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  1. O

    A 'overground' for Birmingham and the Black Country.

    Certainly has a bigger budget ! - but the metro plan doesn't move any freight whereas the heavy rail does....
  2. O

    A 'overground' for Birmingham and the Black Country.

    Thanks for your detailed comment, so yes I have read the rail strategy documents, and a selection of other transport strategy documents from various councils which is what triggered my thinking in the first place. I'd be very interested to get a copy of the current guidelines, and also to know...
  3. O

    A 'overground' for Birmingham and the Black Country.

    Yes there used to be another line there - with a bit of tunnel running to a terminating goods station near New Street
  4. O

    A 'overground' for Birmingham and the Black Country.

    No need to apologise - it's all good in terms of throwing ideas around for the area. Something along vague lines has been thrown around a few times - along the lines of this.... https://www.citymetric.com/birmingham-crossrail-new-street-curzon-street-3829 and...
  5. O

    A 'overground' for Birmingham and the Black Country.

    Or at the very least not further overload New Street by everyone trying to go there to access HS2 - a very considerable chunk of people would have a good alternative route avoiding getting snarled up at New Street
  6. O

    A 'overground' for Birmingham and the Black Country.

    Correct the interchange there is, how to describe it politely.... sub-optimal, (using a people mover). But you'd still need to get from New Street, to Curzon Street as the alternative, which is even less optimal. (and from interchange to Euston is 38min vs 49min from Curzon street) and agreed...
  7. O

    A 'overground' for Birmingham and the Black Country.

    There are currenly some quite farcical routes that currently require going through New Street e.g. Wolverhampton to Walsall - currently via New Street, 1hr 5min. - about 15min on the 'ring' even for a stopping service (6 miles) (although to be fair this particular comedy journey is in the...
  8. O

    A 'overground' for Birmingham and the Black Country.

    I'm not as familiar with the performance differences between tram-trains and heavy rail passenger as I should be, can you either tell me what the differences are, or point me towards the right information so I can come to a better informed point of view than my current mainly gut instinct about...
  9. O

    A 'overground' for Birmingham and the Black Country.

    A critical part of the concept (which aligns it with a number of official transport strategy documents) - is mixed operation of passengers and freight ( which gets the freight off existing pathways into the centre, releasing those for further passenger use), combine this with another strategy...
  10. O

    A 'overground' for Birmingham and the Black Country.

    So would absolutely need to be bay platforms to not block the mainline, even then a struggle (until HS2 north is done?) - I'd guess that it wasn't left wide enough to allow that [4 tracks + platforms] under the footprint of the NIA itself ?
  11. O

    A 'overground' for Birmingham and the Black Country.

    To the West of the A34 the line is just about at ground level (at least ground level to the north of the line on the OneStop shopping centre side) - the road has been built up over it - hence the descent from road to platform The athletes village planning application made a big song and dance...
  12. O

    A 'overground' for Birmingham and the Black Country.

    Agreed - it's where the rubber hits the road when it comes to tackling climate change. There is a trade off between going 'outside' any existing settlements (risking creating a big bunch of park and rides) - vs using old alignments to take the service to the heart of existing communities (more...
  13. O

    A 'overground' for Birmingham and the Black Country.

    Super look forward to seeing your comments ! Yes Pensnett is a particularly sticky bit. The latest imagery is May 2019. A that time by moving the alignment about 140m west of the original that would only effect one industrial unit. - although it looks like about 20 or so houses were in the...
  14. O

    A 'overground' for Birmingham and the Black Country.

    Fair enough - free travel for life on train, metro and bus inside the ring as compensation ?
  15. O

    A 'overground' for Birmingham and the Black Country.

    Oh and what is the particularly sticky bit of Wolves to Ryecroft ? - I'd envisaged this as freight only, at the Ryecroft end there is a primary school and half a dozen houses to deal with, but didn't seem super sticky unless I'm missed something major ?
  16. O

    A 'overground' for Birmingham and the Black Country.

    which stretch in particular is the problematic bit ?
  17. O

    A 'overground' for Birmingham and the Black Country.

    Thanks for the feedback - never thought it would be easy :) multiple billions seems like the right ballpark - Midlands Rail Hub budget is currently 1B for all the various bits of it. Dotting around randomly.. Discounted Round Oak to Bescot from a passenger point of view because the trams are...
  18. O

    A 'overground' for Birmingham and the Black Country.

    Ah! Good to know the politics behind the report!
  19. O

    A 'overground' for Birmingham and the Black Country.

    yes - and looks like someone has done work on re-opening that too - see the "whitacre" link I posted above. (and they were also thinking about linking services through that corridor to Walsall via Sutton Coldfield too.)
  20. O

    A 'overground' for Birmingham and the Black Country.

    Someone else has been thinking along similar lines to me and they have put together a super report ! http://www.railnews.co.uk/content/documents/whitacre_v2.pdf

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