Sunday, January 16, 2022 - 00:00 to Monday, January 17, 2022 - 05:30
The towpath will be closed between Somerset Road and Westgate on the Worcester and Birmingham Canal. A diversion will be in place via Farquhar Road and Vincent Drive. This is to facilitate work on the new University station. For more details:
The flight of steps that is the canal tow-path access at University station are being replaced. I would like to be able to tell you they are being replaced with a wheelchair-friendly, cycle-friendly ramp, like that at Bournville, but of course this being Birmingham, plenty of spurious reasons were found for not doing this. My personal favourite is that this is the site of a Roman fort. The fort has long-since disappeared under a canal, a railway, roads, a car park, and buildings, but this is sufficient to render doing a proper job "completely impossible".
It took persistent badgering of councillors by Push Bikes, particularly Tahir Ali, who seemed annoyed that someone was determinedly complaining about having to cycle along a very narrow path through an unlit tunnel, even though that path is Birmingham's idea of a strategic cycle route and takes traffic off the overloaded A38. Apparently it required negotiation and the seeking of funding.
There is a noticeable increase in the number of people cycling in Birmingham, and of course most of them opt for routes that don't involve mixing with motor vehicles. The canals make for a pleasant environment, and the resurfacing of the tow paths carried out using Cycling Ambition Grant money is an improvement over the previous mud bath, but the tow paths are too narrow for use as heavily used shared-use paths.
