Heading west from Bordesley Station, the line runs above the A45 and enters the Digbeth Deritend and Bordesley High Streets Conservation Area.

It then runs on a blue-brick viaduct, roughly parallel to Digbeth and Deritend High Streets, travelling on arches above Adderley Street, Heath Mill Lane, Gibb Street, Floodgate Street, Milk Street, Trent Street, Oxford Street, Meriden Street and Allison Street.

The line is then carried above Park Street and into Moor Street Station.

It was built in the 1850's by the Great Western who owned the Leamington-Worcester Line.

The Great Western had been excluded from New Street Station and so decided to build a viaduct from Adderley Street to an alternative terminus at Curzon Street, Eastside.

However, they were also shut out of Curzon Street and so the viaduct, by then half-built, was simply abandoned and the company dug a tunnel beneath the city centre to their own terminus at Snow Hill.

Although the Cross City Line passes within 40 metres of the Leamington-Worcester Line, these two lines do not share a station or junction because they were built on different track alignments by competing companies.