Cross-City Line

Cross-City Line
Legend
freight line to Burton upon Trent Lichfield Trent Valley for West Coast Main Line Lichfield City Anglesey Sidings freight terminal South Staffordshire Line to Walsall Shenstone Limit of TfWM area Blake Street Butlers Lane Four Oaks Sutton Park Line Sutton Coldfield tunnel Sutton Coldfield Wylde Green Chester Road Erdington Gravelly Hill ‘Spaghetti Junction’ Chase Line to Walsall Aston to Birmingham International Windsor Street Goods Duddeston Cross Country Route and Birmingham to Peterborough Line Rugby–Birmingham–Stafford Line to Birmingham International Camp Hill Line Curzon Street Birmingham New Street Rugby–Birmingham–Stafford Line to Wolverhampton Central Goods Granville Street Five Ways Church Road Church Road Tunnel Somerset Road University Selly Oak Bournville Camp Hill Line Kings Norton Northfield Longbridge former line to Halesowen Limit of TfWM area Barnt Green Alvechurch Redditch Gloucester Loop Line Blackwell Lickey Incline Bromsgrove(from 2017) Birmingham to Worcester via Bromsgrove Line/ Cross Country Route    Centro free car parking  Other car parking

The Cross-City Line is a suburban railway line in the West Midlands region of England. It runs for 32 miles (51 km) from Redditch, Worcestershire, its southern terminus, to Lichfield, Staffordshire, its northern terminus, via Birmingham New Street, connecting the suburbs of Birmingham in between. Services are operated by London Midland.

Cross-City Line services began in 1978, as a project of the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive (WMPTE) to improve local rail services. It made use of pre-existing railways lines, which previously did not have any through services. Services were extended to Redditch in 1980, and to Lichfield Trent Valley in 1988. The route was electrified in 1993. Currently work is under way to extend services to Bromsgrove, which will be added as a second southern terminus.

History

Constituent railways

What is now the Cross-City Line was not built as a single route; it is a combination of lines opened by different companies at different times, between 1837 and 1885.^[1]

On the northern half of the route (Birmingham-Lichfield):

• The oldest section is between Duddeston (originally named Vauxhall) and Aston, which was part of the Grand Junction Railway from Birmingham to Earlestown, opened in 1837.^[2] This was extended towards the centre of Birmingham, at Curzon Street, the following year, and into Birmingham New Street in 1854.^[3]
• The line from Aston to Sutton Coldfield was opened by the London and North Western Railway in 1862,^[3] and extended to Lichfield City in 1884, where it connected with the South Staffordshire Line between Walsall and Lichfield Trent Valley, which had opened in 1849.^[4]

On the southern half of the route (Birmingham-Redditch):

• The Birmingham and Gloucester Railway had opened in 1840, following what is now the Cross-City Line between Barnt Green and Kings Norton, although this line ran to Curzon Street (later New Street) via what is now the Camp Hill Line.^[3][5]
• The single-track branch line from Barnt Green to Redditch followed in 1859, as part of the Midland Railway's Gloucester Loop Line, which was closed south of Redditch in 1964.^[6]
• The Birmingham West Suburban Railway, taking the route of the Cross-City Line between Kings Norton and central Birmingham via Bournville, opened to its original terminus at Granville Street in 1876, it was extended into Birmingham New Street in 1885, and the Granville Street terminus closed.^[3][7]

These lines from Birmingham to Barnt Green and Redditch were operated by the Midland Railway and the line to Lichfield was operated by the London and North Western Railway, so there were no through services. This continued despite the Grouping of the LNW and Midland Railways to form the London Midland and Scottish Railway in 1921, and subsequent nationalisation to form British Railways.

Prior to the creation of the Cross-City Line, the northern half of the route from New Street to Sutton Coldfield and Lichfield had a well used regular suburban service, which had been fully dieselised in 1956. However, the southern half of the route from New Street to Redditch suffered from a lack of stations, and had a sparse local service which operated at peak hours only.^[1]

Diagrammatic map of Cross-City Line, including Bromsgrove which will be added as a second southern terminus in 2017.

