Only so much money to go around...

Birmingham New Street station keeps getting into the news. However, lets keep it real - its a railway station. With designers coming and going and criticisms and witticisms about the likely cost, I cant be sure if the figure is now £400 million. Once it has been built, downstairs there will be the same tracks but without the areas at the ends of the platform where you can sniff the fresh air of Birmingham.
Actually with that slab above, the folk (permitted briefly to be) on the platform, may feel like the filling in a burger.

In transport there is, however, only so much money to go around - so when from the public transport budget money is given to provide part of the City Centre car parking arrangement (Park and Ride), something else is cut.
Though money is running out, the problem is coming to a standstill. That challenge of course is difficult to sort out. Usual solution is to seek a study. Paying for the study means... you get the picture.
So here's an idea for the next transport consultant - take the last study, the West Midlands Area Multi Modal Study, and put a new cover on it. Recover, recycle, reuse

An electronic version of WMAMMS is in



http://www.northwarks.gov.uk/downloads/CD120_-_WMAMMS.pdf



Colin Welch of SRA was on the committee that prepared it.



John Hall