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Metro Extension to Centenary Square and beyond

I read on Facebook that the "trams" are closed for three months for the tracks to be replaced. They cannot be serious!
 
Yes the next tram from Bull Street to Library will be ...........October. Even this weekend they have not been coming closer than the St Chad's Stop.
Worse still with Corporation St closed the Council didn't inform the businesses affected. The owner of the Tilt bar turned up this morning and realised there's no way deliveries can get to his property and neither can the emergency services! Only in Birmingham can a business battle to survive Covid then have this dropped upon them. After hasty phone calls an emergency meeting has been arranged I am told!Screenshot_2021-07-25-21-45-02-451_com.facebook.katana.jpg
 
As I understand it, it is the corporation street section that has to be relaid. Mind you , they did tarmac them over for quite a while and had to dig them out, so not really surprised.
For those interested here is "busy" Broad St complete with tram rails coming up to the tunnel from above taken on saturday at about 2.00 -scarcely bustling. They seem to have finished the tunnel bit and starting on the bit just past it

end Broad St from aboveB.jpg
 
As I understand it, it is the corporation street section that has to be relaid. Mind you , they did tarmac them over for quite a while and had to dig them out, so not really surprised.
For those interested here is "busy" Broad St complete with tram rails coming up to the tunnel from above taken on saturday at about 2.00 -scarcely bustling. They seem to have finished the tunnel bit and starting on the bit just past it

View attachment 159519
New crossover being laid at the Bull St end for the Digbeth extension and trams couldn't go beyond there for some time so replacing the stretch of rails from there to Grand Central. Guess it's cheap French steel rails being replaced with real metal lol!
 
thanks for that photo of broad st mike...once bustling and busy with people now a ghost town at 2 pm on a saturday afternoon...what on earth is happening to our city...

lyn
 
I understand that the fault was a result of the extra weight of the retro fitting of the batteries. However we have known for years that batteries would have to be fitted for Pinfold Street and Victoria Square so this should have been tested out long ago.
 
I understand that the fault was a result of the extra weight of the retro fitting of the batteries. However we have known for years that batteries would have to be fitted for Pinfold Street and Victoria Square so this should have been tested out long ago.
Ah yes hadn't clocked that. Those batteries must be really heavy looking at the size of them. So much for computer models, should've got my slide rule and log tables out of retirement!
 
As I understand it, it is the corporation street section that has to be relaid. Mind you , they did tarmac them over for quite a while and had to dig them out, so not really surprised.
For those interested here is "busy" Broad St complete with tram rails coming up to the tunnel from above taken on saturday at about 2.00 -scarcely bustling. They seem to have finished the tunnel bit and starting on the bit just past it

View attachment 159519
Why would tarmac be laid over the tracks? Had no one told the road surfacing crew?
 
Then lines were laid , and tarmac deliberately put over them at New St because they were not yet ready to open the bit from Snow hill to the new st station , around the Christmas If I remember rightly. Maybe to make it smoother for people walking across ??!! The contractors seem pretty hopeless to me. The time it has taken to put down the lines in Broad st
 
I was looking for the previous thread that Astoness started that related how long the Snow Hill to New Street station route took to build. I remember the Queen came to open it and it was still incomplete. "Pretty hopeless" seems quite polite.
 
Contractors are busy digging up the tram tracks in Corporation Street ready for replacing them with new track.

It seems not too long ago when the track was first put down and trams started running to Grand Central.
 
Contractors are busy digging up the tram tracks in Corporation Street ready for replacing them with new track.

It seems not too long ago when the track was first put down and trams started running to Grand Central.
thanks heartland...quite right it was not that long ago that the tracks were first laid so more money for the city to find

lyn
 
Many years ago there was a plan to have a bus lane along the Hagley Road as far as Bearwood. This would have run through front gardens or forecourts of all the buildings on the west bound side of the Hagley Road. It was said that only two buildings would have to be demolished, the building on the corner of Highfield Road and the Kings Head pub. This put a planning blight on the Highfield Road property so Calthorpe Estate moved their Estate Office into it as no one else wanted it.
I cannot imagine Hagley Road taking trams unless this plan is resurrected.
 
I have seen this report on another forum

The over head wires have been replaced over the new junction, but are currently "tensioned" with a block and tackle. Services terminate at St Chads late 25th Oct/early 27th so I presume this is for sorting out the overhead. Elsewhere the road markings are being painted so hopefully OK for next weekend.

I presume the opening of the Broad Street section is still on course for November/December.
 
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