Due to its central location, New Street is a major hub in the UK rail network.

Birmingham-Aberystwyth, Birmingham-Holyhead, Birmingham-Bournemouth, Birmingham-Bristol, Birmingham-Cardiff, Birmingham-Coventry, Birmingham-Edinburgh, Birmingham-Glasgow, Birmingham-Hereford, Birmingham-Leicester, Birmingham-Liverpool; and

Birmingham-London Euston, Birmingham-Manchester, Birmingham-Newcastle, Birmingham-Northampton, Birmingham-Nottingham, Birmingham-Paignton, Birmingham-Penzance, Birmingham-Rugeley, Birmingham-Shrewsbury, Birmingham-Stansted, Cross City Line (Lichfield-Redditch via New Street), Walsall-Birmingham-Wolverhampton

The station is located beneath the Pallasades Retail Mall.

The main entrance to the concourse and platforms is off Smallbrook Queensway at the bottom of the Birmingham Ridge.

There is a pedestrian entrance on New Street at the top of the Birmingham Ridge but passengers must descend by escalator through the Pallasades Shopping Centre in order to reach the concourse and platforms at the bottom of the ridge.

Pedestrians can also reach the station through the Pallasades Shopping Centre from Stephenson Street and Station Street.

There is also a pedestrian entrance on Navigation Street but passengers must descend a staircase to reach the concourse.

Passengers can also reach the station from the Bullring and Moor Street via an elevated walkway. This is particularly convenient for passengers changing at Moor Street Rail Station and/or Moor Street Bus Interchange.

New Street is a main pedestrian thoroughfare in the Retail Quarter of central Birmingham. All the major malls, including the Bullring and markets, are within 400 metres of New Street.

Passengers can also reach the Business Quarter from New Street. Indeed, Victoria Square and Colmore Row, generally regarded as the most prestigious office addresses in Birmingham, are barely 400 metres from the New Street exit.

Alternatively passengers can leave the station via the main entrance on Smallbrook Queensway at the bottom of the Birmingham Ridge where the taxi rank and drop-off zone are located.

This exit is particularly convenient for the Hippodrome, the Alexandra Theatre, the Gay Village, Chinatown and the Hurst Street leisure/entertainment area.

Look here for more information about the Southside area of central Birmingham.

New Street Station is generally disliked because the platforms are draughty, devoid of natural light and exceptionally long.

Passengers move between platforms via a subway equipped with lifts. This can involve a comparatively long walk particularly if services are switched from one platform to another at short notice.

The platforms are connected by three escalators to the Pallasades shopping centre from where passengers can reach New Street, Station Street or Stephenson Street or follow elevated walkways to the Bullring and/or Moor Street Station.

This layout is generally disliked because passengers often have to negotiate stairs/escalators/walkways in order to enter/leave the station.

The station was built to handle 650 trains and 60,000 passengers per day but now copes with over twice this volume of traffic.

Particular pressure points are the east entrance to the station where the tracks narrow which often causes a bottleneck.

There are also two busy junctions on the east side of the station at Curzon Street where the West Coast Mainline meets the Cross City Line and at Proof House where the West Coast Mainline meets the Birmingham-Peterborough Line and the Cross-City Line.

Services are sometimes switched from the east side to the west side of New Street Station in order to relieve these pressure points but this can inconvenience passengers who may have to walk comparatively long distances to reach different platforms.

(1) The partial recladding and reconfiguration of the multi-storey car park above the station;

(2) The reconfiguration of the Pallasades Shopping Centre to include the  installation of three elongated glass domes up to 26 metres in height and 4 glass skylights that will allow natural light to reach the concourse and platforms below;

(3) The enlargement and reconfiguration of the concourse which be equipped with an undulating stainless steel facade and a new atrium with a floor area of 2,800 square metres. Holes will be cut through the concourse so that natural light will reach the platforms.

(4) The creation of a new entrance on Station Street flanked by two 130-metre glazed towers and equipped with a taxi rank, drop-off zone and retail units.

(5) The demolition of Stephenson Tower: a 67-metre block of flats on Hill Street which is generally regarded as an eyesore.

(6) Considerable landscaping and the creation of new public areas and walkways.

Gateway Plus has been criticised because it will improve the image of the station but will not significantly increase capacity since the platform layout will remain basically the same.

Critics might argue that the investment could have been better spent in redesigning the track layout, particularly on the east side of the station, in order to reduce congestion and increase capacity.

Work began on the construction of the new concourse and glazed atrium in May 2010 (News Archive 08/05/10). Completion is expected in 2015.

Work began on the demolition of Stephenson Tower in July 2011 (News Headlines 02/07/11).

There is also a 400-space multi-storey car park at the Pallasades Shopping Centre above New Street Station.

AMT Coffee, Burger King, Cafe Ritazza, Camdenn Food, Costa Coffee, Millies Cookies, Pasty Shop, Upper Crust

Boots, Coral, Cards Galore, M&S Simply Food, Photo-Me, WH Smith, Whistlestop Convenience Store.

The Pallasades Shopping Centre is also above the concourse.

Two cycles, which were chained to racks at New Street Station, were stolen on Friday 10th June 2011 (News Headlines 31/07/11).

A man in his late teens exposed himself to a 22-year-old woman on the Liverpool-Birmingham train, shortly before it pulled into New Street Station on Saturday 26 March 2011 (News Headlines 15/05/11).

Local youths brawled with partygoers from Coventry at New Street Station at 11pm on Saturday 5th March 2011 (News Archive 27/03/11).

A 42-year-old man was arrested in possession of amphetamine with an estimated street value of £50,000 at New Street Station on 15/12/10; he was jailed for 4 years in March 2011 (News Archive 19/03/11).

In February 2011, a 30-year-old drug addict received a suspended sentence for stealing luggage from trains at New Street Station (News Archive 17/02/11).

A 50-year-old thief, who spied on pensioners buying tickets at New Street Station, was jailed for 3.5 years in December 2010. Having memorised his victim's PIN, the thief arranged an "accidental collision", normally when boarding a train, so that he could steal the corresponding bank card (News Archive 24/12/10).

The Great Western was excluded from this alliance and subsequently opened its own terminus at Birmingham Snow Hill.

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 platforms stood alongside a splendid hotel in the classical style, the Queen's, whose postal address was simply "Best Hotel Birmingham".

The station roof was damaged in the Birmingham Blitz and removed in 1948-52.

The Queens Hotel was demolished in 1964 when the station was redeveloped in its current form.

It was designed by Bicknell & Hamilton in 1964 and is an early example of an innovative structure in Brutalist style.

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