Five New Railway Stations Considered For West Midlands
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Rail Advent.
This is the first paragraph.
Transport authorities in the West Midlands are considering the case for building five new stations at Balsall Heath, Coventry East (Binley), Foleshill, Castle Bromwich and Tettenhall.
The location of the stations is as follows.
- Balsall Heath station is on the Camp Hill Line and was formerly known as Brighton Road station, which was shut in 1941 as a wartime economy measure.
- Castle Bromwich station, will be between Birmingham and Water Orton.
- Coventry East station will be on the main line between Coventry and Rugby.
- Foleshill station will be on the Coventry-Nuneaton Line, between Coventry and Coventry Arena stations.
- Tettenhall station will be to the west of Wolverhampton on the Wolverhampton Shrewsbury Line.
Note.
- Balsall Heath station would require construction of the Bordesley Chords and extra capacity at Moor Street Station.
- Coventry East station will benefit from the opening of High Speed Two, will will allow more local services.
- Castle Bromwich station would also benefit from the extra capacity from High Speed Two and the Midland Rail Hub.
Railways in Central Birmingham appear to be having a big sort out.
The article also says this about other stations, being planned in the West Midlands.
These planned new stations will add to expansion of the region’s rail network that is already underway, with new stations being built on the Camp Hill line in south Birmingham at Moseley Village, Kings Heath and Pineapple Road, and on the Walsall to Wolverhampton line serving Darlaston and Willenhall. A new station is also planned at Aldridge, with funding allocated subject to business case. The City of Wolverhampton, South Staffordshire District and Staffordshire County councils have also looked at the case for a new station at Brinsford, which will be considered alongside the case for nearby Tettenhall Station.
In the last part of the article, Andy Street talks about the funding secured.
It certainly looks like station builders in the West Midlands will have lots of work to do.
Camp Hill Line Set To Gain Third Station
The title of this post, is the same as that of a sub-section on this page on Rail News.
This is said.
PLANS to build a station at Moseley on the Camp Hill line in Birmingham have been submitted. If approved, Moseley will be the third station on the restored route, where Birmingham City Council has already given the go-ahead to stations at Kings Heath and Hazelwell. The line was closed to passengers as a ‘wartime economy’ in January 1941, but the withdrawal was confirmed in November 1946.
Under Future Plans on the Wikipedia entry for the Camp Hill Line, this is said.
In July 2018, the Midlands Rail Hub was unveiled which would see reopening of Moseley, Kings Heath and Hazelwell with the chords built to connect Birmingham Moor Street with the line to Kings Norton and another to Water Orton.
In September 2018, the designs of the new stations were revealed as Kings Heath, Hazelwell and Moseley were planned for reopening by 2021 with a frequency of 2 trains per hour.
It looks to me, that Birmingham City Council are going to make the Camp Hill Line an important route across the city.
First Passenger Train In 80 Years Runs On Camp Hill Line
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Rail Technology Magazine.
These two paragraphs described the route, that the train took on the Camp Hill Line.
On Monday morning a train carrying the Mayor, West Midlands Railway’s customer experience director Jonny Wiseman and other representatives from across the rail industry, travelled along the line.
The train followed the route of what would be the re-opened line, stopping at the Moseley, Kings Heath and Hazelwell sites before arriving into Kings Norton, and later returning to Birmingham New Street.
The article has a picture showing the VIPs showing boards indicating the stations at Moseley, Kings Heath and Hazelwell, that will be reopened.
Wikipedia says this under Future for all three stations.
In 2019, the project to re-open the stations at Moseley, Kings Heath and Hazelwell received £15 million in Government funding, with construction due to start in 2020 and aimed for completion in time for the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
£15million seems good value to reopen three stations.
Let’s hope the world has solved the COVID-19 crisis before the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Trains For The Service
The picture in the article, shows the test service was run by a two-car Class 170 train. This is an ideal train to do the testing, but as the Camp Hill Line is not electrified, self-powered trains will be needed for the passenger service.
West Midlands Trains will have a good selection of self-powered trains with which to run the service.
- They already have a selection of Class 170 and Class 172 Turbostar diesel multiple units in very good condition, which total thirty-seven two-cars and twenty-one three-cars.
- I’m sure Vivarail will pitch diesel-electric or battery-electric versions of their Class 230 trains.
- Alstom will probably pitch the Breeze hydrogen-powered train.
- Porterbrook will probably pitch their proposed Battery/FLEX conversion of Class 350 trains.
I don’t think there will be a problem finding a suitable fleet for this route.
I suspect some form of battery-electric train will be used, as there is lots of 25 KVAC overhead electrification in the Birmingham area, that can be used to charge the batteries.
Battery-electric trains with a range of perhaps forty miles would also open up the possibilities for other electric services for West Midlands Trains.
A Thought On Construction
Because of COVID-19, there will probably be numbers of unemployed in this part of Birmingham, who have skills that could be useful to do the building work.
So should the non-railway related parts of the reopening be accelerated to put money in the pockets of the local unemployed.
The Anonymous Widower 