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 The
rail service to Redditch is known as the Cross City
line as it crosses Birmingham City Centre. It was
formed by the linking of the former Midland Railway
line from Redditch to Birmingham line via Selly Oak
and the former London and North Western line from
Birmingham to Lichfield. The £7.4 million Cross City
line was sanctioned in May 1975 and launched on 8
May 1978 between Longbridge and Four Oaks and was a
creation of the West Midland Passenger Transport
Executive (WMPTE). WMPTE was formed as a result of
the 1968 Transport Act to co-ordinate public
transport in the West Midlands County. As part of
the requirements of the 1968 Transport Act the West
Midlands Passenger Transport Authority produced a
public transport development plan. This proposed a
major role for the Redditch to Lichfield rail line.
In 1972 WMPTE started to fund local rail provision
and specifies the level of service it requires and
as it was then British Rail and now the privatised
successor Central Trains provides it. WMPTE makes up
the operating loss.
 In
the mid 1970’s WMPTE took the opportunity to use
European Funding to off set the capital costs of
creating the new infrastructure for the Cross City
line. On the southern section of the line new
stations were provided at Longbridge and University
(the latter station was officially opened as part of
the project). At the same time the station at Five
Ways was reopened (it had closed in the 1940’s) and
the ones at Northfield, Kings Norton, Selly Oak and
Bournville benefited from rebuilding. All the
stations have a common architecture. A 15 minute
frequency was provided from day one on Monday May 8
1978 using Class 116 Diesel Multiple Units most of
which had benefited from mid life refurbishment. The
only station on the new Cross City line to be
officially opened was University which, was the only
totally new station to be reconstructed (Longbridge
station was relocated and Northfield gained new
platforms on the slow lines) Services to Redditch
continued at that time as a "Paytrain" commuter
service. The Redditch branch from Barnt Green to
Redditch had survived a number of attempts to close
it the last being on 9 August 1965. The previous
year the experimental hourly DMU service that had
started in April 1960 was withdrawn. In May 1980
history repeated itself and following pressure by
the Hereford and Worcester County Council, Redditch
Borough Council and Redditch Development Corporation
a new hourly experiment service to Redditch was
introduced with the County Council off setting the
losses. Usage of the service grew steadily so that
by the 1990’s the line was benefiting from not only
a half-hourly daytime service but also both an
evening and Sunday facility that had been introduced
in May 1989.
 The
WMPTE which had by now adopted the corporate name
Centro had attempted to get the Cross City line
electrified for a number of years. Various ideas
were looked at including electrifying just the line
within the West Midlands and providing diesel
linking services to both Redditch and Lichfield. A
break through came in 1990 when it was found that by
the use of regenerative braking on the trains would
theoretically put electric power back into the
system. In simple terms when the brakes are applied
the electric motors on the electric train run in
reverse and act as generators. Using this system and
a new design of electric multiple unit (now known as
the Class 323) a financial case to electrify the
whole Lichfield to Redditch line was drawn up. After
months of waiting for a decision it was made on 7
February 1990 by the then Transport Minister Cecil
Parkinson coincidentally during the campaign for a
by-election in the Lichfield constituency. The first
electrification mast first planted at Erdington on
20 May 1991 and electric services started between
Birmingham New Street and Lichfield on 30 November
1992. Significantly the 1000th electrification mast
was planted at Redditch at the most southerly point
on the electrification project. The whole line from
Lichfield to Redditch was energised on 6 June 1993
after the use of a Class 86 electric locomotive on
the Redditch branch as a load bank tester to ensure
the system could cope with current draw by the
trains. Electric services finally started to
Redditch on 12 July 1993. Initial problems with the
new Class 323 electric units meant that older Class
304 and 310 units were retained together with some
of the DMU reformed to remove the trailer cars so
that they could theoretically run to electric train
timings. A number of Class 308 units which were
basically the same as the Class 304’s were drafted
in. These units were in the process of being
refurbished for the Leeds and Bradford
electrification project and ran in the West Midlands
in West Yorkshire PTE Metro Red and Cream livery. It
was not until 1994 that full Class 323 started.
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