Birmingham Cross-City Line
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
| Cross-City Line |
| Principal stations (from south to north) Redditch |
The Cross-City Line is a suburban railway line in the West Midlands region of England. It runs from Redditch to Lichfield via Birmingham New Street.
The cities, towns and villages served by the line are listed below.
- Redditch
- Alvechurch
- Barnt Green
- Longbridge
- Northfield
- Kings Norton - actually in Cotteridge
- Bournville
- Selly Oak
- University
- Five Ways
- Birmingham New Street
- Duddeston
- Aston - the Walsall Line diverges here
- Gravelly Hill
- Erdington
- Chester Road
- Wylde Green
- Sutton Coldfield
- Four Oaks
- Butler's Lane
- Blake Street
- Shenstone
- Lichfield City - actually in central Lichfield
- Lichfield Trent Valley - not particularly near Lichfield or the Trent Valley, but has connections for Virgin Trains services to London Euston and the North West
For many years, passenger services on the line were worked by elderly Class 108, 115, 116, 117, 118 and 121 diesel multiple units. However, by the early 1990s these trains were becoming increasingly unreliable, so new trains were built to coincide with the electrication of the route in 1993. By 1995 the last of the old trains had been withdrawn, having been replaced by the current Class 323 electrical multiple units. Services are currently operated by Central Trains on behalf of Centro.
Current daytime service levels are:
- between Redditch and Longbridge: 2 trains per hour
- between Longbridge and Four Oaks: 6 trains per hour
- between Four Oaks and Lichfield City: 4 trains per hour
- between Lichfield City and Lichfield Trent Valley: 2 trains per hour
There are long standing proposals for improvements to the line. Extra stations have been proposed for Mere Green (between Four Oaks and Butler's Lane), Raddlebarn Road (between Bournville and Selly Oak, to serve Selly Oak Hospital), and Wychall (between Northfield and King's Norton). More ambitious plans include the re-opening of a short spur south of Longbridge to Rubery and Frankley and the re-introduction of local trains on the Camp Hill Line (effectively a loop between Birmingham New Street and King's Norton). Nevertheless, the line's main problem is capacity on its central section. The long term aspiration is for dedicated tunnels through central Birmingham: this would either take the form of new bored tunnels (favoured by the SRA) or a re-opening of Birmingham Curzon Street station to allow two of the existing four tunnels to be used for local trains only (formerly favoured by Central Trains). With the current funding problems on Britain's railways, it is unlikely that the Cross-City Line will see any improvement.
Categories: Biocrawler cleanup | British railway lines | Transport in Birmingham, England | Transport in the West Midlands | Transport in Worcestershire
