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Birmingham Built Transport System Around Rail, Buses, and One Tram Line
Decades of rising rail use and the absence of an underground network shaped the conditions that led to the Birmingham Transport Plan.
How we reported this
In 2025, 35% of peak-hour journeys into Birmingham city centre were made by rail. That figure stood at 27% in 2012 and 17% in 2001. The steady increase reflects how the city has come to depend on its existing rail connections rather than any new underground system.
Birmingham functions as a major transport hub in central England, connected by rail, road and water. Public transport falls under Transport for West Midlands. The city remains the largest in Europe without an underground rail system and instead relies on buses, the single West Midlands Metro tram line and suburban trains.
Why the numbers matter now
The growth in rail share occurred alongside rising overall public transport use. In 2024/25 there were 247 million bus journeys, an increase of 14.8 million from the previous year, together with 65.8 million rail journeys and 9 million tram journeys. These volumes show how the network has carried more passengers even while the city lacks the underground infrastructure found in other large European centres.
Without an underground option, planners have had to manage growing demand through the existing mix of suburban rail, the single tram route and an extensive bus network overseen by Transport for West Midlands. The pattern of rising rail use over more than two decades illustrates the pressure that has built on surface-level services.
The Birmingham Transport Plan emerges from these constraints
The radical Birmingham Transport Plan aims to bar cars from travelling through the city centre by splitting it into seven segments with restricted car travel between them, alongside a default 20mph speed limit in residential areas. The approach follows directly from the city’s established reliance on rail, buses and one tram line, together with the absence of underground capacity to absorb further growth.
Future steps will centre on how the segmented layout and speed limit are introduced across the seven areas, building on the transport patterns already visible in the 2025 rail share and the 2024/25 journey totals.