Midland Metro Alliance Looking To Expand
The Midland Metro Alliance (MMA) are working on two expansions for the West Midlands Metro, which runs between Wolverhampton and Birmingham. Over the last 5 years multiple expansions have been carried out, including from Birmingham New Street to Centenary Square and Edgbaston, and from Wolverhampton city centre to Wolverhampton railway station. The current expansions are planned to run from Wednesbury Great Western Street to Brierley Hill and from Birmingham Bull Street to Deritend.
1st Expansion
The Wednesbury Great Western Street to Brierley Hill 11km expansion will connect Wednesbury with the towns of Tipton and Dudley as well as Merry Hill Shopping center. This expansion hopes to connect the area to HS2, enhance journey times by public transport and support economic growth in the surrounding area. Using TRACC we analysed the change in journey times to Merry Hill shopping center and found that journey times could decrease by 75 minutes for parts of the West Midlands with over 500,000 residents predicted to save at least 10 minutes on public transport journeys to Merry Hill. This expansion is being delivered in two phases, the first of which (Wednesbury to Flood Street, Dudley) is planned to open for passengers in autumn 2025.
You can find out more about this expansion here: https://metroalliance.co.uk/pr...
2nd Expansion
The Birmingham to Deritend expansion will connect to the HS2 station at Curzon street as well as serving the Eastside regeneration area, Millenium Point and a new bus interchange. Journey times by public transport to Curzon Street station could be reduced by up to 35 minutes following the metro expansions, with around 2.6 million people expected to make a journey time saving.
You can find out more about this expansion here: https://metroalliance.co.uk/projects/birmingham-eastside-extension/
This analysis was completed using TRACC which allows you to easily and quickly make changes to transport networks to investigate their potential impacts. With the ability to add new stops and routes, amend frequencies and journey times, and add new infrastructure, TRACC provides you with the evidence to support feasibility studies and business cases.
We look forward to the completion of the metro expansions and seeing their impact on travel choices throughout the region.