Westside BID hired one of the new Beryl e-scooters to see how riding one towards the city centre compared with bus and tram times for speed and cost. GRAHAM YOUNG reports.
You can watch Graham’s journeys here:
BERYL E-SCOOTER
I picked up my scooter from the Five Ways entrance to the Park Regis hotel, tying a GoPro to the front of the scooter to record the journey.
Before riding one, you need to sign up to the Beryl app via email, adding your debit card details, postcode, taking selfies showing both sides of your face and photographing your driving licence, too.
I unlocked the e-scooter from the Beryl Bay on the pavement, although you aren’t supposed to ride on a pavement. But how else are you meant to begin your journey, given how heavy the e-scooter is, if you are not riding it?
Anyway, I turned right onto St Martin’s Street and then left into Tennant Street which runs parallel to Broad Street. After crossing Bishopsgate Street, I later took a left into Granville Street and rode down Broad Street, pulling into Oozells Street after Popworld to let a car taxi overtake me.
Beyond Centenary Square, I stopped at the traffic lights on red, a tram overtaking me in a separate lane on the right. I waited patiently for the lights to change here and then again at the top of Paradise Street, before heading towards Pinfold Street and down Stephenson Street where I stopped next to the tram outside of Grand Central.
The time from Park Regis to going past Centenary Square was five minutes (5 x 20p = £1) so the total cost for that ride, including the £1 unlocking fee, would have been £2 if I could have parked immediately.
Or it would have cost £3 from Park Regis to Grand Central – but, again, only if I could have parked there and then, and there is no readily obvious nearby facility to do so.
Because there wa no docking bay there, I had a quick scoot around the city centre for fun, following the tram up Corporation Street and into Bull Street before saying goodbye and turning left into Colmore Row, where my scooter’s small wheels struggled on a rough stretch of road.
Circling Birmingham Cathedral, I then rode along Temple Street, down Cherry Street and left into Fore Street, where there is a Beryl Bay docking station three minutes’ walk from Grand Central.
My extended ‘morning scooter ride’ (as detailed on my emailed receipt) from Park Regis to Fore Street took 29 minutes in total and cost £6.80 including a £1 unlocking fee.
Cost summary: It’s £1 to unlock a Beryl e-scooter and 20p per minute thereafter. Possible additional charges: £10 if you don’t park it in or next to a Beryl Bay and £30 for leaving it unlocked. It’s £20 if you lock it outside of a Beryl zone plus an additional £80 if you don’t return it within 24 hours.
Hiring a pedal-powered Beryl West Midlands Cycle Hire bike would have been significantly cheaper. They also cost £1 to unlock, but then it’s 5p per minute of cycling – equivalent to a total of £2.50 for 30 minutes or £4 per hour.
TRAM
By comparison, a tram travels between Grand Central and Edgbaston Village terminus on the other side of Five Ways in about 11 minutes, traffic and numbers of people getting on and off in the Westside BID area permitting.
Having parked the Beryl in Fore Street, I quickly walked back to Stephenson Street and caught the next tram from Grand Central all the way to Edgbaston Village (1.2 miles). The Beryl Bay docking station at Park Regis is roughly half way between the penultimate Metro stop at Pryzm /Cineworld and the line’s terminus at 54 Hagley Road.
The Sunday morning tram journey from Grand Central to the terminus (handy for Broadway Plaza Odeon Luxe on the other side of Hagley Road which is part of Westside BID), took the designated 11 minutes.
The Westside BID area is served by four Metro tram stops at the city end of the line from Wolverhampton – beyond the Town Hall / Victoria Square stop on Paradise Street they are:
- Centenary Square (Library of Birmingham, Birmingham Rep, ICC, Symphony Hall, Hyatt Hotel, HSBC UK)
- Brindleyplace (Figure of Eight / Lee Longlands / Velvet Music Rooms)
- Five Ways (Pryzm / Cineworld / Pure Gym) and
- Edgbaston Village – on Hagley Road, just past Morrisons (serves Broadway Plaza and the Odeon Luxe on the other side of Hagley Road)
Cost summary: Zone 1 tram travel costs £2 for a single ride or £2.80 off-peak for unlimited travel all day. That covers 11 stops in total between and including Edgbaston Village and the Jewellery Quarter. If you start your tram journey at peak time (before 9.30am during weekdays) the all-day ticket for the inner Zone 1 would be £3.
BUS
From the Edgbaston Village tram terminus, I walked across the Hagley Road towards Broadway Plaza, ready to travel back into the city centre on the next bus. A No 9 arrived within a minute and it took less than six minutes to reach Centenary Square / Library of Birmingham.
At the end of Broad Street, the No 9 then turned left to go round the new Octagon building under construction. Turning right, it then went down Great Charles Queensway towards St Chad’s before going up Snow Hill Queensway and stopping on Colmore Row next to Birmingham Cathedral. It would then head back towards Broad Street and the Westside BID area – so there’s another option if you want to visit from the Colmore side of town.
I left the bus at its Colmore Row stop and walked across Birmingham Cathedral Square to Grand Central ready to use my all-day tram ticket to go back up Broad Street again!
Cost summary: Bus journeys are £1.50 for a single ‘short hop’ journey of ‘up to about a mile’ (longer single journeys are £2, a reduced figure until October 31, 2023). Should you want to return by bus, the driver said two ‘singles’ were cheaper than a ‘return’ ticket because the all-day pass (including a return) is £4.50.
VERDICT
The e-scooter was great fun but once you are up and running at 20p per minute you quickly realise it’s difficult to work out where you can or cannot ride them.
This is not helped by the plethora of cyclists, motorcyclists and non-legal private scooter riders appearing from nowhere to add to the sense of confusion.
The e-scooters are capable of 12.5mph but my Beryl kept chiming to signal that it was limiting the speed, often on roads where I thought there would be no restriction.
It would suddenly chime and be ready to speed up again, yet sometimes I had to get off to push start it. My journey time of 11 minutes from the Park Regis to Grand Central was slightly slower than the tram.
I would not want to ride an e-scooter on a busy road, nor in an area like New Street congested with pedestrians, and I would not attempt to ride one without a helmet.
It helps to know in advance where you might park it at the end of your journey as not leaving it at or very close to a Beryl Bay can result in those extra charges.
Although the Beryl e-scooter feels like it has a better suspension than its Voi predecessor, the small wheels inevitably make you feel vulnerable to potholes and other road defects. I found it was essential to look what the road surface in front of me was like more than for road signs.
The tram is super smooth, accelerating quickly and once you are on board the conductors are both friendly and helpful. Compared with a single-entry double decker, having several doors enables passengers to board and to leave efficiently. The windows always seem to be cleaner than buses or West Midlands Trains.
The £2 cost for one, three-stop trip from Grand Central to Brindleyplace on a sunny day could seem to be expensive when you could walk there in about ten minutes. But to be able to go anywhere in Zone 1 all day, especially during poor weather… now that’s a comparative bargain at £2.80 off-peak (or £3 if you begin before 9.30am weekdays).
Overall, the Beryl e-scooter was the most fun, the tram was the sleekest ride and the bus the cheapest (if you only want to go in one direction and especially for a ‘short hop’ of up to about a mile).
So, take your pick and mix and match your way into and out of the Westside BID area. After all, variety is the spice of life…
ENDS
