For those who travel in the UK by rail, there are a couple of stations that can you make you physically scream. One of those happens to be a local mainline station for me – Birmingham New Street.
The “Old” New Street Entrance
Birmingham New Street is one of the busiest stations outside London, handling 31.2 million passengers and 5.1 million passengers changing trains. It’s also a station that has a reputation of being a a big dark hole, where anything can have the life sucked out of it (as those of you who read my trip reports will know I call the place Mordor Hauptbahnhof… with good reason).
In the past couple of years however, the station has been going through a major refit and rebuild, and the first visible results will be felt from today, with what Network Rail is calling “The Half Time Changeover”
The New Birmingham New Street Entrance at Stephenson Street
As a result, the three current entrances will be closing at the end of service on the 27th April, with 3 new entrances opening on 28th April.
So lets get down to the nitty gritty:
Entrances closing:
- Smallbrook Queensway (main entrance)
- Current escalators with the Pallasades shopping centre
- Victoria Square exit (which covers the secondary link)
Entrances opening:
- The New Stephenson Street entrance (main entrance)
- A new access link within the Pallasades
- An entrance/exit near Hill Street
The new map is out… and here it is:
The New New Street layout.
There’s a full map at http://www.newstreetnewstart.co.uk/media/53927/final%20leaflet%20-%20jan%20&%20feb%20exhibitions_page_2.jpg and more notes at http://www.newstreetnewstart.co.uk/construction-progress/half-time-switchover.aspx
Passengers who wish to connect to the bus network will have to allow 5-10 minutes extra to connect to the new entrances . Similarly those who are connecting between Birmingham Moor Street and Birmingham New street should allow extra time for your connections.
Those wishing to connect with Midland Metro at Birmingham Snow Hill will have pretty much the same connection as now providing you use the Stephenson Street exit
For those who are accessing the new street complex by car, the current carpark/Dropoff area off Smallbrook Queensway will close, with a pickup/Dropoff area opening at Hill Street. If you need to catch a taxi, you’ll need to head to the Stephenson Street entrance/exit.
So… is it any good? I went down to have a look today… (with a full gallery below)
The new station does look very much a “work in progress” all in concrete.
Ticket barriers – leading to the old crosslink span
Ticket office
Information screens
Virgin Trains First Class Lounge
New self serve information screens
Access to platforms
Platform level
The refit is going well, and whilst it is still a concrete building site, it is an improvement over the old and increasingly cramp station, with concrete and lots of lights. Of course there is a lot of work to go… but it’s a start.
Whilst the refit will be focusing on the station itself, it will not add extra rail lines in and out of new street (which can cause significant capacity issues as 2 pair of lines have only double tracks leading out of it, whilst lines heading out towards Gas Street basin are quad tracked).
Hopefully for those who have to transit, or travel through Birmingham New Street – it’ll be an improvement.
