Anyone remember the Birmingham Heartlands station proposal?

[devvy]

Hey, newbie on the board here

Flicking through my copy of the newish "Regional Railways Story", there's mention of a proposed early 1990s "Birmingham Heartlands" station as a replacement Intercity station. It would have replaced the very congested New Street station, although we'd just be complaining about the dual track from Stechford Jct to BHI now. It seems that the majority (to some unknown level) of Intercity passengers were passing through/connecting via Birmingham, rather then destined for Brum.

I've trawled Google, and hardly found any details on what was proposed, and what was thought of the idea at the time - anyone here know anything more?

 

[yorkie]

Hey, newbie on the board here

Welcome

...there's mention of a proposed early 1990s "Birmingham Heartlands" station ...

Proposed by who?

 

[Zoidberg]

...

Proposed by who?

By British Rail, apparently.

From
http://www.cnplus.co.uk/news/20feb9...artlands-station/1047977.article#.VibG4opwa2c

20Feb92 UK: BRITISH RAIL PLANS £50 MILLION BIRMINGHAM HEARTLANDS STATION.
20 February, 1992

British Rail plans to build a massive £50 million railway station in Birmingham Heartlands, about two miles east of the city centre.InterCity trains, which currently stop at Birmingham New Street, will use the new station. International trains will also use the Heartlands station after the opening of the Channel Tunnel.New Street station would be cut to just six platforms for use by local and inter-urban trains. Up to two-thirds of the New Street site could then be redeveloped, the proceeds of which would fund the new station.The Heartlands station forms part of the Second Heart strategy drawn up by BR, Birmingham council and Centro, the West Midlands transport body. The plan aims to improve public transport in the West Midlands during the next 20 years.The £50 million station will be a great boost to Heartlands, which is set to become an urban development corporation in May this year.A derelict site, which is owned by Birmingham council, has been earmarked for the station.BR has appointed a project manager to develop the scheme, though at this stage the exact timetabling of the project is not known. However, BR gives a possible completion date of the mid-1990s.

Interesting stuff.

 

[backontrack]

Welcome

Proposed by who?

Proposed by whom?

By British Rail, apparently.

From
http://www.cnplus.co.uk/news/20feb9...artlands-station/1047977.article#.VibG4opwa2c

20Feb92 UK: BRITISH RAIL PLANS £50 MILLION BIRMINGHAM HEARTLANDS STATION.
20 February, 1992

British Rail plans to build a massive £50 million railway station in Birmingham Heartlands, about two miles east of the city centre.InterCity trains, which currently stop at Birmingham New Street, will use the new station. International trains will also use the Heartlands station after the opening of the Channel Tunnel.New Street station would be cut to just six platforms for use by local and inter-urban trains. Up to two-thirds of the New Street site could then be redeveloped, the proceeds of which would fund the new station.The Heartlands station forms part of the Second Heart strategy drawn up by BR, Birmingham council and Centro, the West Midlands transport body. The plan aims to improve public transport in the West Midlands during the next 20 years.The £50 million station will be a great boost to Heartlands, which is set to become an urban development corporation in May this year.A derelict site, which is owned by Birmingham council, has been earmarked for the station.BR has appointed a project manager to develop the scheme, though at this stage the exact timetabling of the project is not known. However, BR gives a possible completion date of the mid-1990s.

Interesting stuff.

Sounds quite similar to the proposed reopening of a station at Curzon Street for HS2.

 

[edwin_m]

Sounds quite similar to the proposed reopening of a station at Curzon Street for HS2.

But about a mile and a half further from the city centre, rather than just a five minute walk and right next to Moor Street!

No mention of connecting trains to link the Heartlands station with New Street for people who do want the city centre, or allow Birmingham's suburban routes to act as feeders to Intercity. And New Street at half the size would surely be far more horrible than it is already. Thoroughly bad idea in my view.

 

[devvy]

But about a mile and a half further from the city centre, rather than just a five minute walk and right next to Moor Street!

