4.5.2
Original Document
The opportunity for European High Speed Trains to serve Birmingham should be firmly grasped. The Big City Plan should help influence the ultimate choice of route and station location for a future HST connection to the city centre, providing the opportunity for strengthened national and international rail connections in the future. Further work is required to understand what alignment the track would take, and requisite processes for safeguarding land requirements.
Plain English Translation
If there is a chance of European High Speed Trains to Birmingham we should grab that with both hands. The Big City Plan should look much more closely at which tracks and stations would best serve this line. If this means making sure land is available in the right parts of the city we need to plan for this.
It is absolutely essential that commuter rail is enhanced – the Bordesley chord will enable services from all over the region to use spare capacity at Moor Street. High Speed 2 is coming, but we don't know when – it;s a bit of a political football at present. Nor do we know whether HS2 will bypass Birmingham (for example stopping only at Birmingham International before heading north). Space to run services into the City Centre is vital, so doubling track access from Coventry through the City Centre and on to Wolverhampton, while expensive, would be a huge asset. Doubling is also important from Tyseley to Lapworth to allow for greater intercity and commuter capacity from the South.
The Chamber of Commerce recommended NOT supporting the high speed trains in favour of putting money into the local bus network.
In only a few years air travel will become increasingly inviable as a method of getting to mainland Europe because of rising fuel costs.
From my point of view the rail link is an absolute _must_ but if the business community are not behind the idea it will be a non-starter. I'd be very interested to hear why they took this view – what are the opposing views to this very positive statement?