Sutton Coldfield - Transport

Transport

Linked by regular and fast services from Sutton Coldfield railway station on the Cross-City Line to the centre of Birmingham, Sutton is mostly a commuter dormitory town for people who work in Birmingham. The 1955 Sutton Coldfield rail crash occurred here, when an express train entered the very tight curve through the station much faster than the speed limit of 30 mph (48 km/h). The Sutton Park Line also crosses the town roughly perpendicular to the cross-city line (crossing at a point out of easy sight near the former Midland Road station), but lost its passenger services and stations in the 1964 "Beeching Axe". It retained a loading bay at the adjacent Clifton Road Royal Mail sorting office for a time, but now remains as a freight only line.

The Roman road Icknield Street cuts through Sutton Park to the west of the town. The town is bypassed to the north by the M6 Toll, the first toll motorway in the UK, accessible from Sutton by junction T2 at Minworth (co-located with the M42 junction), T3 and T4 (interchanging with the A38 at the south and north ends of their 5-mile (8.0 km) parallel run), and T5 at Shenstone. It also has easy access to the M6 to the South, via junctions 5 (Castle Bromwich), J6 (Gravelly Hill, or "Spaghetti Junction") and J7 at Great Barr; and also the M42 in the east, via junction 9 near Minworth.

The A38 itself used to run through the centre of the town (literally, using the since-pedestrianised line of the Parade), but now uses the dual carriageway bypass to the east. The former route of the A38 is now the A5127 Lichfield Road, branching from the southern end of the Aston Expressway on the Birmingham Middleway ring road, and continues to provide a major connective route running between and on slightly altered paths through the centres of Erdington, Sutton and Lichfield.

The Parade in the town centre is the main destination and terminus for numerous National Express West Midlands bus services in and through Sutton Coldfield. Such routes as 'Sutton Lines' (902, 904, 905, 914, 915) to Birmingham, 77 to Walsall and 451 to West Bromwich; to name just a few arterial routes. The resultant congestion and perceived danger, from heavy (and almost exclusively) bus traffic on the repurposed and poorly sighted Lower Parade and Lower Queen Street coming into conflict with pedestrians (including children from several local schools) crossing between the Red Rose Centre and the other shopping areas, has led to calls for a dedicated bus centre to be built external to the town centre.

This would be built as part of the controversial Brassington Avenue development, with an elevated walkway across the ring road providing access to the main shopping areas. However, there are several sets of pedestrian crossings near to the bus stops, in order to provide a safe area for people to cross. Nevertheless, it remains a dangerous area with the large amount of traffic present, especially in the school holidays.