Transport planning praised, while delivery damned in the West Midlands

The Birmingham Post has slammed transport delivery in the region and sees little hope in the 'Northern Powerhouse' changing things.

The newspaper's local government correspondent Neil Elke said that Metro extensions had been mooted 15 years ago and were not yet ready and he had written about the business cases for re-opening the Sutton Park and Camp Hill Chords rail lines in the mid-1990s. "We are still waiting." In the same time London had had Docklands Light Railway extensions, a Eurostar upgrade and HS1 opening, and Crossrail being delivered, he highlighted. More recent initiatives, such as Birmingham's Connected Plan, of 18 months ago, had also born no fruit, he said.

"To be fair, the region has been very good at transport planning, but poor on the lobbying and delivery." The only success he saw was active traffic management on the region's motorways. He dismissed the 'Northern Powerhouse' initiative given Transport for the North's "£10m budget and ability to bid from a £300m pot". He contrasted this with £14bn for Crossrail.