The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) has named some of the schemes that it plans to take forward with its next £2.6bn tranche of government funding for transport from 2027 with five new routes for the region’s tram and rapid bus network.
The authority put the cash in the context of £6.1 bn that its transport arm, Transport for West Midlands, is spending to deliver ‘a green transport revolution across the region’.
Its plans for its 2027 to 2032 allocation of City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement (CRSTS) cash are in contrast to the Tees Valley Combined Authority, which said in January that it would spend around half of its £1bn CRSTS allocation on road schemes.
The next two rapid transit routes, for which detailed business cases are now being worked up, are along Hagley Road in Birmingham and on through Sandwell to Dudley and further extending the line from Digbeth, through East Birmingham and North Solihull. Subject to the business case, construction work could start as early as 2028.
The five new routes in the West Midlands could be tram routes under the Metro brand or rapid bus routes, depending on business cases. They are:
- Birmingham – Heartlands Hospital - East Birmingham – Solihull – Birmingham Airport
- Birmingham – Bearwood - Hagley Road – Halesowen
- Walsall – Brierley Hill – Stourbridge, (incorporating Wednesbury to Brierley Hill extension)
- Birmingham – Longbridge – Rubery (incorporating a potential Birmingham – Smithfield phase)
- Wolverhampton to New Cross Hospital (longer term project).
West Midlands mayor Andy Street said: ‘It’s no secret that our transport infrastructure was woefully underfunded for decades. But since the formation of the WMCA and with the region pulling in the same direction, we have started to redress that underinvestment and increased our funding more than tenfold to deliver a green transport revolution.
‘And, with at least £2.6bn more to invest over the next few years, we are now turning our attention to what comes next.
'Alongside this we have identified a priority list of further routes so that as we pull in still more funding we have projects ready to go. This approach means we can grow our network in a clear and coordinated way to deliver the most benefit for our travelling public.’
The WMCA said the average annual investment of £406m is a tenfold increase on the £38m for public transport in the year before it was formed, but this does not take inflation into account.
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