Metro extension manager rewarded for employing Walsall residents

Paul Edwards has been given a Walsall Works Bronze Award for helping to recruit people from the town into positions on the Birmingham Westside Metro Extension. The awards are a way of recognising the contribution and investment that employers have made in their local workforce.

It comes after three people were recruited on to the Metro extension project following a recruitment event, held in conjunction with infrastructure specialists Barhale and Walsall Works, a Walsall Council programme designed to support local people with finding jobs, apprenticeships and training.

Kelly Jones, Darren Hall and Stephen Jones have all joined the Midland Metro Alliance as operatives after handing in their CVs at the event.

Paul Edwards said: “I am delighted to have received the Walsall Works Bronze Award. The Midland Metro Alliance is committed to employing local people and creating career opportunities on its doorstep, ensuring that the region will benefit from our construction projects.”

The extension is being designed and built by the Midland Metro Alliance working on behalf of the West Midlands Combined Authority, which has embarked upon an ambitious plan to regenerate the region and to provide new opportunities for residents and businesses. Central to this plan is the expansion of the Metro network which will triple in size by 2026, with the aim of providing high quality, safe, sustainable and dependable tram travel across much of the region.

The new line will operate between Grand Central and Hagley Road in Edgbaston, improving transport links to and from the west of Birmingham, making journeys faster and more accessible.

Five new tram stops will connect passengers to Victoria Square, Centenary Square, Brindley Place, Five Ways and Hagley Road, with links to popular attractions including the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, the International Convention Centre and Symphony Hall, allowing more people to use the tram in this area for day-to-day travel, reducing road congestion in the city centre, as well as improving sustainable transport options along Broad Street and beyond.

The first phase of the works will take the route from New Street Station to Centenary Square, with services expected to commence in late 2019. The second phase will continue to Edgbaston, and is planned to open in 2021, in time for Birmingham’s hosting of the Commonwealth Games, for which transport improvements in the city, including the tram extension, are expected to play an important part in delivering a successful event.