Candidate’s rail pledge for south of city

ONE of the candidates in next year’s West Midlands mayoral election has vowed to tackle Birmingham’s congestion problem head on by opening a rail line serving the south of the city.

Commuters coming into Birmingham from areas as such as Moseley and Kings Heath have to engage in a daily battle with heavily congested, single carriage roads.

Writing in this week’s Post, Conservative candidate Andy Street has pledged to open up a rail line serving these two city suburbs. The Camp Hill line runs through this part of south Birmingham, carrying freight traffic and is also used by existing rail passenger services.

Calls for it to carry a dedicated service to these south Birmingham suburbs go back decades. Mr Street said: “This paper has rightly highlighted the cost of congestion to the region.

“No one is questioning that we have a problem but the focus on the M6 Toll as the potential solution is overly simplistic. The only real solution is to address the fact that two-thirds of journeys are made by car and, at peak times, eight out of ten vehicles have just one person in them.

“It’s little wonder the road network is under strain. At the Conservative Conference, I pledged to address the serious and longstanding underfunding of public transport compared to London.

“I am committing as mayor to the opening of a new passenger rail line to Moseley and Kings Heath, making a huge difference to traffic congestion in south Birmingham, and to the muchneeded expansion of the Midland Metro network. Within the first mayoral term, we will start construction on the Metro to Brierley Hill and will secure agreement for the Moseley line and the Metro extension to north Solihull.”