News that the long-awaited new Birmingham railway stations on the Camp Hill line had been hit by delays again was met with huge disappointment. In July, Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) major transport projects including new stations at Kings Heath, Moseley and Pineapple Road were put back a year to 2025 due to a £121 million rise in costs.
This was the second delay to hit the project after it was originally due to be scheduled for completion in 2023. The news prompted West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker to call for a review of all current and planned projects, saying he had concerns over the funding, delivery and delay while also accusing his predecessor Andy Street of making “grand promises” which weren’t being delivered.
In turn, Mr Street said he was saddened to see party politics being played over the issue, adding he had “bequeathed to the new Mayor billions in devolved transport funding” for the projects. But the key question now is will the Camp Hill project be delivered on (the delayed) time or is there further frustration for commuters?
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Arup was hired by Mr Parker to carry out an in-depth review of transport projects, and the Camp Hill Line was one of those that was looked at in great detail. And, based on their findings, the news is good as the project was overall deemed to be at ‘low risk’ of further problems.
The review did note additional funding might be required to complete works. But, despite some concerns raised by the project manager who has ‘low confidence’ about hitting the construction completion date of the end of the year, Arup said there was a detailed schedule in place.
The project’s ‘benefit to cost’ ratio (which indicates a value for money for a project with a score of one or above indicating cost-effectiveness) is currently at 1.24, the report noted. In the report, Arup said: “All business cases required for the project have been delivered and the project is under construction.
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“Phase 2 is well under way, with a detailed design in place and all surveys completed. The project has a construction stage schedule in place, with construction expected to be completed by the end of 2025.
“However, the PM has reported low confidence in the expected completion date due to several reasons. However, there is a QRSA and detailed schedule in place. Resourcing is identified as low risk, with the project having 90-100% of internal resources in place and the supply chain has been consulted on the readiness to deliver this project.
“The total funding approved and secured for this project is £69million, of which 90 per cent has already been spent as of end of July 2024. Additional funding is potentially required to complete the project.”