The Commons Transport Committee has criticised the AWM-sponsored redevelopment of Birmingham New Street station saying that it is not convinced that the redeveloped station will be adequate for expected future use.
No matter how much money is spent on New Street Station, there is no realistic way of expanding the station any further because there is no room for extra lines on the approach. Tarting the station up and making the platforms longer won’t increase the number of trains that can get into the station, it’ll just allow longer trains.
The cost of the redevelopment is estimated at £598m with £400m of this coming from the taxpayer via the Department for Transport, Advantage West Midlands (AWM) and other quangos. AWM will be handing over £100m of money intended to benefit the whole West Midlands euroregion to Birmingham New Street.
But the Commons Transport Committee said that they don’t think the station will cope with the number of passengers that will be using it in the near future and think that alternatives should be looked at now.
Funnily enough, there was an alternative proposal to use land adjacent to Moor Street station to expand the existing station there but that plan was dismissed out of hand because AWM and Birmingham City Council wanted to turn it into a park instead. Now they want to build offices and shops next to Moor Street station, ensuring that no rival expansion plans for Moor Street can scupper AWM’s vanity project at New Street.
Despite the concerns of the Commons Transport Committee, compulsary purchasing of land around New Street started last week and will affect more than 500 business and residents.
Edit:
This article originally, incorrectly stated that the alternative station proposal was Snow Hill, not Moor Street.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
“Funnily enough, there was an alternative proposal to use land adjacent to Snow Hill station to expand the existing station there but that plan was dismissed out of hand because AWM and Birmingham City Council wanted to turn it into a park instead.”
Eh? A park next to Snow Hill??? Links please. Would be a wonderful place for a park, but where???
July 24th, 2008 at 8:29 pmSorry, it was Moor Street, not Snow Hill.
July 26th, 2008 at 8:49 amThe park isn’t near Moor Street, it’s around Curzon Street. You’re probably thinking of the Curzon Park site bought by private developers, that’s the one Arups had their eye on.
July 26th, 2008 at 10:56 am