INFO: Travel advice
CHANGING BEHAVIOURS
During the 2013 closures, Birmingham City Centre kept moving and remained open for business. This was down to the huge number of people who made the switch to Alternative Transport.
From data collected during the closures, we could calculate that over 200,000 additional journeys were made by bus, rail or sustainable means.
Overall, traffic flow data showed approximately a 10% reduction over the whole period, but there were some interesting findings. For example, morning traffic flows were much lower than normal – up to 24% lower – while evening reductions were much less, only down by around 9%. This suggests those people who were still driving were travelling into the city much earlier to avoid any jams.
BUS JOURNEY TIMES
Looking at the data provided by National Express West Midlands, bus operations appeared to be largely unaffected during the tunnel closures and on average bus routes experienced no significant delay, whilst general traffic experienced hold ups.
In some cases, buses were making significant gains. For example, buses making their way from the Perry Barr shaved approximately 5 minutes off their journey times by making use of the bus priority measures on the A34.
National Express West Midlands offered a special price ticket for the period of the closure in 2013, and will be doing so again this year.
RAIL TRAVEL OFFERS AND PARK AND RIDE IMPROVEMENTS
Thousands of people took to the railways to avoid the potential jams during the tunnels closures. London Midland, the main rail operator for the area, kept trains running at their normal capacity (not to summer timetables) and saw approximately 131,000 extra passenger journeys during August.
Virgin Trains reduced parking fees at Birmingham International during the closures and at the end of the first week of the promotion, the car park entries had increased 15.6% compared to the same period last year.
Network Rail and Centro also worked with Amey to provide overflow parking (approximately 100 additional spaces) at Kings Norton Station with 10% more people using this park and ride facility.
PRIVATE VEHICLE JOURNEY TIMES
The nature of traffic and associated journey times is that they are constantly changing. While one route might perform well, another might not and this can change as drivers try to find their own routes past any delays. The best advice really is to look at alternative modes of transport.
However, we understand that some people simply can’t change their mode of transport and there were a number of people who continued to make their journeys by car. We collected enough data during the closures to identify some traffic trends. So what delays did drivers experience?
Unsurprisingly, the routes that suffered the worst delays were the A38 (M) and the A38 Bristol Road. On average this route was three times slower than on a normal commuter day. Delays were also experienced at Digbeth High Street and Moor Street Queensway.
Other routes performed better, including the Middle Ring Road (anti-clockwise), A47 Nechells Parkway and A34 Walsall Road. These were all signed as suggested routes.
If you made use of these routes instead of using Great Charles Street to go ‘up and over’ the tunnels, you would have halved your journey time to go the full length from Holloway Circus to Dartmouth Circus.
