Moor Street key to Birmingham commuter hub overhaul

Mar 26 2009 by Patrice John, Birmingham Post

Birmingham could experience a public transport overhaul with the transformation of Moor Street station into a commuter hub that rivals New Street. Transport Correspondent Patrice John takes a detailed look at what it will mean for the city.

For all its pomp and splendour, plans for the New Street Gateway project still leave one nagging question. How will it increase capacity?

The answer it seems is with the reinvention of Moor Street station through the use of passenger platforms and laying down of two pieces of track known as the Camp Hill chord lines to increase local services.

This, coupled with better pedestrian links to New Street station, is thought will ease the transport burden.

The West Midlands passenger transport authority Centro has carved out a vision for the station which they believe will create a better Birmingham.

Head of Rail and Rapid Transit Development Peter Sargant said: “The work at Moor Street will give us the opportunity to be more flexible with the services we run.

“At present, most services go into New Street but if we wish to increase the number of trains in the city we might have to take some of those services out of that station and Moor Street will give us that flexibility.

“It will give us opportunities for further growth and, at present, linking the two stations is the only way to bring a solution to the capacity problems in central Birmingham.”

Mr Sargant said Chiltern Railways was planning on re-opening two of the platforms at Moor Street station.

Once it does this, Centro hopes to run more services in and out of the station.