In preparation for the construction of Curzon Street Station for HS2, Birmingham City Council is proposing to install a bus gate on Moor Street Queensway outside of the train station. When Curzon Street Station is built, Park Street, which currently carries most of the private motor traffic travelling through that area towards Digbeth, will be closed. That closure will push all that private motor traffic on to Moor Street Queensway, greatly increasing the congestion on there and slowing down all the buses unless action is taken to prevent that. Birmingham City Council's solution is a bus gate, which will maintain access for public transport and cycles while stopping private motor traffic using the area as a through-route. The consultation is on Birmingham BeHeard - Moor Street Queensway Bus Gate consultation - and closes on February 28th 2020.
We strongly support the proposals for this bus gate. As well as preventing the private motor traffic on Park Street from over-running Moor Street Queensway, the new bus gate will greatly reduce the motor traffic that drives up past Selfridges to Moor Street Queensway. Currently buses heading into the city centre get held up in long queues of cars, and this plan will greatly reduce those delays. People waiting for buses and walking between Moor Street station and New Street station will also notice a large reduction in motor traffic, which will improve the air quality and help them crossing the roads.
In addition, the plans will enable space along this road to be allocated to a cycle track as part of the public realms work that will be done in preparation for the Curzon Street Station. A high quality connection between the A34 and A38 cycle tracks could be built through here, as part of the further development of the cycle network in Birmingham. That space would be a reallocation of highway, not taken from existing pedestrian space, but that will only happen if private motor traffic is greatly reduced in this area.
Our one concern is the routing of private motor traffic along Allison Street to enter the Selfridges Moor Street car park. We think that making some changes to the central pavement area at the corner of Moor Street and Park Street to facilitate motor traffic to turn into Selfridges Moor Street car park would be better, as Allison Street is not a suitable road to carry the motor traffic for the car park at busy times.
