Midlands Metro expansion aims to fill jobs as May urges transport for "places of potential"

The Midlands Metro Alliance has applied to build and operate an extension to the light rail system to Digbeth to serve the proposed HS2 station at Curzon Street.

The £137m extension would link all of the city centre railway stations and Birmingham Coach Station and is designed to improve access to the jobs for the unemployed and to spread the benefits of HS2, as well as to improve existing business travel. Work is scheduled to begin in 2019 and the line to open in 2023, according to the partnership between the West Midlands Combined Authority, the design consortium of Egis, Tony Gee and Pell Frischman and contractor Colas Rail.

The submitting of the Transport and Works Act application for the 1.7km extension follows work underway to extend the route from New Street Station to Centenary Square and earmarking of funding for the line to go further along Broad Street and on to Edgbaston by 2021.

The application came ahead of the Prime Minister speaking in Birmingham at the Conservative Party conference in which she laid out "the good Government can do," by supporting the infrastructure that industries of strategic value need. The Government's new industrial strategy will entail "identifying the places that have the potential to contribute to economic growth, inspiring an economic revival," Theresa May said, praising the "Midlands Engine" plans to deliver 300,000 more jobs.