Birmingham (West Midlands)
Light Rail

Birmingham's Supertram (not to be confused with Supertramp), also known as the Midland Metro, opened in 1999 with one 23 station, 20.4 km line. All in all, the line has been considered a failure in that it's ridership has turned out to be 1/3 of original projections.

In 2009, several extensions and a new line were approved, including an extension from the line's terminus into Birmingham's city center, a Wolverhampton extension, and a line to Nuneaton and Coventry. A fleet of new vehicles is also part of the package. With all those government pounds floating around, no plans exist for turning the metro into a true subway.

In September 2009, a Karlsruhe style tram-train project was announced, which will link Sheffield with the town of Rotherham over existing freight tracks. The line is due to open in 2012, replacing in priority the previous diesel tram-train scheme linking Sheffield with Huddleston.

Also in 2012, a 1.4 km, four station spur line was approved. The line will connect the existing Snow Hill railway station with Birmingham's city center.

So confident was the approval that construction on the link had already started.

Midland Metro is run by Centro, a local government transit entity serving the West Midlands area.

Midland Metro Home Page
Information on Birmingham's new Midland Metro
Fylde Tramway Society page on the new LRT
Brief page about the Midland Metro from Travel West Midlands
Midland Metro page
CityTranz photo galleries
Midlamd Metro bike path ride from Youtube
Wikipedia page

Address:

Travel Midland Metro
METRO CENTRE
Potters Lane
Wednesbury
WS10 0AR