Villa Park Redevelopment

[Ads]

Temporary one way systems would help a lot. The Villa have come up with a number of measures that make a lot of sense and would alleviate issues, it's just surprising or rather its not, ever occurred to BCC to implement them.

[SoccerHQ]

They're never going to build a tram line in an area where the main justification is 25 or so days a year, so extending it up Lichfield Road would have to fight it out as an option with lots of other potential routes

Star City's been open since 2000 though hasn't it? So could've just built it down the A34 with a stop loosely connected to VP and then have terminus up at Star City which is much more active than 25 days a year.

I was in Nottingham yesterday for business and being a transport geek was impressed how far their metro stretches out flicking through the map, up to Bulwell (which has a train station) and also West up to Toton. Shame HS2 is probably going to be scrapped for that part of the world but can't have everything I guess.

Sheffield has its tram going up to Meadowhall and also Hillsborough.

As we've seen taking 6-7 years to just extend tram into the city centre and slightly beyond it just takes too long so moment has passed really to include VP.

[VillaTim]

Does anyone still go to Star City ? Genuine question is there anything still there worth going to that isn't in town ?

[RamboandBruno]

Does anyone still go to Star City ? Genuine question is there anything still there worth going to that isn't in town ?

Its rammed all the time, surprisingly so.

In terms of the ground, i havent read all of the recent posts on the thread, but understanding what people are saying of the logistical issues with Villa Park, even with with all that and being self aware enough to know my own thoughts on this are built almost totally on sentimentally, it would be a mistake to move from Villa Park. Some aspects of history are worth protecting from progress despite the inconvenience of the transport situation.

[AV82EC]

<sarcasm> when Andy Street delivers his 2040 vision with 10 new tram lines and much improved West Midlands Trains network, you won’t be moaning then</sarcasm>

[algy]

Being ever the optimist, if you look at to the Manchester tram it stalled for a decade after the first line was layed. Now it's been more than that, I know, but I do feel like once there's a decent bit of momentum behind it, you'll see stuff like the A34 route being converted relatively quickly.

They must, surely, look at that tram system in Manchester and wonder why the hell the city is so far behind in that regard. The city centre will be a battle, but get past that ....

Not that I think you _ought_ to be reliant on a hypothetical tram network when there's 2 national rail stations, on different lines, within a few minutes walk.

[AV82EC]

I lived in Greater Manchester for 20’years and the tram system is good. The main drawback though is they converted quite a few of their heavy rail commuter lines to tram and rail coverage isn’t as good as a result. In fact each conurbation has an opposing problem, West Mids needs some money spent on improving its rail infrastructure and a big splurge on a tram
Network whereas Manchester needs the opposite. Being honest both of them need major splurges on all aspects of it but you have to start somewhere.

[Risso]

I think this is it.  As has been said before, Villa Park is right next to a massive motorway and 2 separate railway stations.  There aren't going to be that many locations with better transport links, and even fewer that are actually obtainable.

I think Birmingham's unique in that it is a British city with a major motorway passing right through the middle of it. The only remotely comparable area I can think of is the bottom bit of the M1 that goes into North London. So yes it's great that the motorway at J6 is very close, but unfortunately it might as well be on the moon if the local roads can't cope with the traffic to get to it, which they very much can't. I'd say 95% of cars head back either under the flyover and towards Lichfield Road, or up Witton Road to Victoria Road, and then onto the Expressway. Most of the local roads intersecting these roads are barely wide enough to cope with cars coming in both directions, so it's usually absolute carnage for a good couple of hours after the game has finished.

[AV82EC]

The council need to start putting some double yellows down and actively police them and get some post match one way flows going and it would help enormously.

[pauliewalnuts]

Does anyone still go to Star City ? Genuine question is there anything still there worth going to that isn't in town ?

Almost everyone who goes to Star City does so by car, which is why it is built where it is.

[dekko]

Reports starting to come out confirming that the Holte Suite is being converted to hospitality.

[Percy McCarthy]

I lived in Greater Manchester for 20’years and the tram system is good. The main drawback though is they converted quite a few of their heavy rail commuter lines to tram and rail coverage isn’t as good as a result. In fact each conurbation has an opposing problem, West Mids needs some money spent on improving its rail infrastructure and a big splurge on a tram
Network whereas Manchester needs the opposite. Being honest both of them need major splurges on all aspects of it but you have to start somewhere.

A cause for optimism I think. Once we get a decent tram network we’ll be cooking as we’ll have both components. I imagine it’s much more difficult to restore heavy rail.

[VillaTim]

Reports starting to come out confirming that the Holte Suite is being converted to hospitality.

Best kept secret ever ? Saw figures of £70 entry floating about yesterday, obviously unconfirmed at this stage

[Lucky Eddie]

Reports starting to come out confirming that the Holte Suite is being converted to hospitality.

Best kept secret ever ? Saw figures of £70 entry floating about yesterday, obviously unconfirmed at this stage

Per match or per season?

[The Edge]

They're never going to build a tram line in an area where the main justification is 25 or so days a year, so extending it up Lichfield Road would have to fight it out as an option with lots of other potential routes

So what's the justification for extending the HS2 Curzon link right to the top of Digbeth? The A34 passes through heavily urbanised districts which the tram would serve. A branch off from the island towards Villa Park/Witton station would have similar benefits.