Grand Central and St Chad’s

[William3000]

As a non-native of Birmingham it has always struck me as odd that the tram stops at Grand Central and St Chad’s aren’t named New Street and Snow Hill like the stations adjacent to them. Is there a reason why they are not? Equally I understand new stops adjacent to Moor Street and Curzon Street will be named Albert Street and Millenium Point respectively.

For wayfinding and visitors to the city switching between stations, I think naming the stops after the adjacent stations would make more sense, as is done in other cities like Manchester and London. The only place where it is not is Glasgow where the stops on the subway refer to older demolished mainline stations St Enoch’s and Buchanan Street rather than Central and Queen Street.

 

[edwin_m]

Possibly because New Street and Snow Hill are both actual streets, and the tram stops are not on those streets.

 

[CyrusWuff]

Grand Central was presumably chosen due to the rebranding of The Pallasades shopping centre above New Street following the mid-2010s redevelopment.

St Chads opened as Snow Hill, but was renamed after the cathedral six months later as the direct link between the two stations never got built, which was confusing passengers. The preferred interchange is at Bull Street, as it's step-free, whereas St Chads is on a viaduct.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Possibly because New Street and Snow Hill are both actual streets, and the tram stops are not on those streets.

New Street Station and Snow Hill Station would work though, although the latter is best avoided for the reason above.

 

[AlastairFraser]

Possibly because New Street and Snow Hill are both actual streets, and the tram stops are not on those streets.

It's also partly because there was a Snow Hill tram stop inside the station, but that was replaced when the then Midland Metro was extended across the city centre on street.

 

[spp]

St Chads opened as Snow Hill, but was renamed after the cathedral six months later as the direct link between the two stations never got built, which was confusing passengers. The preferred interchange is at Bull Street, as it's step-free, whereas St Chads is on a viaduct.

It’s a shame that link never got built any reason why? St Chads geographically is closest to Snow Hill station almost adjacent to it but as you say Bull Street is easier to use to go to Snow Hill.

The old disused metro station within Snow Hill itself is a mess now too overgrown weeds etc. shame to see.

 

[Russel]

The Grand Central stop needs a really good jetwash, it's disgusting, it really doesn't give a good impression as the first thing you see on exiting New Street.

 

[duffield]

...

The old disused metro station within Snow Hill itself is a mess now too overgrown weeds etc. shame to see.

I think that's finally going to be converted back to a national rail platform as part of the "Midlands Connect" strategy (along with the extra platforms at Moor Street).

Being discussed here:

Is there room for a "Platform 6" at Birmingham Moor Street?

You can't make an omelette without making homeless two very popular and successful local independent businesses? Infrastructure projects that don't impact anyone negatively, especially in city-centre locations, are rarer than unicorn eggs. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few...

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[Russel]

I think that's finally going to be converted back to a national rail platform as part of the "Midlands Connect" strategy (along with the extra platforms at Moor Street).

Being discussed here:

Is there room for a "Platform 6" at Birmingham Moor Street?

You can't make an omelette without making homeless two very popular and successful local independent businesses? Infrastructure projects that don't impact anyone negatively, especially in city-centre locations, are rarer than unicorn eggs. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few...

www.railforums.co.uk

I do wonder if an additional platform at Snow Hill is actually needed though.

 

[duffield]

I do wonder if an additional platform at Snow Hill is actually needed though.

P1 and P3 are used as the through platforms; currently the services from Marylebone that terminate at Snow Hill typically lay over in P2 for 35 minutes before returning to London, if this needs maintaining (e.g. for good pathing reasons) then you're going to need another platform when they go to every 30 minutes.

 

[edwin_m]

P1 and P3 are used as the through platforms; currently the services from Marylebone that terminate at Snow Hill typically lay over in P2 for 35 minutes before returning to London, if this needs maintaining (e.g. for good pathing reasons) then you're going to need another platform when they go to every 30 minutes.

Unless Chiltern can re-cast their timetable to reduce that layover by 10min or so.

 

[duffield]

Unless Chiltern can re-cast their timetable to reduce that layover by 10min or so.

Even if that's possible, not having the fourth platform could make the setup very fragile; if the outgoing service from P3 was just slightly delayed turning round, presumably you'd have the incoming service with nowhere to go, blocking the approach line from Moor Street to Snow Hill and holding up a queue of all the through services. I think that fourth platform is really needed, and in the overall scheme should be relatively cheap (compared to the entirely new platforms A and B at Moor Street for example) given it's just converting it back to the pre-metro setup rather than starting from scratch.

 

[dvboy]

It’s a shame that link never got built any reason why? St Chads geographically is closest to Snow Hill station almost adjacent to it but as you say Bull Street is easier to use to go to Snow Hill.

The old disused metro station within Snow Hill itself is a mess now too overgrown weeds etc. shame to see.

It used to be the case but the Livery Street entrance to Snow Hill is now open much longer hours so it’s now an easier and shorter walk from St Chads.

This wasn’t the case when St Chads opened however, the Livery Street entrance was very limited in its opening hours.