Rail fair?
BBC NEWS | England | West Midlands | Kelly in £120m New Street pledge
UP to £120m is expected to be given to a project to transform Birmingham New Street station…the scheme is mainly concerned with the station’s appearance, and the shopping facilities above the platforms.
Just what we need, more shopping facilities – a good few of the actual shops on New St are empty or temporarily occupied. Couldn’t we have £40M to re-open the Moseley – Kings Heath line (sorry, can’t find a link to the info about this – let me know if you have one) and actually increase public transport usage rather than just conspicuous consumption?
I’ll bet they money “comes out of different budgets” or something, and while New St could do with a right refurb – transport itself could do with being the priority I reckon.
The £120 million is just for rail improvements – the original 350 million asked for the complete redevelopment of New Street (including the shopping centre) has not been approve.
A link to the Camp Hill line can be found here (unfortunately it is partisan).
I understand that Moseley, KH and Cartland Rd are included in funding.
See blog below:
http://martinmullaney.blogspot.com/2007/07/proposed-new-railway-stations-for.html
Not sure, I doubt that £40M of £120M for “New St” would be earmarked for a project that isn’t New St at all.
It may have formed part of a bid, but I don’t see any confirmation.