Consolidated route

The Cross City line in its modern form came into existence in 1978, as a project of the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive (WMPTE). The need for a cross-city rail service, and especially an improved service to the south of Birmingham with new stations, had been recognised in the WMPTE Passenger Transport Plan of 1972.^[8]

The £7.4 million Cross City line project was sanctioned in May 1975 and launched on 8 May 1978. It involved joining the services into Birmingham from north and south into a single through service, and the re-opening of Five Ways station (the original had closed in the 1940s), and new stations to serve the University of Birmingham and Longbridge (the former station at Longbridge was on the branch line to Halesowen and Old Hill) Most of the other stations on the southern half of the route were rebuilt at the same time, and improvements were made to signalling and junctions. Of the new stations, the only one to be officially opened was University, which the then Secretary of State for Transport William Rodgers MP formally opened on 8 May 1978. There is a plaque on platform 2 marking this occasion.^[9][8]

Services initially ran on a 15-minute frequency between Longbridge and Four Oaks via Birmingham New Street, with an hourly extension to Lichfield City, using refurbished Class 116 Diesel Multiple Units. The new service was an instant success, and by the end of the first year was carrying 30,000 passengers daily. Services were extended to Redditch in 1980, initially on an hourly frequency, increased to half-hourly in 1989. The service to Lichfield City was increased to half hourly in 1986, and on 28 November 1988, some services were extended to terminate at the re-opened high level platforms of Lichfield Trent Valley.^[10][9][11]

Electrification

By the late-1980s, the elderly diesels operating the service were becoming increasingly unreliable, and the WMPTE (now re-branded as Centro) pressed for electrification. The decision to electrify the line was made on 7 February 1990 by the then Transport Minister Cecil Parkinson during the campaign for a by-election in the Mid Staffordshire constituency.^[12][9]

Work started on electrifying the route with the 25 kV AC overhead line system in May 1990, and it was completed on 6 June 1993. Redditch, Alvechurch, and Blake Street stations were rebuilt at this time. A number of other stations including Barnt Green were extensively modified to accommodate the new longer electric trains. A new fleet of Class 323 Electric Multiple Units were introduced to work the electrified line, and replace the elderly diesels. Full service with the Class 323s did not begin until 1994, due to initial reliability problems with the new units. Some elderly Class 304, Class 308 and Class 310 EMUs were drafted in to operate services in the interim, along with some of the original diesel units.^[12][9]

Recent developments, and ongoing works

The single track between Barnt Green and Redditch, restricted the number of trains that could run to Redditch to two per hour. In November 2013 a scheme was approved to construct a new passing loop at Alvechurch to allow the service to be increased to three trains per hour.^[13][14] The line between Barnt Green and Redditch was closed for eight weeks for the works to be carried out, and was reopened on 1 September 2014. The improved service began in December 2014.^[15][16]

Electrification will also be extended from Barnt Green to a rebuilt Bromsgrove station, which will be added as a second southern terminus. These changes will allow three trains per hour to run to both Redditch and Bromsgrove.^[17][18] Work began on rebuilding Bromsgrove station in March 2014,^[19] and the electrification work is expected to be completed by the summer of 2017.^[20]

Three of the ten new Class 350 trains that London Midland introduced in 2014 have displaced class 323s on other routes in the West Midlands to enable an increase in frequency between Longbridge and Redditch, and the extension of all remaining Longbridge trains to Bromsgrove once electrification is complete. Class 350s are not currently authorised to be used on the Cross City line. ^[21]

Current services

During Monday to Saturday daytimes, on the core section of the line between Four Oaks and Longbridge, six trains per-hour operate each way, giving a ten-minute frequency of service. Of these, four northbound trains per hour continue from Four Oaks to Lichfield City, and two of these continue to Lichfield Trent Valley. Southbound three trains per hour continue from Longbridge to Redditch.^[22]

In detail the service consists of:

• 2tph from Lichfield Trent Valley to Longbridge (1tph) or continuing to Redditch (1tph) – This service also calls at Shenstone which other services pass through
• 2tph from Lichfield City to Longbridge (1tph) or continuing to Redditch (1tph)
• 2tph from Four Oaks to Longbridge (1tph) or continuing to Redditch (1tph) – This service also calls at Duddeston which other services pass through

On Sundays a half-hourly service operates between Redditch and Lichfield Trent Valley.

