AJ Bell Great Birmingham Run: Potential travel chaos as concerns rise over public transport arrival times
Runners are concerned that they may not make it to the start of the race if using public transport.
Runners in this year’s AJ Bell Great Birmingham Run have raised concerns over transport plans for this year's grand running event.
The endurance run, set to take place on Sunday, May 3, will see around 16,000 runners hammer the streets of Birmingham city centre as they run to raise money for charity, personal achievement, or just for fun.
As well as runners, thousands of spectators are also expected to flood the city for the run’s 8,30am start time, with many choosing to take public transport routes to avoid the planned road closures around the race route.
Now, concerns were raised by runners when they noticed that the first West Midlands Metro tram into Birmingham would arrive at 8.40am, ten minutes after the start time of the first orange wave.
According to the West Midlands Metro website, the first tram to get into the city will arrive after the start time of the first run of the day, meaning that those on the ‘orange’ wave who choose to take public transport risk missing their race completely.
Alternatively, the Transport for West Midlands website shows that the first trains from Wolverhampton will arrive in Birmingham at around 8.11am, giving runners only minutes to make a 20-minute walk to the start line.
However, runners have also noted that assembly for the orange, green and pink waves all start at 7am on the day, meaning that train and metro users will be more than an hour late for the event opening.
Lucy Birch, whose partner is taking part in the run, spoke of her concerns. She said: “It just doesn’t leave a lot of time to get to the start.
“Trams don’t get in until after 8.30am, so they aren’t really an option for early runners, and the first train to get into Birmingham is from Wolverhampton at around 8.10am. Which means you would get to the start line just as you need to start running.
“I just don’t see why they don’t push the start time back to 9am - 9.30am, or have trains run earlier for the day, it’s a huge event, so why not?”
The Great Birmingham Run has been approached for comment.
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