is done quickly we could see the extension ready for the May half term break. Of course we could do with seeing construction finished at Grand Central and Corporation Street stops, the former seems to be taking forever!

Everything on this project seems to have taken far longer than anybody would suggest was 'reasonable'. Hopefully, there will be an independent report to highlight what took so long, why, and who was responsible. It sends out all the wrong signals to those who want to see more tram tracks in the UK.

Any suggestion this early that something may take 3 years (!!) will, presumably, mean more like 5 years in practice. Very poor indeed.
 

baz52

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the midland metro are having work done at SH to open at Easter and other work too, this coming weekend, so SH will be open at Easter temp for the holiday then after more building as required, plus also getting the metro ready for april 23rd tram tests etc.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
detail on the metro website.
 
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