The Wednesbury-Dudley tram link: 21 years of soaring costs, shortfalls and delays
In 1835, an Act of Parliament was passed, effectively granting permission for the construction of the 152-mile Great Western Railway from London to Somerset. Within six years, it was up and running.
In December 2004, Transport Secretary Alastair Darling approved plans for a seven-mile tram link from Wednesbury to Brierley Hill. Twenty-one years on, we still do not have an opening date for the first five-mile stretch from Wednesbury to Dudley.
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Transport bosses say they want to open it 'as soon as possible', but for a project which has been subject to so many delays, the public can be forgiven for showing a little scepticism.
The legislation passed in 2004 always seemed a bit of a pipe dream. The government of Tony Blair may have backed the scheme in principle, but the funding never materialised. In October 2006, junior transport minister Tom Harris estimated the cost would be £409 million, but a decision was unlikely before the start of 2008. The powers granted to compulsorily purchase land lapsed just over five years later, and the scheme looked dead in the water.
But the election of Andy Street as the West Midlands' first elected mayor in 2017 pushed the scheme back on the agenda, and in March 2019, £449 million funding was finally secured.
Work started in February 2020, with the scheme due to have been completed in its entirety by the end of 2023. But within a month of work beginning, the country was plunged into lockdown, leading to months of delays. Work resumed as restrictions eased, and the completion date was rescheduled for summer 2024. There were some celebrations in February 2022, when the first tracks were laid, a 328-yard stretch in Castle Hill, Dudley, but behind the scenes concerns were growing about rising costs. In Jul;y that year, the Express & Star revealed that costs had ballooned to £550 million, prompting leaders of the West Midlands Combined Authority to mothball the Dudley-Brierley Hill stretch of the line until further funding could be found. The Wednesbury-Dudley line would still open in 2024, although references to 'summer' were quietly dropped from the conversations, but the cost of the first stage alone had now risen to £385 million. No work would take place on the Brierley Hill link until a shortfall of £300 million had been addressed.
