Birmingham New Street railway station
Birmingham New Street   | |
|---|---|
 The east end of the station, with the newly rebuilt and refurbished building which opened in 2015. | |
| Location | |
| Place | Birmingham |
| Local authority | City of Birmingham |
| Operations | |
| Station code | BHM |
| Managed by | Network Rail |
| Number of platforms | 13 |
| DfT category | A |
| Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries | |
| Annual rail passenger usage* | |
| 2013/14 |  34.748 million |
| – Interchange | 5.194 million |
| 2014/15 | 35.313 million |
| – Interchange | 5.379 million |
| 2015/16 | 39.077 million |
| – Interchange | 5.825 million |
| 2016/17 | 42.367 million |
| – Interchange |  5.791 million |
| 2017/18 | 43.741 million |
| – Interchange | 6.870 million |
| Passenger Transport Executive | |
| PTE | Transport for West Midlands |
| Zone | 1 |
| History | |
| Original company | London & North Western Railway |
| 1 June 1854 | First opened |
| 8 February 1885 | Extension opened |
| 1964-1967 | Rebuilt |
| 2010-2015 | Redeveloped |
| National Rail – UK railway stations | |
| * Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Birmingham New Street from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year. | |
Birmingham New Street is the largest and busiest of the three main railway stations in the Birmingham City Centre, England. It is a central hub of the British railway system. It is a major destination for Virgin Trains services from London Euston, Glasgow Central and Edinburgh Waverley via the West Coast Main Line, and the national hub of the CrossCountry network – the most extensive in Britain, with long-distance trains serving destinations from Aberdeen to Penzance. It is also a major hub for local and suburban services within the West Midlands, including those on the Cross City Line between Lichfield Trent Valley, Redditch, and Bromsgrove, and the Chase Line to Walsall and Rugeley Trent Valley.
The station is named after New Street, which runs parallel to the station, although the station has never had a direct entrance to New Street except via the Grand Central shopping centre. Historically the main entrance to the station was on Stephenson Street, just off New Street. Today the station has entrances on Stephenson Street, Smallbrook Queensway, Hill Street and Navigation Street.
New Street is the sixth busiest railway station in the UK and the busiest outside London, with 43.7 million passenger entries and exits between April 2017 and March 2018. It is also the busiest interchange station outside London, with nearly 6.8 million passengers changing trains at the station annually. In 2018 New Street had a passenger satisfaction rating of 92%, the third highest in the UK.
The original New Street station opened in 1854. At the time of its construction, the station had the largest single-span arched roof in the world, In the 1960s, the station was completely rebuilt. An enclosed station, with buildings over most of its span and passenger numbers more than twice those it was designed for, the replacement was not popular with its users. A £550m redevelopment of the station named Gateway Plus opened in September 2015. It includes a new concourse, a new exterior facade, and a new entrance on Stephenson Street.
Around 80% of train services to Birmingham go through New Street. The other major city-centre stations in Birmingham are Birmingham Moor Street and Birmingham Snow Hill. Outside Birmingham, in Solihull, is Birmingham International, which serves Birmingham Airport and the National Exhibition Centre.
Since 30 May 2016, New Street has been served by the West Midlands Metro tram line, when the adjacent Grand Central tram stop opened outside the station's main entrance on Stephenson Street as the new terminus of Line 1, following the opening of the city-centre extension from Birmingham Snow Hill.
History[edit]
The first railway stations[edit]
Original LNWR station[edit]
Midland Railway extension[edit]
LMS and British Rail[edit]
1960s rebuild[edit]
New Street signal box[edit]
Don's Miniature New Street[edit]
2010–2015 redevelopment[edit]
Operations[edit]
Railway operations[edit]
New Street is the hub of the West Midlands rail network, as well as being a major national hub. The station is one of seventeen operated and managed by Network Rail, Network Rail also provides operational staff for the station.
Station staff are provided on all platforms to assist with the safe 'dispatch' of trains. For operational reasons all trains departing New Street much be dispatched via the use of Right Away (RA) indicators. RA indicators display a signal informing the train driver it is safe to start the train, instead of using more traditional bell or hand signals.
