Shaping Birmingham’s Transport

The first post in a long time, and I’d like to start with an apology for leaving this so long – with most of the steering group involved in A Level exams and being out the country in the periods after the conference, we didn’t have the resources to ensure the blog was kept up to-date. That said I’m pleased to publish the first set of feedback and outcomes established at the Shaping Birmingham’s Transport conference. There is a mass of information out there, and for the same reasons The Telegraph didn’t release all the MP’s expenses data at once, neither will we. A special thanks to Sandra Hale from Birmingham City Council who collated and processed everything written down on the day too – we’re all very much appreciative. Bilal will be preparing a report of all the feedback after all the input has been published here – the easiest way to keep up-to-date is to subscribe to the RSS feed.

We’ll be starting by listing what you felt were your concerns, with the focus for today’s post being on public transport. Most of the issues here regard the journey itself, with some delegates feeling problems include:

• The Midlands Metro is full in the morning
• Congestion on the roads is a problem
• Public transport is too expensive to use
• There is overcrowding on public transport; it’s uncomfortable having to stand, and many people prefer therefore prefer the comfort of their own car.
• Anti-social behaviour on public transport can be a problem.
• Change isn’t given on National Express buses
• Public transport isn’t always reliable
• Disabilities should be further considered
• Fares are constantly rising.
• Train stations are not always localised.
• Bus frequencies aren’t always consistent, and don’t always keep to time.
• Finding bus routes and stops can be difficult.

Another area that was particularly picked up on was journey planning when using public transport:

• Buses do not provide journeys to deprived areas, or outer city areas.
• Buses will not drop you off where you want – lack of connectivity.
• Poor co-ordination on changing buses.
• Buses are not frequent enough.

Other miscellaneous issues on public transport include:

• Bus drivers have little protection or power and are at risk – the police text reporting service helps though.
• Bus drivers do not care if people are drinking on the bus.
• Bus drivers can be rude or arrogant towards young people.
• Laws or fines aren’t always enforced on public transport.
• Better bus lanes and junctions are required.
• More stations for trains are required.
• Is the idea of a green bus contradictory?
• Chewing gum is often stuck on bus seats?

More to follow.

All photos courtesy of Dan Alani.

Click here to view photos.

With two days to go until the conference, we’re very excited - as was certainly shown in our meeting yesterday! We’ve been putting the final touches to our agenda, accomodating the last minute changes to the timetable (all good ones; don’t worry) and finalising who is saying what, where and how, and in what order. Not an easy task, I assure you, but it’s all fitting nicely into place.

I should note at this stage that we’re going to be joined by reporters from the Birmingham Post and the Birmingham Mail; they’ll be covering our event live, which is great. Also, the current guestlist stands at:

Cllr. Len Gregory
Cllr. Jon Hunt
Cllr. Tim Huxtable
Inspector Gordon (British Transport Police)
Stephen Rhodes (CENTRO)
Ben Martin (Friends of the Earth)
Martin Hancock (National Express)
Andy Marlow (UKYP)

Remember, it’s by no means too late to register! We still have some seats to fill, so please fill out the form HERE and come along on Thursday. Wednesday night is the deadline to book places.

We hope to see you there, and hear your ideas!

Yesterday, Pav and I brought an end to the busy week by attending the Transport Summit 2009 held in the Council House, attended by delegates from across the country. It was a fantastic opportunity for us to meet with important decision makers in Transport some of who demonstrated a lot of interest in attending the Young People’s Transport Conference next week. The discussions during the day ranged from electric cars and the climate challenge to the New St Station regeneration project which I am really looking forward to!!!

We both had a chat with Councillor Mike Whitby, who delivered a dynamic speech on the BIG City Plan, and met Councillor Len Gregory who was excited about the conference as he mentioned, in his speech, the importance of consultation on transport with our young people.

Do not forget to register for the up-coming conference this Thursday 2nd of April as places are filling up fast. Click here to register and we thoroughly look forward to seeing you there for an outstanding event!

I realise that some of you are still contemplating attendance to the event or are unsure about submitting entries to the superb competition opportunity! I hope that the hot and great updates below will help you make the right decision about getting involved and shaping your city’s transport system.

