Many plans and ideas are being worked out to extend the Midland Metro system's first line between Birmingham and Wolverhampton. Between November en December 2003, public consultations have been carried out to assess several route options such as Birmingham City Centre to Great Barr, City Centre to Birmingham Airport, Quinton - City Centre - Duddeston and Wolverhampton to Wednesfield, Willenhall, Walsall and Wednesbury (the Five W-s Route).
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Also in the Manchester case, several extensions are planned. At the moment the design and operation of three main extensions to the current network are being developed:
- Oldham and Rochdale
- South Manchester and Manchester Airport
- East Manchester and Ashton-under-Lyne
Later, extension could follow to East Didsbury and Stockport, Trafford Park and The Trafford Centre / The Lowry.
In the near future, a new web site will be opened featuring news on Metrolink: www.metrolinkonline.com.
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The former lead partner of the LiRa Network, Rob Sangen, has retired from his position as head of the transport and traffic department of the City Region of Haaglanden. His role in the realisation and management of the first LiRa-project has been considerable, like his accomplishments as a manager. Rob was offered a mini-congress as a goodbye present. This congress took place in The Hague at November 28th. In the future Rob Sangen will work as a consultant for the city region of Haaglanden.
Jan Termorshuizen has followed Rob Sangen as project-manager of LiRa-2.
RandstadRail, the first light-rail project in the City Regio of Haaglanden is in progress. In 2006 RandstadRail will connect the cities of The Hague, Zoetermeer en Rotterdam.
RandstadRail has a new website (in dutch): www.randstadrail.nl.
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The province of Vlaams Brabant welcomed the LiRa Steering Committee on October 2nd, 2003, in their brand new office building in Leuven. Mrs Nathalie Espeel, hitherto LiRa contact person for the Province of Vlaams-Brabant, will however leave the province as she accepted a new job at the Ministry of the Brussels Capital Region. Mr Kris Lambrechts will take over.
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The LiRa-2 Contact Group has had its first event on October 1st in Brussels. The day began with a presentation by Mr Paul van de Lande of the LiRa-2 co-ordinating consultant (Buck Consultants International). Then the party set out for a site visit in relation with the Pilot Action Trial of the Brussels Capital Region and the Province of Vlaams Brabant.
The members of the LiRa-2 Contact Group are:
- De Lijn Vlaams-Brabant (B)
- Region Groningen-Assen (NL)
- City of The Hague (NL)
- Ministry of Wallonia, (B)
- London Trams, Mr. P. Hewitt (UK)
- Rhein-Main Public Transport Authority (D)
- Centre for Innovation in Public Transport CVOV (NL)
- Amsterdam Regional Authority ROA (NL)
- ProRail, National Rail Management Authority (NL)
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For East Lancashire Partnership, the LiRa-2 contact person has accepted a new job as a full-time health and transport director. Mr N. (Nick) Briggs, one of the founding fathers of the LiRa network, had formerly been seconded into the Partnership by Sinclair Knight Merz. As from October 1st 2003, he combines his work on the Rapid Transit project with the responsibility for the development of strategy and systems for patient and public involvement in health-related issues.
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In the beginning of November 2003, the contract was signed for the purchase of new trams for Brussels. 46 New trams will replace the old vehicles of the T7000 series.
The new trams will be built by Bombardier: 46 2-directional Flexity Outlook* (cityrunner) trams. There will be two types, 19 trams measuring 43.22m (263 passengers) en 27 of 31.85m (188 pass). The order totals 106 M€. The trams will be built in the former BN factory in Bruges. The delivery of the 100% low-floor trams, which are intended mainly to run on pre-Metro Line 3, is expected to take place between June 2005 and February 2007.
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With the innovative static travel information scheme, the Province of Gelderland has won the UITP travel information award. This project is closely related to Gelderland's Action Trial (PAT); a main part of the LiRa-2 project. The approach aims to provide clear, consistent and correct information on panels and posts, uniform for both buses and trains. In September 2003, an evaluation of the complete travel information concept has taken place.
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 With the recent change of timetable, the HTM has expanded its dynamic travel information system. With the system, currently in a test phase, it is possible to track the exact location trams and buses on-line. Also, you can send an SMS message to the central computer that will return a message with the next tram / bus at a specified stop. It is expected that the service will be adopted system-wide in due time.
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One of the sub-projects of LiRa-2 is the realisation of a Light Rapid Transit Assessment Tool. The City Region of Haaglanden and HTM are responsible for this part of the project. HollandRailconsult performed a short literary study, which indicated that only the Dutch Ministry of Transportation has developed a tool with some of the functions we would like to see in the European tool. After consultation the Ministry made clear that they want to make an update of the existing assessment tool. We discussed the possibilities of co-development, giving the opportunity for both to get better quality. The project-plan will be based on cooperation.
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