The West Midlands is undergoing a transport revolution. Old railway stations will be reopened. Ground-breaking Very Light Rail networks are being designed. Miles upon miles of Metro tram tracks are being laid to link up communities. Fleets of electric buses are taking to our streets.
After decades of underinvestment, my regional transport plan is finally starting to deliver a world-class transit system to one of the UK’s most densely-populated places, connecting people with opportunities and providing healthier forms of transport, cutting pollution and easing congestion.
Before the pandemic struck, passenger numbers were rising in the West Midlands on every mode of public transport. The West Midlands was on the move, an example of how a Conservative mayor can make things happen, after decades of Labour inaction left the region lagging behind.
And next month will see the start of the next phase in this transport revolution – and this time, it’s on two wheels.
February will see the launch of the West Midland’s bike hire scheme – an ambitious project designed to appeal to the 30% of people here who don’t cycle but say they would like to give it a go.
Almost every great City has a bike hire scheme, most famously London’s “Boris Bikes”. This is another area where the West Midlands has fallen behind the capital and places like Edinburgh – but we are catching up fast.
Through the unifying power of the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), which has been committed to my goal of spending £10 per head of population on cycling per year, our ambitious plan covers not just a single city centre, but all seven boroughs of Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall and Wolverhampton.
Sutton Coldfield, the Royal Town to the north of Brum, is pioneering the scheme with the first 75 bikes, thanks to a partnership with its forward-thinking Town Council.
It’s the ideal place to launch the scheme - a major self-contained community that sits within the city’s borders, which is also the home of Sutton Park, the region’s biggest urban beauty spot.
After Sutton, a further 1500 bikes will be rolled out across the region in a matter of months, all in time for summer. Lockdown has deprived people of the freedom of getting out and about. I want this scheme ready for them to discover the freedom cycling can bring.
This is a project that is truly ‘Made in the Midlands’, with the bikes built by Pashley cycles, a firm that was founded in Birmingham in the 1920s and now has a factory in neighbouring Warwickshire. What’s more, 10% of the bikes will be electric, with the charging docks also made in the region.
I hope that local people will take to these bikes, along with the electric Escooters recently introduced to our cities both of which are an example of real investment in high-quality alternatives to the car. With Coventry’s City of Culture celebrations this year and the Commonwealth Games on the horizon, they will also provide a way for visitors to get around too.
But bikes are only part of the investment we are making, with truly ambitious plans to establish a world-class cycling network across the region.
The planned £270million regionwide ‘Starley’ network - named after the Victorian family who pioneered cycle manufacturing from Coventry - will be for the whole region, not just the city centres.
The vision is for 500miles of safe routes across the region, linking our communities with either dedicated bike routes or miles of cycle lanes separated from traffic.
The Starley project would be a game-changer for cycling in the West Midlands, building a vast new transit network reminiscent of the canal system created here during the Industrial Revolution.
Thanks to that era of innovation, it’s said that Birmingham has ‘more canals than Venice’. Well, a completed Starley Network would give the West Midlands a cycle network to rival Berlin. We are working now to attract the investment to make this ambition a reality.
Key to our cycling plan is identifying viable routes, like in Coventry, where the WMCA is investing £5m in the flagship Binley Cycleway, linking Coventry University to the city’s main Hospital.
More than half of West Midlands residents say safety concerns put them off cycling. Binley is a great example of providing safe, separated lanes for bikes to remove the tensions that sometimes happen when cyclists and motorists compete for the same road space.
We are also looking to link up our cycling network with my wider transport plan. For example, there will be cycle provision alongside the new metro expansion in the Black Country, along Wednesfield Road to the brand-new railway station. It will also be integrated into our Sprint bus schemes.
All of this has been supported by the Government’s commitment to cycling, with the Department for Transport, under Grant Shapps, investing heavily.
Our region has securing £17m from the Government for cycling schemes, from cycle lanes and pedestrian-friendly areas in Moseley, Birmingham, to routes along Tipton Road, on the boundary of Dudley and Sandwell, connecting residents to a Metro stop on the new Black Country line.
Locally, the WMCA has earmarked £2 million of Whitehall’s Transforming Cities cash to launch our own Better Streets Community Fund, which received 144 applications from residents, resulting in 31 projects that will be delivered by the end of this year.
This local engagement is vital, as building cycle provision is disruptive, and unwanted proposals can be rejected by communities, wasting time and cash. If cycling is to really succeed, it requires grassroots support in the areas where routes are created.
There is, of course, a serious health issue driving our cycling revolution. We have a significant air quality problem in the West Midlands, particularly in denser cities like Birmingham and Coventry.
This, combined with the very real threat we face from climate change, makes clear the health and environmental benefits of cycling. We are investing in public transport to tackle congestion and pollution.
After years of inertia, a Conservative mayor has provided the push needed to finally get public transport moving in the West Midlands. We can do the same thing for cycling.
Until now we have lagged behind other parts of the UK, but with our new Bike Share scheme and ambitious plans for a regionwide network, I’m confident we can quickly catch up with the leading pack – and then power past them.
