The Mayor of the West Midlands Andy Street talks about the demolition work at Dudley bus station and the transport plans for the region
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00:00 So tell me about the start of the project, it must be good to see it finally getting underway.
00:03 Yes you're right, today a good new store in its own right for Dudley where we're seeing the beginning of the demolition of the old bus station
00:10 to bring the interchange, connect it to the Metro, a much better waiting facilities and all of that for customers here in Dudley, so that's good.
00:17 But remember in a sense it's only sort of symbolic of what we're doing across the whole of the region, the investment we're announcing today.
00:24 And you've announced the amounts that's being invested, it's quite a lot of money as well but obviously it's all going towards a common purpose.
00:30 It's a huge amount of money, you are right, £6.1 billion and we've sort of built it as a war chest over the years
00:36 and if you just reflect that's about 10 times what we're spending per year than we were before the Combined Authority was formed.
00:43 For those who are really interested £38 million in the year before the CA, now it's over £400 million and that goes for projects across the region.
00:51 And so a number that are already in the ground, the Walsall to Wolverhampton railway line, the Metro extension here of course,
00:57 the work that's been done on sprint routes as well up the Walsall Road, things like that.
01:02 But what this is also doing is saying there'll be a lot more projects coming in the future
01:07 and a number in the black country that we're talking about, the Wensbury to Walsall link potentially,
01:11 the link from Briley Hill at the end of the Metro to Stavridge being done and then Wolverhampton to New Cross Hospital, an important link as well.
01:19 So a number of really important things that are now under study and we will have the cash for the capital for them in time.
01:25 And that's the biggest thing about it as well, it's connecting up the region, it's also modernising the transport links in the region as well.
01:31 Well it's very interesting you say that because the way I think about this is that it's one system overall and that's what you mean by modernising.
01:38 So whether it's rail, it's tram or indeed it's even the local bike, it's all one total system that you'll be able to access with one ticketing card.
01:46 So if you have your SWIFT card you can use all of them and the fares from next year, the fares will be capped.
01:52 Already happens on our buses and our tram but that will include trains from next year as well.
01:56 And there's going to be a bit of disruption in Dudley for the time being with streets being closed,
02:00 obviously this bus station being closed but it's worth it in the long run isn't it?
02:03 Yes, so I do understand and for some traders it's concerning obviously the disruption in the short term,
02:07 much as we've tried to help people understand the alternative stops, how to get to the places that they loved.
02:12 But this is all part of a much, much bigger plan that will make it better for people to get to their work,
02:18 to bring new customers into the retail heart here in Dudley Town Centre
02:21 and of course enable people to travel across the whole region for leisure as well.
02:25 So I definitely feel it's good progress in the long term.
02:28 [BLANK_AUDIO]