Tram dream may be back on track

Trams could run along disused freight railway tracks in the Black Country in a bid keep the £388 million expansion dreams alive, it emerged today.

Hopes of bringing 5,000 jobs to the region by extending the tram system into Brierley Hill and further into Wolverhampton were in tatters last week after a decision on congestion charges.

Councillors had refused to force congestion charging on the region in exchange for government funding for the expansion.

The money was offered as part of the £2 billion Transport Innovation Fund (TIF) but would only have been available after councils had started a trial form of congestion charging.

Possible ways of keeping the expansion alive could see the Stourbridge-Walsall-Lichfield freight line brought back after more than 20 years of running the Metro between Wednesbury and Brierley Hill.

And the councils might be able to raise some of the money for themselves by selling vacant land which would be worth more to developers if it had Metro tracks running alongside it.

Councillor Roger Lawrence, leader of Wolverhampton City Council, said today: "The business rates go straight to central government and so we will point this out and ask for appropriate funding.

"All indications are that this would bring a substantial boost to the economy.

"Wolverhampton was not going to get its part of the extension until phase two under the plans for the TIF.

"But with our Interchange project we might be able to get the funding for that sooner so that people can take a tram right up to the railway station."

Wolverhampton, Walsall, Dudley and Sandwell councils have asked the Black Country Consortium to come up with ideas. Chief executive Sarah Middleton said: "The leaders have made a clear restatement of their desire to see the development of the Midland Metro go ahead."