Shaping Birmingham’s Transport

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!