The 12 through platforms are divided into a and b ends, with an extra bay platform called 4c between 4b and 5b, with the b end of the station towards Wolverhampton, this in effect allows twice the platforms. Longer trains that are too long for one section of the platform occupy the entire length of the platform, such as Class 390 or HSTs.
Trains departing towards Proof House Junction (a end) can depart from any platform, but there are restrictions on trains departing from the b end. All platforms can accommodate trains heading towards Wolverhampton, however due the platform layout and road bridge supports, only 5–12 can accommodate trains heading towards Five Ways. There are a number of sidings on the station for the stabling of trains; between platforms 5/6, 7/8, 9/10. The bay platforms at either end of platform 12 have been removed during the current rebuild. The sidings in front of New Street signal box have also been removed.
All signalling is controlled by New Street power signal box at the Wolverhampton or b end of the station; it can be seen at street level on Navigation Street. The station is allocated the IATA location identifier QQN.
Approach tunnels[edit]
All trains arriving and departing must use one of the several tunnels around the station.
- Stour Valley Line Tunnel – heads westwards towards Soho Junction & Wolverhampton, and passes under the National Indoor Arena. This tunnel is 927 yards (848 m) long in total, comprising the original New Street North Tunnel, 751 yards (687 m) and extension: 'Arena' Tunnel, 176 yards (161 m). It was opened in 1852 as part of the Stour Valley Line, and holds two tracks.
- New Street South Tunnel – 254 yards (232 m) long, heading eastbound, passing under the Bullring, and Birmingham Moor Street station, heading towards Duddeston, Adderley Park, the Camp Hill Line and the Derby lines towards Tamworth. This tunnel opened in 1854, originally holding two tracks; it was widened in 1896 to hold four tracks, with two double-track parallel bores.
- Gloucester Line Tunnels – are four separate tunnels heading south-west towards Five Ways. Heading from New Street in sequence the tunnels are named Holliday Street Tunnel, 307 yards (281 m) long; Canal Tunnel, 225 yards (206 m) long, passing under the Birmingham Canal Navigations; Granville Street Tunnel, 81 yards (74 m) long; and Bath Row Tunnel, 210 yards (190 m) long. These tunnels opened in 1885 as part of the Birmingham West Suburban Railway and hold two tracks.
Customer service and ticketing[edit]
Network Rail, as well as operating the station, operate a customer reception located on the main concourse, provide mobility assistance and train dispatch. Booking office and barriers are operated by Virgin Trains, with customer service or floor walker staff provided by CrossCountry and Network rail. Virgin Trains operates a first class lounge and Network West Midlands also provides a public transport information point of the station.
New Street is a penalty fare station for West midlands trains (West Midlands railway & London north western railway) only. This scheme is operated on its trains and at the automatic ticket barriers at the station. The other train operating companies that use the station do not have penalty fare schemes.
Pollution and Air Quality Concerns[edit]
The station is designated as underground. There are fans that remove fumes but there are still a large number of services operated by diesel trains despite the whole station being electrified in the 1960s. There have been environmental concerns about the level of pollution in the station in particular NOx
Train operating companies[edit]
Since the privatisation of British Rail there have been 12 train companies that have called at New Street: Arriva Trains Wales, Central Trains, CrossCountry, First North Western, London Midland, Silverlink, Virgin CrossCountry, Virgin Trains West Coast, Transport for Wales, Wales & Borders, Wales & West and West Midlands Trains.
Currently CrossCountry, Virgin Trains, Transport for Wales and West Midlands Trains provide services from New Street. Chiltern Railways have on occasion used New Street during engineering works.
West Midlands Trains operates a traincrew depot at the station and stables some trains overnight around the station. For the most part they use Soho TMD for electric traction units, with its non-electric units kept at Tyseley TMD to the southeast of Birmingham.
CrossCountry also operates a traincrew depot at the station; it uses Tyseley TMD for the Class 170 units, and its Voyagers are based at Central Rivers TMD.
