Camp Hill line

Camp Hill Line
Overview
Status	Operational
Owner	Network Rail
Locale	West Midlands
Termini	Birmingham New Street Kings Norton
Stations	0/6
Service
Type	Heavy rail
System	National Rail
Operator(s)	CrossCountry London Midland
Rolling stock	Class 150 Class 170 "Turbostar" Class 172 "Turbostar" Class 220 "Voyager" Class 221 "Super Voyager"
History
Opened	1840-41
Technical
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge

Camp Hill line
Rugby–Birmingham–Stafford line (West Coast Main Line) New Street Junction Cross-City Line Birmingham New Street ( Grand Central) New Street Tunnel Birmingham Curzon Street Proof House Junction Curzon Street Junction Digbeth Branch Canal River Rea Cross-City Line Grand Junction Birmingham–Peterborough line & Cross-Country Route St Andrews Junction Rugby–Birmingham–Stafford line (West Coast Main Line) Grand Union Canal Bordesley Junction Chiltern Main Line & North Warwickshire Line Grand Union Canal Camp Hill Goods Camp Hill Brighton Road Moseley Village Moseley Tunnel Kings Heath Pineapple Road River Rea Worcester and Birmingham Canal Cross-City Line Lifford Lifford Curve Kings Norton Cross-City Line & Cross Country Route

The Camp Hill line is a railway line in the West Midlands which lies between Kings Norton on the Cross-City Line and Birmingham New Street via Grand Junction on the main lines from Derby and Coventry.

It originated in a link between the first terminus at Camp Hill of the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway and the London and Birmingham Railway's Curzon Street. The B&GR had opened as far as Camp Hill in 1840, with the link to Curzon St being completed the following year; the joint MR & LNWR station at New Street was subsequently reached in 1854. As both of the MR lines approached New Street from the east, this meant that through trains between Derby and Bristol had to undertake an inconvenient reversal if calling there and so many services were instead routed directly to/from Camp Hill, calling there to allow New Street-bound passengers to catch a connecting local train. This practice continued until the Birmingham West Suburban Railway was extended through to New Street in 1885 - thereafter long distance trains were able to run through New Street and directly on towards Kings Norton & Cheltenham via this route without having to reverse.

Stopping passenger services were withdrawn in 1941 as a "Wartime Economy Measure", but the line remains open for freight traffic and for longer distance passenger train services. Seven railway stations along the line have been demolished; they are:

• Camp Hill Goods Station
• Camp Hill
• Brighton Road
• Moseley
• Kings Heath
• Hazelwell
• Lifford

Future plans

The reinstatement of local rail services to the former Camp Hill Line has been a long term aspiration of the City, and during 2007, Birmingham City Council announced that they were looking into the possibility of reopening the line between Kings Norton and Birmingham Moor Street via the construction of a railway viaduct from Sparkbrook to Bordesley, where trains would be taken into the "old" Birmingham Moor Street station. In October 2007, a 1500-name petition was handed in to the council asking for the line to be re-opened. In 2013 the proposal was shelved indefinitely.

Proposed station sites were:

• Moseley
• Kings Heath
• Hazelwell

Proposals for the reopening were estimated at a cost of around £170 million. This would have included a 3 train per hour service between Birmingham Moor Street and Kings Norton, as well as the restoration of the island platform at Kings Norton for passenger use.

External links

• Birmingham City Council Camp Hill Railway Line Study Public Report, July 2007
• Birmingham City Council Detailed map of the proposed railway chord linking the Camp Hill line into Moor Street Station