Tramlines

This evening I went for a couple of beers with a friend at the local pub in Rednal. Just across the road these tracks are all that remain of the tram line that ran all the way along the Bristol Road from Birmingham to the terminus at Rednal.

The Lickey Hills had been a popular recreation ground for the people of Birmingham since Victorian times, and the extension of the tram line to Rednal in 1924 made the hills all the more accessible.

Sadly the trams were replaced by buses in 1953. The building beside the track was the tram station office and is now, as you can see, a Cantonese restaurant.

Trams will soon be back on the streets of central Birmingham with work having recently started on the extension of the Birmingham Metro tram connecting Snow Hill and New Street stations. With the rather astonishing £128million price tag for this stretch of less than a mile, I don't think we will be seeing trams back in Rednal any time soon.

The Lai Ling Cantonese restaurant is really rather good by the way.