No mention of connecting trains to link the Heartlands station with New Street for people who do want the city centre, or allow Birmingham's suburban routes to act as feeders to Intercity. And New Street at half the size would surely be far more horrible than it is already. Thoroughly bad idea in my view.

The sole bits of info I've gleaned about the majority of Intercity passengers passing through/connecting on IC services would make it surely a good proposal for Intercity on the whole; services would probably be more reliable and a tad quicker (as not held up behind slower services) via "Heartlands".

Urban passengers to Birmingham would be unaffected, but granted, the destiny of urban-Intercity connecting passengers is the big unknown. I can find precious little about the thoughts of how to connect the station, as it is a bit out from the centre (3km or so, hardly a short walk!). Midland Metro? Diverting the Cross-City Line? No idea.

I've not managed to uncover anything about it in detail, save for where it was planned (the crossing of the CrossCountry Line and Stechford-Aston chord) and as a dual level Tamworth style station backed by both Brum authorities and British Rail. It seems to be well planned out as the article Zoidberg links to indicates, but I'll be damned if I can find anything out actual detail about it

 

[Bald Rick]

I worked on this just as it was being 'put to sleep'.

Plan was for all trains from Derby and Leicester to call there, plus a few extras, so that there would be a service roughly every 10 minutes between Heartlands and New St.

It was proposed at the very end of the main era of motorway construction (the M40 had not long opened from Oxford to the M42), the car was by far the predominant mode of transport, particularly in 'Motor City' Birmingham, and this was seen as a way of trying to capture parkway style passengers. It was also a key part of the Heartlands redevelopment, which, frankly, wasn't much cop.

I think it failed because, ultimately, it was a cr*p idea. Trains on the main London - Birmingham line not actually going to Central Birmingham. Bonkers.

 

[devvy]

I don't think not going to central Brum is a problem - places like Bristol work fine, although granted Heartlands might be a bit further. Hasn't been a problem for places like Lyon though where the main TGV station is in a second centre area; I guess the main problems were the state of the Heartlands redevelopment area (not enough offices/shops etc to act as a hub in its own right) and not enough connectivity across Brum.

Interesting, thanks!

 

[satisnek]

Yes, remember it well. Thank goodness the idea got nowhere!

 

[gg1]

Does anyone have a copy of the plans for Arup's 2007 proposal to replace New Street with a completely new station located roughly where the HS2 Curzon street terminus will be?

A link to the news article is below but the document containing the outline plan has not surprisingly been removed from Arup's website.

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/call-to-rethink-new-street-revamp-37513

DESIGNERS behind a proposed new railway hub in central Birmingham have urged the Government to scrap the £550 million redevelopment of New Street Station.

Ove Arup, which is promoting a rival Grand Central station at Eastside, described the New Street Gateway project as a cosmetic exercise that would not end the bottleneck of trains queuing into Birmingham.

The Solihull-based firm, one of the country's leading design engineering companies, claimed a capacity review carried out last year by Network Rail for the Department for Transport was fatally flawed and underestimated the likely growth in train usage.

Ove Arup's director of global rail projects, Colin Stewart, said the bottleneck approach to New Street from the east, where 12 tracks funnel into four, meant the revamped station would be over capacity by 2025, after only 12 years....

 

[edwin_m]

This was a much earlier proposal by BR known as Birmingham Heartlands, although it's possible Arup resurrected it in 2007.

Discussed here: http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=122202

 

[gg1]

This was a much earlier proposal by BR known as Birmingham Heartlands, although it's possible Arup resurrected it in 2007.

Discussed here: http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=122202

Thanks, I didn't know about that one. Arup's proposal was broadly similar but was closer to the city centre. A couple of things I did find amusing in the 1992 proposal:

"British Rail plans to build a massive £50 million railway station in Birmingham Heartlands"

and

"International trains will also use the Heartlands station after the opening of the Channel Tunnel."

 

[Bletchleyite]

Heartlands was about as useful as Old Oak Common would be if HS2 terminated there, only less so. A station of operational convenience, not passenger convenience. Good that it got kicked out.