Article from BTNews 23 JULY 2018
Birmingham connectivity in focus
Future connections to Birmingham airport were in the spotlight at Waterfront’s “UK Rail Station Development and Regeneration” conference and it’s not all good news, writes Andrew Sharp.
A speaker was Philip Farrell, managing director of the Urban Growth Company, set up by Solihull Borough Council to manage development of the UK Central Hub area around Birmingham airport.
It includes the Jaguar Land Rover plant, Birmingham International station, the National Exhibition Centre (NEC), Birmingham Business Park and Arden Cross, site of the HS2 station, which Farrell said were silos, with limited connectivity between them.
HS2 was obliged to provide a people-mover between the two stations, but he was not impressed with the plans. These include a station at NEC which NEC doesn’t want, another 250m from International Station.
An extension of the West Midlands tram system is planned but won’t go to the airport because it is too difficult to fit into the circulating area in front of the terminal, so HS2 passengers wanting to fly from Birmingham will use the tram and the existing people-mover from International Station, or a planned Sprint bus.
Air passengers for Manchester will need to change from HS2 to the Metrolink tram to the terminal.
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David Starkie, United Kingdom
Andrew: Any idea how long it will take to get to the airport terminals from HS2 stations using tram links etc?