Birmingham New Street Railway Station
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New Street is Birmingham's main railway station, and is a major hub of the British railway system. Due to its central location, railway lines from all over Great Britain run into it including lines to London, Liverpool, Manchester, Scotland, Cardiff, North Wales, Bristol, Penzance, Nottingham, Leicester, Shrewsbury and Newcastle upon Tyne.
The station is also a terminus for many local services from throughout the West Midlands conurbation, including the local Cross-City Line, serving Lichfield, Redditch and stations in between. Direct trains run to more stations from New Street than from any other station on the British railway network.
Over 35 million people pass through New Street station every year, of whom 87% are passengers, making it the busiest major station in the United Kingdom outside London for estimated footfall and the third busiest outside London by ticket sales. It is one of 17 British railway stations managed by Network Rail.
New Street is not popular with its users with a customer satisfaction rate of only 52% - the joint lowest of any Network Rail major station. A proposal to redevelop the station in the £550m scheme named Gateway Plus was given the full funding by the British Government in February 2008 and new designs are being produced.
History
The first railway station
New Street Station in 1885.New Street station was constructed as a joint station by the London and North Western Railway and the Midland Railway between 1846 and 1854 to replace several earlier unconnected rail termini, the most notable being Curzon Street. It was formally opened on June 1, 1854 however it had been in use for two years before this. The Queen's Hotel was opened in the same year and its telegraphic address became "Besthotel Birmingham".
The station was constructed by Messrs. Fox, Henderson & Co.. When completed, it had the largest iron and glass roof in the world, spanning a length of 212 feet. By the end of 19th century, it had become one of the busiest railway stations in the country.
Because it was constructed by two companies, the original New Street Station was effectively two stations built side-by-side. Each company had one half, with a road, Queen's Drive, between them. This led to an inconvenient track layout which restricted capacity. In 1923, the two companies, with others, were grouped into the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS).
The current railway station
The station was completely re-built by the nationalised British Railways in the mid 1960s, when the West Coast Main Line was modernised and electrified. Queen's Drive was lost in the rebuilding, but the name is now carried by a new driveway which serves the car park and a tower block, and is the access route for the station's taxis. The rebuilt station has the Pallasades Shopping Centre and an NCP car park above it. The station and the Pallasades are now somewhat integrated with the Bullring complex, connected by indoor walkways and escalators. Next to the car park Stephenson Tower, a residential tower block was constructed. The Brutalist 1960s corrugated concrete architecture of New Street Signal Box (architects: Bicknell & Hamilton) is located to the side of the tracks connected to Navigation Street. It is now a Grade II listed building.
The station was designed to serve 650 trains and 60,000 passengers per day however is currently serving 1,350 trains and 120,000 passengers (double the number it was designed to take). Passenger usage of New Street has increased by 50% since 2000. Currently New Street handles about 80% of passengers travelling to, from or through Birmingham.
There are currently three escalators providing access to the Pallasades Shopping Centre, and two lifts providing access to a subway running underneath the platforms. The subway has lifts for access to the 'A' end of all platforms. There are escalators from the concourse down to the 'B' end of each platform (with the exception of platforms 1 and 12).
All 12 main platforms (excluding platform 4c) at New Street have tracks that go straight through the station, as opposed to terminating with buffers like at many other large stations. This results in most platform changes, and access to the concourse, requiring use of the escalators, stairs, or lifts. The main platforms are also all long enough for two relatively short trains to stand at them.
New Street does not have automatic barriers that check tickets. Instead, station staff inspect tickets at peak times, while at off-peak times there is often no ticket checking.
In 1987, twelve different horse sculptures by Kevin Atherton, titled Iron Horse, were erected between New Street station and Wolverhampton. One stands on a platform at New Street.
Birmingham New Street hosts a British Transport Police station.
Criticism
New Street is frequently derided as one of the most run down and unwelcoming of all the major stations on the British railway network. Although much of this can be blamed on the sub-surface nature of the station and the 1960s architecture, that it is built below the dated Pallasades shopping arcade also contributes to New Street's perceived negative ambience. In November 2003 the station was voted the second biggest "eyesore" in the UK by readers of Country Life magazine.
New Street was voted joint worst station for customer satisfaction with Liverpool Lime Street and East Croydon with only 52% satisfied with the national average being 60%.
A feasibility study worth £3.9m into the redevelopment of Birmingham New Street Station, known as the Gateway Plus Project, was approved on 21 January 2005. A development scheme was launched in 2006 and the new New Street, pending planning approval, will be built and operational by 2013.
An alternative to the 'regeneration' of New Street has been put forward by Arup. Dubbed Grand Central station, the proposal claims to increase train capacity and other problems which cannot be tackled by the regeneration of New Street. The new station is proposed to be built in the Eastside of Birmingham.
Services
See also
- Birmingham Snow Hill station
- Birmingham International railway station
- Birmingham Moor Street railway station
- Transport in Birmingham
- West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive
Further reading
- A History of Birmingham, Chris Upton, 1997, ISBN 0-85033-870-0.
- Birmingham New Street. The Story of a Great Station Including Curzon Street. 1 Background and Beginnings. The Years up to 1860. By Richard Foster. Wild Swan Publications Limited (1990) ISBN 0-906867-78-9
- Birmingham New Street. The Story of a Great Station Including Curzon Street. 2 Expansion and Improvement. 1860 to 1923. By Richard Foster. Wild Swan Publications Limited (1990) ISBN 0-906867-79-7
- Birmingham New Street. The Story of a Great Station Including Curzon Street. 3 LMS Days. 1923-1947 By Richard Foster. Wild Swan Publications Limited (1997) ISBN 1-874103-37-2
- Birmingham New Street. The Story of a Great Station Including Curzon Street 4 British Railways. The First 15 Years. By Richard Foster. Wild Swan Publications Limited (Publication awaited).
- Smith, Donald J. (1984).New Street Remembered: The story of Birmingham's New Street Station 1854-1967 In words and pictures. Birmingham: Barbryn Press Ltd. ISBN 0-906160-05-7.
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