I’m in agreement with David Harte too, in as much as i’m not entirely sure where you stand and whether or not you advocate a market led approach? Im a planning student, at BCU incidentally and to me the Eastside Campus actually represented a move away from what you term ‘BCU Creep’ the campus was always meant to unite the several campuses located around the city.

I also think your arguement with regard to the station giving Eastside a purpose is flawed, as a university in the area would also need the local area to serve it…we might have seen some of the older industrial buildings converted in to accommodation, bars and clubs would have attracted the newly located affluent students.

Also a 250Mph train in this country seems a bit OTT as another poster has stated, is it really necessary?

It would also be interesting to hear other peoples views on the ‘new’ location for BCU as noises from the WMRDA seem to suggest they will assist with finding a new suitable site, and university bodies suggesting they will do everything they can to make a city centre campus a reality.

The science museum was free once upon a time, prior to Millenium Fucking Point. As such an far greater number of kids were able to get excited about industrial history and science there. I was one of them.

(This is not to say that it moving to MFP is why they now charge for entry now, or anything like that. I just hate to hear anybody ascribing too much in the way of positive social value to Think Fucking Tank, given that it replaced a superior entity that was free for all to attend).

The consensus in the news media and among railway circles is that 250 mph is probably overkill in what is a relatively small country. So in many ways the plans still come back to the Grand Central Concept with or without High Speed 2.

The main bottleneck is to the east of New Street, under the Bullring. The tracks to the west diverge and therefore offer more space to get trains in and out of New Street. Grand Central would reduce the number of through trains, simply because a train on the West Coast Main Line would reverse direction before continuing on its way north or south.

I hate your ‘BCU-creep’ phrase as well. It stains what’s otherwise an interesting take on some of the planning issues on that side of town. But hey, it allows us a glimpse into your position which is fine.

For the record ‘Millennium ‘fucking’ Point’ is somewhere my kids and plenty others get excited about industrial history, about science and, partly, about cinema. It’s where they look through the glass into the design and fashion classrooms of Birmingham Metropolitan College and get excited about creative education. It’s where a researcher for Birmingham City University is investigating the fermentation of algal biomass as an alternative fuel source. It’s full of researchers actually; doing their best to contribute to knowledge and meet real-world challenges. Not inward-looking at all.

Your sexy, interesting bits of Digbeth aren’t under threat in any way so I don’t know why you want to create some kind of us and them divide. In fact its “chaotic” nature is valued enough to make it subject to protection as a conservation area. Sure there are issues and tensions as the area resists a creep towards gentrification but the place is much the same now as it was when my parents arrived in this city 50 years ago and drank in its pubs (although note, it took them a lot more than three months to become a Brummie – there was much racism targeted at new communities, it wasn’t always so welcoming)

Being generally excitable about anything that involves railways, I too think the new rail line is positive and this seems good site for a terminus. I’m not mourning the loss of the City Centre campus in particular and if this scuppers elements of the Big City Plan a bit then that’s no bad thing either.

But your position here just confuses me overall. Are you advocating a market-led approach? Less planning restrictions? Even more reliance on private landlords to decide the future shape of our city?

Oh lord.

Well, lo and behold! ARUP is part of the High Speed 2 partnership! See their name on the bottom right of the map. It looks as though High Speed 2, Railtrack and the City Council have all been working independently – your tax dollars at work!

Seriously though, I liked the Grand Central Station concept and welcome the proposals (that’s all they are, remember). But I am not sure I really go for the junction out by Birmingham International that would allow trains to bypass Birmingham altogether. I liked the idea that all trains would enter Grand Central terminus and then leave again once the driver had sprinted down 415 meters of platform to the other end! Seriously, this would allow Birmingham to finally become the hub of Britain’s rail network – all tracks lead to Brum!

if by bcu creep you mean the popping up of campuses all over the place or the taking over of existing institutions, don’t forget the history – the city of birmingham polytechnic was formed as a federation of independent colleges from all over the city in the first place – creep is a process which has been going on for 45 years !

This morning, as he dribbles the choclately milk from his Coco-Pops all down his front, Mike Whitby will breathe a huge sigh of relief through his mouth. This announcement provides him with two solutions for the price of one.

The Big City Plan was a massive exercise in paying lip service and anyone seriously expecting their ideas to be listened to or implemented was quite demented. As you point out, Pete, it can now be forgotten about because of the Shiny Trains. The only positive to come from the whole (doubtless very expensive) exercise was that it gave focus to a conversation normal people were already having.

The ongoing ‘Eastside’ (re)branding project reminds me of a very long brainstorming session taking place in a dull and uninspiring advertising agency, but that’s just a personal opinion. Now that a massive train station is going to be dropping in the area I would expect the ‘luxury flats and shopping malls’ that the council have really wanted to build there all along to finally put the concept out of it’s misery.

Back in the real world, if anyone thinks this train station is going to be good for ‘The Digital District’ / ‘The Creative Quarter’ (or whatever it’s called) in it’s current location then I fear you are going to be disappointed. The shear size of the station, and it’s overspill of roads, transport links, secondary building developments and the like, means you’ll probably be relocating to the cheaper parts of town.

Despite sounding like a miserable bleeder, I am generally happy about this. I think it will broadly be ‘a good thing’ for the city…it’s just a crying shame that we don’t have a council with the vision and intelligence to match the size of the opportunity.