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New Street Railway Station

Overview (Top Index)

New Street Station is the busiest railway station in the UK outside London. It has an annual footfall of over 40 million of which 17.1 million are rail passengers.

The station is located beneath the Birmingham Ridge in Southside; however, there is also a pedestrian entrance on New Street in the Retail Quarter.

New Street Station is a major hub in the British railway network; it is located on the Birmingham Loop of the West Coast Mainline which connects London Euston to Motherwell Scotland.

Several other regional and intercity lines join the West Coast Mainline elsewhere in Birmingham before arriving at New Street Station.

New Street is possibly the ugliest and least-welcoming station in the UK; the old Victorian New Street was demolished in the 1960's and replaced by subterranean platforms buried beneath a shopping centre and multi-storey car park.

There are plans to partially rebuild New Street Station; these have been criticised for concentrating on the aesthetic (introduction of natural light) rather than the functional (increases in capacity).

History of New Street Station (Top Index)

The original New Street Station was built in 1846-1854; it was part of a process of rationalisation whereby several railway companies merged and/or collaborated in order to build a main terminus in the centre of Birmingham to replace smaller termini on the (then) outskirts: e.g. Curzon Street in Eastside, Lawley in Bordesley and Vauxhall in Duddeston.

The Great Western, which was excluded, built its own termini at Snow Hill, and later at Moor Street.

The original platforms were open and at ground-level; they were sheltered by a 63-metre single-span steel-and-glass roof, once the longest in the world.

The station was dominated by the neighbouring Queen's Hotel: a splendid classical building whose postal and telegraphic address was "Best Hotel Birmingham".

The station was easily accessible from New Street unlike today where passengers have to climb a ramp to the Pallasades shopping centre before descending to the subterranean platforms.

New Street Station was redeveloped after the Second World War; the magnificent steel-and-glass roof, which had been damaged in the Blitz, was removed in 1948-1952; the Queens Hotel was demolished in 1964 when the station was rebuilt in its current form.

Map of Routes into New Street Station & Avoiding Lines (Top Index)

This map shows New Street Station (marker) on the West Coast Mainline (brown) and the lines that join the West Coast Mainline in order to reach New Street Station (red).

It also shows the lines that are used to avoid New Street Station or to switch between the east and west entrances and vice versa (green).

Lines Served by New Street Station (Top Index)

New Street Station is on the Birmingham Loop (Rugby-Coventry-Birmingham-Wolverhampton-Stafford) of the West Coast Mainline which runs between London Euston and Motherwell Scotland.

However, the West Coast Mainline is joined by several other lines elsewhere in Birmingham so that other regional and intercity services might reach New Street Station.

These are:

(1) The Birmingham-Peterborough Line which joins the West Coast Mainline at Proof House Junction in Bordesley so that services from Leicester, East Anglia and south-east England can reach the eastern side of New Street Junction;

(2) The Cross Country Line which joins the Birmingham-Peterborough Line at Water Orton Junction in Castle Vale so that services from the East Midlands, Yorkshire, north-east England and Scotland can switch to the West Coast Mainline at Proof House Junction and so reach the east side of New Street Station;

(3) The Cross City Line South which joins the West Coast Mainline at New Street Junction so that services from south-west England, South Wales and the Welsh Borders can reach the west side of New Street Station;

(4) The Cross City Line North which joins the West Coast Mainline at Curzon Street Junction so that services from Lichfield, Sutton Coldfield and north Birmingham can reach the east side of New Street Station;

(5) The Birmingham-Walsall Line which joins the Cross City Line at Aston Junction North so that services from Walsall and the Black Country can switch to the West Coast Mainline at Curzon Street Junction and so reach the east side of New Street Station.