Train services[edit]
The basic Monday to Saturday off-peak service in trains per hour (tph) is as follows:
- 3tph to London Euston (1 via Rugby, 1 via Watford Junction and 1 via Milton Keynes Central). All call at Birmingham International and Coventry
- 1tph to Glasgow Central or Edinburgh Waverley (alternating each hour) via Preston and Carlisle.
- 2tph to Manchester Piccadilly via Stafford and Stoke-on-Trent.
- 2tph to Bristol Temple Meads with one carrying on to Plymouth and some as far as Penzance.
- 2tph to Nottingham via Derby.
- 2tph to Leicester with one carrying on to Stansted Airport via Peterborough.
- 2tph to Reading via Oxford, some of which continue to Southampton Central and Bournemouth.
- 1tph to Cardiff Central via Gloucester & Newport.
- 1tph to Newcastle via Sheffield and Doncaster.
- 1tph to Edinburgh Waverley via Leeds and Newcastle, continuing alternately to Glasgow Central or Dundee and Aberdeen.
- 3tph to Bromsgrove
- 3tph to Redditch
- 2tph to Four Oaks
- 2tph to Lichfield City
- 2tph to Lichfield Trent Valley
- 2tph to Wolverhampton
- 2tph to Walsall
- 2tph to Rugeley Trent Valley
- 3tph to London Euston via Coventry & Northampton
- 2tph to Liverpool Lime Street via Crewe
- 1tph to Birmingham International via Adderley Park
- 1tph to Hereford via Bromsgrove & Worcester Foregate Street
- 1tph to Shrewsbury via Wolverhampton
- 1tph to Birmingham International
- 1tph to Shrewsbury, continuing alternately to Chester & Holyhead or Aberystwyth/Pwllheli
Transport links[edit]
West Midlands Metro[edit]
New Street is served by the West Midlands Metro tram system from the adjacent Grand Central tram stop outside the station's main entrance on Stephenson Street. This was opened on 30 May 2016, when the city centre extension of the Metro came into operation. The stop is the current terminus of West Midlands Metro Line One, and provides a link to Snow Hill station and onwards to Wolverhampton.
Initially, Grand Central was planned to act as the terminus of the city centre extension. However, it was later decided that further extension would take place towards Centenary Square and later to Edgbaston, work towards this is ongoing.
Links to Moor Street and Snow Hill stations[edit]
New Street station is 660 yards (600 m) away from Birmingham Moor Street; the city's second busiest railway station. There is a signposted route for passengers travelling between New Street and Moor Street stations which involves a short walk through a tunnel under the Bullring shopping centre. Although the railway lines into New Street pass directly underneath Moor Street station, there is no rail connection. In 2013 a new direct walkway was opened between the two stations. Birmingham Snow Hill station is 1,100 yards (1,000 m) away; either a ten-minute walk away to the north or can be reached via a short tram ride on the West Midlands Metro.
Accidents and incidents[edit]
See also[edit]
- Gateway Plus
- Birmingham Snow Hill railway station
- Birmingham Moor Street railway station
- Transport in Birmingham
- Transport for West Midlands
- Commuter rail in the United Kingdom
- Grand Central, Birmingham
External links[edit]
- New Street - New Start
- Birmingham New Street, on Warwickshire Railways Photographs and information on the Victorian Station.
- 1890 Ordnance Survey map of the station
- Rail Around Birmingham and the West Midlands: Birmingham New Street station
- Building a model of Birmingham New Street station
- 1967 ATV report on station rebuilding and opening
- 1994 video of Don's Miniature New Street
- DfT Category A stations
- Former London and North Western Railway stations
- Former Midland Railway stations
- Network Rail managed stations
- Railway stations in Birmingham, West Midlands
- Railway stations opened in 1854
- Railway stations served by CrossCountry
- Railway stations served by Transport for Wales Rail
- Railway stations served by Virgin Trains
- Railway stations served by West Midlands Trains
- 1854 establishments in England