Gimme shelter

In the last few weeks, as a result of Centro’s project to extend the Midland Metro tramway on-street a few hundred yards from Snow Hill to Stephenson Street, the entire bus network in Birmingham city centre has been turned upside down. Because Midland Metro and buses don’t really mix, all services using Corporation Street, Upper Bull Street and Stephenson Street have had to be re-routed, and in one way or another, the disruption has affected nearly every bus route that penetrates the Inner Ring Road.

As part of their contribution to Birmingham council’s inappropriately titled ‘Vision for Movement‘, Centro took it upon themselves to tear out nearly all the bus shelters in the city centre, and replaced them (or some of them) with faddish ‘designer’ ones that offer virtually no protection against bad weather. In Birmingham it rains, at some point of the day, more than 150 days a year.

This week, Centro’s contractors were smashing up the far superior and fairly new shelters at St Philip’s churchyard for scrap-n-landfill. It seems likely the designer tat installed in nearby streets will be installed in Colmore Row too.