Tag: alexander

• Alexander the not-so-great botches West Midlands Metro extension

  The Express and Star reports that:

  The Midlands Metro tramline will open for passengers in Dudley at the end of August – more than two years late.

  At a meeting of Dudley Council’s Communities and Growth Scrutiny Committee, council leaders faced questions on what help was available for traders affected by the delayed works.

  The Metro had been earmarked for a 2024 opening and later for a launch in the autumn of 2025. It was later announced the opening would be delayed until the start of this year.

  

  The extension to Dudley is the first phase of the Wednesbury to Brierley Hill extension, which is being built by the Midland Metro Alliance (MMA) on behalf of Transport for West Midlands (TfWM).

  Last October MMA said:

  Work on the first phase of the route, between Wednesbury and Dudley town centre, is nearing completion ahead of opening next year

  TfWM has now confirmed in a statement to journalist Peter Plisner:

  (more…)

  2026.01.28

• Rail electrification shelved, Alexander confirms

  The transport secretary has confirmed that Labour has no plans for further electrification of the rail network, for affordability reasons, once again giving the lie to the rail minister’s claim that the government is giving rail funding it needs.

  The FT (paywall) reports Heidi Alexander as telling the Rail Industry Association summit that any further electrification is “not affordable right now” and that the government is “only supporting projects that are fully costed and affordable”.

  She said:

  We are keeping further electrification of the line under review, which I believe is the responsible thing to do.

  

  Alexander also said this had “allowed us to make commitments elsewhere,” the FT reported.

  It’s not clear whether her comments go further than what she said in July when claiming that the government was “greenlighting over 50 rail and road projects”.

  She told MPs in relation to the midland main line electrification scheme phase 3:

  The costs of the scheme were substantial, and we had to prioritise other schemes that deliver more tangible benefits to passengers sooner. However, we will keep the electrification scheme under review as part of our pipeline of projects for future funding.

  But because of ministers’ double speak where “under review” appears to mean shelved and “greenlighting” to mean not shelved, it seems to have been clear for some time that Labour has shelved electrification to spend money on other things.

  But what is clear is that Labour is not “backing rail with the funding needed”, as rail minister Lord Peter Hendy claimed.

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  2025.11.10