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Train Services Available at New Street Station (Top Index)

Services departing from New Street include:

Aberystwyth - Birmingham International via Birmingham New Street

Birmingham New Street - Coventry

Birmingham New Street - Glasgow Central via Warrington

Birmingham New Street - Hereford

Birmingham New Street - Leicester

Birmingham New Street - Liverpool Lime Street

Birmingham New Street - London Euston

Biirmingham New Street - Nottingham

Birmingham New Street - Northampton

Birmingham New Street - Rugeley Trent Valley

Birmingham New Street - Shrewsbury

Birmingham New Street - Stansted Airport

Bournemouth - Manchester Piccadilly via Birmingham New Street

Bristol Temple Meads - Manchester Piccadilly via Birmingham New Street

Cardiff Central - Nottingham via Birmingham New Street

Four Oaks - Redditch via Birmingham New Street

Holyhead - Birmingham International via Birmingham New Street

Longbridge - Lichfield via Birmingham New Street

Plymouth - Edinburgh via Birmingham New Street & Leeds

Reading - Edinburgh via Birmingham New Street

Reading - Newcastle via Birmingham New Street

Wolverhampton - Walsall via Birmingham New Street

Congestion at New Street Station (Top Index)

New Street Station was built to handle 650 trains and 60,000 passengers per day but now copes with twice this volume of traffic.

In busy periods, the eastern entrance comes under particular pressure causing delays at Curzon Street Junction and Proof House Junction where many regional and intercity services converge.

There are, however, four avoiding routes which can be used to relieve pressure on New Street.

These are:

(1) The Camp Hill Line which connects the Cross City Line South at Kings Norton Junction to the West Coast Mainline at Proof House Junction in Bordesley. The passenger stations on the Camp Hill Line (Hazlewell, Kings Heath, Moseley etc) have closed, but the line has been kept open because freight trains can use it in order to cross from north to south Birmingham without passing through New Street Station.

Some passenger trains heading for Wales and south-west England are occasionally diverted onto the Camp Hill Line; these services are then switched from the west side of New Street Station (where they would otherwise join the Cross city Line at New Street Junction) to the east side (where they can join the Camp Hill Line at Proof House Junction).

(2) The Handsworth Linking Line connects the West Coast Mainline at Soho Junction to the Birmingham-Walsall Line at Perry Barr Junction. The passenger stations on the Handsworth Linking Line (Soho Road, Handsworth Wood etc.) have closed but the line has been kept open because it enables freight trains travelling between Coventry and Wolverhampton and Coventry and Walsall to avoid New Street Station.

Some passenger trains are also diverted onto the Handsworth Linking Line so that they can be switched from the east side of New Street Station to the west side and vice versa.

(3) The Stechford Avoiding Line connects the West Coast Mainline at Stechford Junction to the Cross City Line at Aston Junction South; this line enables freight trains to travel between Coventry and Walsall and Coventry and Wolverhampton without passing through New Street Station.

(4) The Sutton Park Line connects Water Orton Junction West on the Birmingham-Peterborough Line to Walsall. The passenger stations on the Sutton Park Line (Penns Hall, Sutton Town, Sutton Park etc.) have closed but the line is kept open because it enables freight trains travelling between the East Midlands and the Black Country to avoid New Street Station.

Gateway Plus: The Planned Regeneration of New Street Station (Top Index)

Gateway Plus is the name for the proposed redevelopment of New Street Station which suffers from chronic congestion. The station, which was built to handle 650 trains and 60,000 passengers per day, now copes with over twice this volume of traffic.

 The proposals would involve:

 (1) The demolition of a high-rise block of flats called Stephenson House, which stands next to New Street Station;

(2) The partial recladding & redesign of the multi-storey car park above the station;

 (3) The partial demolition of the Pallasades Shopping Centre so that the station concourse & platforms can be illuminated by natural light;

(4) The installation of a new convex-glazed frontage facing Navigation Street and Smallbrook Queensway;

(5) The redesign pf a minor entrance off Station Street as a continental-style plaza flanked by two thirty-storey glass towers.

Although these plans might improve the image of the station, and therefore the city as a whole, they would not significantly increase capacity since the platform layout would remain unchanged.

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