Cross-City Line

Cross-City Line
Butlers Lane station
Overview
Type	Heavy rail, Suburban rail
System	National Rail
Status	Operational
Locale	West Midlands
Termini	Lichfield Trent Valley Redditch
Stations	24
Operation
Opened	1978
Owner	Network Rail
Operator(s)	London Midland
Rolling stock	Class 323
Technical
No. of tracks	One - Two
Track gauge	Standard gauge 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in)
Electrification	25 kV AC OHLE

Cross-City Line

Legend Freight line to Burton upon Trent Lichfield Trent Valley for West Coast Main Line Lichfield City M6 Toll motorway Anglesey Sidings freight terminal South Staffordshire Line to Walsall (track lifted 1985) Shenstone Limit of Centro operated area Blake Street Butlers Lane Four Oaks Sutton Park Line Sutton Coldfield tunnel Sutton Coldfield Wylde Green Chester Road Erdington Gravelly Hill M6 motorway (Spaghetti Junction) Chase Line to Walsall Aston To Birmingham International Windsor Street Goods Station Duddeston Birmingham to Peterborough Line Rugby-Birmingham-Stafford Line to Birmingham International Camp Hill Line Curzon Street Birmingham New Street for all destinations 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 (closed 1960) Limit of Centro operated area Barnt Green M42 motorway to Bromsgrove on Cross Country Route Alvechurch Redditch Gloucester Loop Line - 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 from Redditch, Worcestershire, its southern terminus, to Lichfield, Staffordshire, its northern terminus, via Birmingham New Street, and services on the line are currently operated by London Midland.

History

Constituent railways

The Cross-City Line was not built as a single route; instead it is a combination of various lines opened at different times.

The oldest section of the line is the section between Duddeston (originally named Vauxhall) and Aston, which was part of the Grand Junction Railway from Birmingham to Earlestown, opened in 1837. This extended towards the centre of Birmingham, at Curzon Street, the following year, and into Birmingham New Street in 1854. The line from Aston to Sutton Coldfield was opened in 1862, 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.

On the south side of the city, the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway had opened in 1841, linking to Curzon Street vis the Camp Hill Line. The branch line from Barnt Green to Redditch followed in 1859. The Birmingham West Suburban Railway, taking the current route of the Cross-City Line between Kings Norton and Birmingham New Street, opened in 1876.

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

Consolidated route

The £7.4 million Cross City line was sanctioned in May 1975 and launched on 8 May 1978. Services initially ran between Longbridge and Four Oaks via Birmingham New Street and the project was a creation of the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive (WMPTE). On opening it included the re-opening of Five Ways station and a new station to serve the University of Birmingham; and one at Longbridge (the original station at Longbridge was on the branch line to Halesowen and Old Hill) many of the other stations were rebuilt at the same time. Of the new stations the only one to be officially opened was the one at University where the then Secretary of State for Transport William Rodgers MP formally opened the station on the 8th May 1978. There is a plaque on platform 2 marking this occasion.

The route was electrified in the early 1990s, beginning in 1991 and completed on the 6 June 1993. The decision to electrify was made on 7 February 1990 by the then Transport Minister Cecil Parkinson during the campaign for a by-election in the Lichfield constituency. Redditch, Alvechurch, Aston and Blake Street stations were rebuilt at this time. A number of other stations including Barnt Green Station were extensively modified to accommodate the new longer electric trains.

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 in 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 Station in Birmingham City Centre
• Five Ways railway station in Five Ways, Birmingham
• University of Birmingham 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.

Services

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 electrification 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 London Midland.

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

Future

There are long-standing proposals for improvements to the line. 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).

Bromsgrove station will be added as an alternative southern terminus for the route when the existing electrification is extended there from Barnt Green.

There are also plans for the introduction of a passing loop at Alvechurch to allow 3 trains per hour to Redditch. Currently, the line is single-track between Barnt Green and Redditch and so it is impossible to have more than 2 trains per hour. If services are delayed, then the trains may miss out stations between Birmingham New Street and Longbridge to make up time, or the service may be curtailed at Barnt Green to prevent a knock-on effect to other services.

Media

• In 1990, Railscene produced a driver's eye view of the then-diesel line, featuring many of 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 (Redditch to Lichfield Trent Valley) available on Microsoft Train Simulator (MSTS)
• There is also a highly detailed reproduction of the part between Redditch and Birmingham New Street for the free train simulators BVE and OpenBVE

External links

• History of the Cross-City Line from Redditch MRC