They may have disagreed about how best to solve the Birmingham city centre transport problem, but, the panel at Birmingham Future’s recent transport debate were all in agreement that there is a huge gap between where we are now and the world class transport system we need in place to be a world class city.
Alex Bishop, partner at Shoosmiths and board member for the Big City Plan, chaired the panel which featured John Morris, head of corporate affairs at Birmingham International Airport; Richard Winfield, transport champion for Birmingham Forward; Tom Magrath, policy and strategy director at Centro; and, Gary Taylor, executive director at Argent and chairman for Broad Street Improvement District.
Hot on the heels of a front page headline – ‘We can’t afford our runway extension’ – John Morris faced searching questions about the future of the airport. “Without external financial support,” said John, “the runway extension just does not stack up for our shareholders. We’re in the business of building airports not roads, and there is a road in the way that we are expected to shell out for.
“It is business which will benefit from this extension – bringing trade with the East one step closer – and the region should be coming up with the answers (and the funding) to make it happen. Our shareholders need to know that the region is behind the scheme.”
Transport champion Richard Winfield said: “We are the professional services group of the premium UK city. We need to be looking at these problems from a commercial perspective and not relying on Government to bail us out. The airport extension is not just about growing the airport; we are changing the way our city is connected to the rest of the world.”
Other hotly-debated issues at the event, which was held at the Birmingham office of professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, included the role of the High Speed 2 rail network in connecting Birmingham to Europe; the proposed introduction of Rapid Transit Vehicles (RTVs) by the Broad Street BID; and, smart cards – akin to the London Oystercard – which would be integrated across all public transport in Birmingham.
Photo: (L to R) John Morris, Richard Winfield, Alex Bishop, Gary Taylor and Tom Magrath
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