Firstly, The HOT News!!! The Leader of the City Council, Councillor Mike Whitby, has confirmed to attend the conference, as has the BBC Midlands Today’s Transport Correspondent, Peter Plisner. Remember that if you do decide to enter for the competition and your entry does make it to the final round, you will be presenting it to ‘important’ people  in the city which now includes Cllr Mike Whitby and Peter Plisner from the BBC!

Furthermore, for those who are worried that they will not be able to get involved because of time constraints, after our meeting yesterday it has been agreed that the Competition deadline be extended to 19^th March 2009!!! This gives you longer to get your group together and submit an entry. Go to ‘Tips and Advice’ for more information on how to make your entry successful. Remember: you can be as creative as you like but it is always a good idea to keep it simple!!!

With a month to go until the competition entry deadline, it seems transport has never been a bigger issue on the public agenda. This month the Transport Steering Group made the front cover of the City Council’s ‘Forward’ Newspaper, delivered to every house in Birmingham, showing the scope of interest and progression in ameliorating the current system.

The issue is also the focus of the UK Youth Parliament who are holding an upcoming summit discussing the accessibility and affordability of public transport. Brendan McGowan, Interim Head of Programmes, explained: “Our aim for the Fares Fair event is to bring together young people from across the country and support them to share and learn from other 11-19 year olds how they’re shaping transport services where they live- whether this is about customer services training for drivers, more affordable trains and trams or a reliable bus to get you to school, work or to see your mates.”

 Also in the news this week a Facebook group campaigning specifically about Travel West Midlands’ fares which continues to grow by at east 1,000 people per week. We spoke to group creator Michael Burke about why he set the group up: “I felt that there was no real way of people getting their opinions across to TWM, and that starting this group would be a good way for those people to voice their concerns. And the group has been very successful in doing this.”

As the awareness of the problems with Birmingham’s public transport system and suggestions for future developments continue to grow, what better time to submit an entry to our competition!

Well, the build-up towards the event is certainly picking up pace as we near 2 months to the date of the youth conference. We recently launched the competition, and this week we’re doing some further press work - so keep your eyes and ears open.

Stephen Rhodes (Director of Bus and Highways, CENTRO) and Martin Hancock (Commercial Director - Bus and Coach, National Express) have confirmed that they will be joining Cllr Len Gregory (Cabinet Member for Transportation, Birmingham City Council) to attend the event and listen to young people’s ideas on Birmingham’s transport. This shows how seriously the project is being taken by the decision-makers across the city. In the next few weeks, we will be confirming many more names of relevant people who have been invited to attend.

Registration for people wanting to attend the event was also opened recently and we’ve had keen interest from a lot of young people across the city, so I’d suggest that you head over to the Conference page and fill in the application form as soon as possible to snap some places. To ensure that we have a representative group of young people attending the event, we are limiting places to 5 per institution (i.e. school, college, youth group).

The Shaping Birmingham’s Transport group on Facebook has been rapidly increasing in members since its launch, and there are some interesting discussions taking place on it. So I’d definitely recommend having a look and adding your own input - as it could influence what is discussed at the conference.

Go ahead and post here if you are interested in entering the competition Pav detailed below; if you drop a comment, leaving your name and e-mail address (the e-mail address will be kept confidential) on this post, we will get back to you quickly with details. Or, just leave a quick note if you have any questions about either the Transport Summit event on the 2nd of April, the competition, or the work our Steering group is doing at the moment.

Hello and welcome to the Shaping Birmingham’s Transport blog, home of Birmingham’s Young People’s Transport Summit 2009. Do you feel like transport around Birmingham isn’t quite heading where it should be? Have you got any ideas on what you’d do to improve it? Is it time to start saying good-bye to the car in parts of the city for good? If you’ve got feedback on these, or any other transport issues concerning the Birmingham transportation network and want it heard, this is the blog for you.

If you’d like more information on what the project and blog are trying to achieve, click on the About Us link on the main page. Over the next few months the Steering Group will be posting here to update you of what’s going on, get feedback and comments and also we’ll be accepting registration to attend the event.

Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss out!