Pictured above: A new artist's impression of the New Street Station redevelopment, viewed from Hill Street

High Speed Rail is not the only transport news that is setting the Birmingham MIPIM stand alight at the international property conference in Cannes.

Delegates have been told that the last piece in the funding jigsaw for the long awaited runway extension at Birmingham International Airport could be put in place at a full board meeting of the airport's directors in April.

Coun Mike Whitby, leader of Birmingham City Council, said he was very hopeful that the final £25 million had been secured which would allow work to start.

"The runway extension is absolutely vital in global terms. It is the most important piece of concrete in Birmingham's economic regeneration because it enables us to reach out across the world, taking our goods into new markets and providing investors with easier access to our city."

He said that over the next ten years - The Decade of Delivery as MIPIM 2010 has been themed by Birmingham - the region would "see the benefits of a Strategic Transport Investment programme that befits a global destination".

He laid out to delegates in his Welcome Speech on Wednesday morning the kind of commitment that Birmingham City Council and its partners were showing to the region's growing transport requirements.

Birmingham Gateway, the £600 million redevelopment of New Street Station, has already started and will handle 52 million passengers a year by the time it is completed in 2015.

High Speed Rail 2 will enable Londoners to commute to Birmingham in as little as 49 minutes, create 10,000 jobs and bring £6 billion worth of benefits to the UK economy.

It will also bring the new £235 million city centre Curzon Street Station and a new station near Birmingham International Airport and the NEC.

The airport's £120 million runway extension will be completed by 2014 and enable passenger numbers to grow from ten million to 18 million over the following ten years.

The Metro tram extension, which he announced in his speech at MIPIM, would enable nine million passengers a year to travel easily between Moor Street and New Street station in a £120 million project starting in 2012 and to be completed in 2015.

The City Council's Highways PFI programme will see a £2.7 billion spend starting in June 2010 which will enable the maintenance and development of 2,800kms of city roads over the next 25 years.

And in a "Back to the Future" style announcement he previewed a plan to bring back into passenger use some of the many freight-only lines that criss-cross the Birmingham area and increase local rail capacity for two million passengers per year. The programme is scheduled for a 2018 start with completion in 2023.

Some of the lines and disused stations that are under consideration would see lines linking Camp Hill, Sutton Coldfield and Tamworth with the city centre.

Coun Whitby said: "This is a transport programme of truly massive proportions that will take enormous political will and the support of not only national government but also private sector investors to bring to fruition.

"We have demonstrated with the long determination we showed to bring the Birmingham Gateway project and the Library of Birmingham to the starting line and that is why I am convinced the 2020s will be the Decade of Delivery."