00:00Transport for West Midlands and the Mayor's Office say billions of pounds have been invested to modernised buses, trams and rail across the region.
00:10But many passengers still complain about late services, overcrowding and reliability problems, especially on key commuter routes.
00:19With major projects promised to transform how people move around the West Midlands, the question remains whether those changes are being felt on the ground.
00:29Well, of course we know that Birmingham suffered from the fact that in the 1960s the car took primacy and pedestrians,
00:39and I remember this as a child, you had to go into underpasses which were often dirty, very unsafe, people got mugged.
00:46So there's been a lot of improvements and Birmingham has now returned to being a much more pedestrian friendly city.
00:54But there's no doubt that there's still many cars to go in.
00:56I'm sympathetic to the view that people feel that motors are being a bit unloved.
01:01But undoubtedly, somehow or other, we've got to shift the balance away from cars being used.
01:07I would, personally speaking, like to go for the Dutch model where effectively around the city centre,
01:14in fact you can draw this as wide as you like, where of course cars are completely banned if you like.
01:20But of course what you've then got to replace it is the ability of people to get round.
01:25So it is important I think in Birmingham, there's a lot of sort of work being done, particularly by the combined authority,
01:29which of course have the sort of responsibility for transport to try and do this.
01:33Transport for West Midlands says more than £5 billion has been committed to transport upgrades over the past decade,
01:41including the Metro tram extension, new electric buses and improvements to local rail services.
01:48The combined authority points to rising passenger numbers and cleaner vehicles as signs of progress.
01:54But recent performance data shows punctuality issues remain on several busy bus corridors,
02:01while rail service have been affected by staff shortages, infrastructure faults and industrial action.
02:07Because as we know, the tram system, it's taking a long time to put in.
02:12If we could have that through all the major arterial routes and make it easy so you can get down to the end of your road,
02:17you can get reliable traffic transport into city centre or wherever you need to go.
02:21But of course, this requires a lot of sort of forethought, investment and of course time.
02:26And of course, most of those things we don't have. People want these things to happen quickly.
02:30Well, the mayor's office says long term investment is starting to deliver results,
02:35but accepts more work is needed to improve reliability and convenience.
02:40Transport for West Midlands insists further upgrades are planned, including more electric buses and extended tram services.
02:48For many passengers though, the priority remains simple.
02:51Services that turn up on time run often enough and provide a realistic alternative to the car.
02:58For more information information, visit www.fidcast.com.au
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