London hasn't expanded its tram network in two decades.
Meanwhile Birmingham has three extensions on the go.
to Wolverhampton station
This one's been on the cards for ages and somehow still isn't finished. It's at the northern tip of the existing line, a brief 500m extension to connect to Wolverhampton's bus and railway stations thereby creating a proper multimodal nexus. The tracks up Piper Row were completed in 2019, indeed the shelters for the new stop by the bus station are already in situ and plugged in, but an orange-jacketed workforce is currently out digging, shovelling and generally getting in the way of traffic. The tracks swooshing past the station were laid last year but again multiple bursts of paving and edging are underway, plus more serious linkage works inbetween.
The new tram terminus awaits boxfresh behind hoardings. It's a short distance past the station so passengers will need to retrace the tracks to catch their train. Pipers Row will be much closer to the shops, but still a not particularly pleasant walk away. Plans for a loop around the city centre alas appear to have been shelved. Instead the intention is to send most trams to the station and a few to the current terminus at St George's, which is likely to peeve anyone heading south because there'll be two possible departure points 200m apart and mutually invisible. July is currently being put forward as the starting date, after all the latest mess has been cleared away, but Wulfrunians will believe it when it happens.
to Brierley Hill
This gamechanger will finally introduce Metro Line Two and, more importantly, link the centre of Dudley to Birmingham by rail for the first time since 1964. As anyone who's alighted at Dudley Port over the years knows, it's really nowhere near. The nine-stop extension makes use of the trackbed of the disused South Staffordshire line before veering off into Dudley, ticking off the castle, zoo and bus station along the way. The intention is then to continue to for another three miles to Merry Hill shopping centre and Brierley Hill, but funding issues mean that's on hold and "will be completed at the earliest opportunity".
The extension bears off the existing line close to Wednesbury Great Western Street, the tram stop closest to the main Metro depot. A delta junction needs to be constructed and last month reached the "expansive concrete pour" stage. You can't see any of this from the ground, hence the useless photo, but you do get a brief oversight of multiple rods emerging from a grey worksite as you speed by on the tram. What's entirely missing is the embankment needed to bring the line down from bridge height to ground level, only an army getting on with the job, so the current completion date of 'late 2024' still feels optimistic.
to Digbeth
If Edgbaston was Metro's Westside extension then this is Eastside. It'll be a mile long and weave out of the city centre in very much not a straight line to target the creative quarter at Digbeth. The penultimate stop will be between Birmingham Coach Station and The Custard Factory, which'll be useful, and the line will terminate a short distance ahead in the formerly unsung district of Deritend. As of March 2023 a connecting junction has already been constructed in the middle of Bull Street and hi-vis hordes are hard at work readying the lower end of the street for trams. They've already lowered the surface, have nearly finished laying the tracks, and then all they have to do is refill the road around them.
To enable forward progress Kings Parade has had to be demolished, taking with it a much-mourned McDonalds. The tram extension eschews Moor Street station in favour of a much greater railway prize, Birmingham's HS2 terminus on Curzon Street. Businesspeople who speed here from Euston will swiftly discover they've been dropped outside the city centre, hence the need for the tram, but valuable minutes will still be wasted. That said HS2 isn't due here before 2033 so at least the tram will be ready when it arrives, although as yet nobody's committing to a date. Just remember, unless you're seriously immobile never choose take the tram from Moor Street to New Street, it'll be much quicker to walk direct.