The southern half of the Cross-City line also forms part of the Cross Country Route, and some longer distance services stop at University station, including CrossCountry trains to Cardiff and London Midland service to Hereford.

Future

There are long-standing proposals for the re-introduction of local trains on the Camp Hill Line^[23] (effectively a loop between Birmingham New Street and King's Norton).

Passenger volume

In 2014/15 the Cross-City line's 24 stations had combined passenger numbers of 19.95 million,^[24] a substantial increase on the 2006 figure of 8.5 million.^[25] The busiest station on the route besides Birmingham New Street is University, with nearly three million passenger entries and exits, and the least busy station is Alvechurch with around 145,000 passenger entries and exits.

Route description

The railway stations and cities, towns and villages served by the line are listed below.

• Lichfield, Trent Valley – on the outskirts of Lichfield, with connections to London Midland services along the Trent Valley line between London Euston and Crewe
• Lichfield City railway station – in central Lichfield
• Shenstone railway station in Shenstone, Staffordshire
• Blake Street railway station in Hill Hook, Sutton Coldfield
• Butlers Lane railway station in northern Four Oaks
• Four Oaks railway station in Four Oaks, Sutton Coldfield
• Sutton Coldfield railway station in Sutton Coldfield
• Wylde Green railway station serving Wylde Green and Boldmere
• Chester Road railway station serving Pype Hayes and northern Erdington
• Erdington railway station in Erdington
• Gravelly Hill railway station in Gravelly Hill
• Aston railway station in Aston – the Walsall Line diverges here
• Duddeston railway station in Duddeston
• Birmingham New Street railway station in Birmingham City Centre
• Five Ways railway station in Five Ways, Birmingham
• University (Birmingham) railway station in the University of Birmingham
• Selly Oak railway station in Selly Oak
• Bournville railway station in Bournville
• Kings Norton railway station in Kings Norton and Cotteridge
• Northfield railway station in Northfield, Birmingham
• Longbridge railway station in Longbridge
• Barnt Green railway station in Barnt Green – branches off the main line to Cheltenham here.
• Alvechurch railway station in Alvechurch
• Redditch railway station in Redditch

A large stretch of the northern part of the line closely follows the A5127 road.

Media

• In 1990, Railscene produced a driver's eye view of the then-diesel line, featuring the elderly rolling stock still in operation. Many features of the line have since been changed, for example, the rebuilding of Alvechurch and Redditch stations, the abolition of Lichfield City's goods sidings and closure of the Brownhills Line and the removal of the fourth platform of Lichfield Trent Valley.
• There was a highly publicised opening ceremony to celebrate the electrification and service enhancement at Redditch in 1993.
• In 1995, Video 125 released a video of a driver's eye view of the recently electrified line, narrated by Kay Alexander. It is interesting to note on the video near Lichfield the use of an elderly Class 310 unit on the opposite direction service – this was due to not all 323 units being in traffic in time for the new services starting.
• There is a highly detailed reproduction of the Cross City Line available on Microsoft Train Simulator (MSTS)
• There is a highly detailed reproduction of the part between Redditch and Birmingham New Street for the free train simulators BVE and OpenBVE^[26]

References

Bibliography

• Boynton, John (1993). Rails Across The City, The Story of The Birmingham Cross City Line. Kidderminster: Mid England Books. ISBN 0-9522248-0-1. 

See also

• Transport in Birmingham
• Camp Hill Line

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cross-City Line.

• History of the Cross-City Line from Redditch MRC

Railway lines in the West Midlands
Main lines	West Coast Main Line Cross Country Route Chiltern Main Line
Inter-regional	Birmingham to Peterborough Line Crewe to Derby Line Cotswold Line Shrewsbury to Chester Line Stafford to Manchester Line Welsh Marches Line
Local	Birmingham to Worcester via Bromsgrove Line Birmingham to Worcester via Kidderminster Line Chase Line Coventry to Leamington Line Coventry to Nuneaton Line Cross-City Line Leamington to Stratford Line North Warwickshire Line Northampton Loop Line Rugby–Birmingham–Stafford Line Stone to Colwich Line Stourbridge Town Branch Line Trent Valley Line Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury Line
Freight only	Camp Hill Line South Staffordshire Line Sutton Park Line Walsall to Wolverhampton Line
Heritage	Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway Severn Valley Railway Telford Steam Railway