Trams won’t reach Birmingham New Street until the New Year after Centro announced that work would be scaled back to support traders ahead of the Christmas period.
Tram services will still return to the city centre for the first time in 60 years as originally planned on December 6, at least as far as Bull Street, but the full 1.2-kilometre extension won’t fully open until 2016.
Authorities were keen to reduce disruption so as not to impact on businesses in the city centre in the run-up to Christmas. The annual German Christmas market brought 5.5 million visitors to the city last year.
The £128 million tram extension includes a £40 million fleet of new CAF trams. Testing and commissioning of the New Street extension will continue throughout December, Centro has said.
With the New Street extension close to completion, work is already underway to expand the network further. From New Street, the system will be extended to Centenary Square in 2019 and through to Curzon Street, the location of Birmingham’s city centre HS2 station, by 2023.
