WEST Midlands Mayor Andy Street has promised to get plans to extend the Midland Metro to Brierley Hill firmly on track following the Government’s announcement the West Midlands Combined Authority is to receive £250million to invest in improved transport infrastructure.

The extension will run through Dudley to the DY5 Enterprise Zone at The Waterfront at Brierley Hill - linking both towns to the rail network for the first time since the 1960s.

Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands, said: “The Midland Metro extension to Brierley Hill is the WMCA’s priority transport project and the £250m from Government means we can now get underway on a project that is shovel-ready.

“The importance of this extension is difficult to understate. It will open up sites for housing and regeneration and reconnect Dudley and Brierley Hill to the rail network for the first time in decades.

“Perhaps most importantly, it connects the DY5 Enterprise Zone to the network and supercharges proposals to create thousands of jobs in Brierley Hill.

“This has been a long time coming - many decades in fact - but because of the WMCA presenting a compelling case to Government, we are finally able to start work, subject to board approval."

The seven-mile Wednesbury to Brierley Hill extension will include 17 stops and will run largely along an existing, disused heavy rail corridor - deviating to take in Dudley town centre, Merry Hill and the terminus at Brierley Hill.

When the line opens commuters in Dudley will be just 40 minutes from the new HS2 station at Curzon Street in Birmingham City Centre.

Regeneration bosses say it will align employment, education, health and tourism along the corridor, boosting investment in the Black Country and paving the way for the building of 50,000 homes.