With
the restoration of local passenger services on 8th
May 1978 between Longbridge and New Street station,
Birmingham's Cross-City line from Longbridge to Four
Oaks was officially opened by the Secretary of State
for Transport, William Rodgers. Consideration of the
possibility of creating a Cross-City line began in
1970 when the newly created West Midlands Passenger
Transport Executive carried out a review of railway
passenger services in the area which was required of
them by the 1968 Transport Act. The development of
the Birmingham to Lichfield and Birmingham to
Redditch lines were seen as key to the creation of a
truly integrated public-transport system. A
proposal to develop these two lines and provide
through services via New Street was among projects
submitted to and approved by the then Passenger
Transport Authority in October 1971. In 1972 a
general programme for the improvement of local rail
services was started while a more detailed
cost-benefit study was undertaken. This study
published the following year confirmed that the
level of travel movement inside a south-west to
north-east corridor through the Birmingham
conurbation fully justified the development of the
Cross-City rail link with a branch to the new
Frankley residential areas to the west of
Longbridge. Under local government reorganisation
the West Midlands County Council assumed the role of
the Passenger Transport Authority in 1974 and the
West Midlands PTE's designated area was redrawn to
conform to the county boundaries. The effect of this
measure, together with budget pressures was to
concentrate development work only on that stretch of
the Redditch to Lichfield line which lay within the
West Midlands Metropolitan County between Longbridge
and Four Oaks. This was designated as a low-cost
scheme. Work on upgrading the line began at the end
of 1975 and by the time the new service started in
May 1978 Longbridge and Northfield stations remained
to be completed owing to planning delays although
both were brought into use with temporary structures
serving as ticket offices. To fund the project WMPTE
took the opportunity to use European Funding to off
set the capital costs of creating the new
infrastructure for the Cross City line. With the
introduction of the new Cross-City rail service,
alterations were made to a number of West Midland
PTE bus routes on the rail corridor following market
research surveys investigating travel patterns in
the Sutton Coldfield and Streetly areas, at the
northern end, and in the Longbridge and Northfield
areas, at the southern end. Bus rail interchanges
were provided at Longbridge, Northfield and Kings
Norton stations while the Walmley area to the east
of Sutton Coldfield had a direct bus link to/from
Chester Road station. Bus and train fares within the
West Midlands were based on a common distance scale,
while the then recently introduced Travelcards
provided regular passengers with an unlimited number
of journeys by both bus and train within designated
areas. 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
privatized successor London and Birmingham Railways
that trades as London Midland provides it. Until
privatization in 1996 the WMPTE made up the
operating loss.
Track alterations
To introduce a new intensive local service on the
already busy network of rail lines in the Birmingham
area necessitated some major alterations to track
and signalling, including three new electrified
crossovers at New Street station to improve
operating flexibility. South of the city the line is
double track from New Street to Kings Norton and
four track to just south of Longbridge station. In
the latter section, the two outer formerly freight
only tracks were upgraded to passenger standard
specifically for the new local service. The junction
with the Camp Hill line at Kings Norton was modified
and at Longbridge the junction for Halesowen was
remodelled and a nine-car length turn-back siding
was provided south of the junction for terminating
passenger trains. In addition to the passenger
trains this stretch of line still had and still does
have substantial freight traffic. Whilst types of
freight trains have changed back in the 1970’s there
were car carrier and local freight trains between
the British Leyland plant at Longbridge and the
Kings Norton car terminal located in the former
goods yard (much of this area is now part of the
much extended station car park). This link had to be
completely re-cast and new crossovers were laid
south of Kings Norton to serve the car terminal. At
the northern end of the Cross City line two new
stabling sidings were provided at Four Oaks.
Signalling is Improved
Back in the 1970’s through to the 1990’s the route
passes through the control areas of several signal
boxes: Saltley Power Box covered the Longbridge to
Five Ways section; New Street Power Box covered the
section from Five Ways to Erdington via New Street
station; while beyond that point the line was
controlled by three manual boxes at Erdington,
Sutton Coldfield and Four Oaks. New colour light
signalling has been provided in the Saltley and New
Street Power Box control areas in association with
the track layout modifications. In addition, the
line capacity between University and New Street, and
between New Street and Proof House Junction has been
improved by installation of additional signals. On
the Aston-Four Oaks section, signals were respaced
to increase line capacity and new colour light
signals introduced, particularly in the Four Oaks
area, to improve operating efficiency. The necessary
work had to be carefully pre planned and carried out
over an 18 month period on an intensively used
railway without causing disruption to train services
and inconvenience to passengers. A large proportion
was carried out at weekends when traffic was light
or trains could be diverted to other routes. A major
challenge was presented by the modification required
to the control panel in Saltley Power Box. A
temporary panel was constructed in front of one wing
of the main console from which all signalling was
controlled while alterations were carried out to the
main panel.
Train services and rolling stock back in 1978
The basic Mondays to Fridays service between Four
Oaks and Longbridge was in 1978 four trains an hour
between 0630 and 2315 (arriving/departing New
Street), increased to six an hour during the morning
and evening peak periods. The basic off peak
services also operated on Saturdays; on Sundays
the service is two trains an hour between
approximately 0800 and 2300. This represented a
considerable improvement on the former service,
particularly south of New Street (the Birmingham to
Four Oaks service consisted of two trains an hour
off-peak, strengthened to five an hour during the
peaks; however on the southern leg before 8th May
there were only four trains each way on weekdays
calling at a limited number of stations only, while
there was no local Sunday service). The service was
maintained by three car diesel multiple units,
increased to six car formations during the peak
periods: at the height of the peaks one nine-car
train will run in each direction. In all, 34 units
are required to operate the service (including
maintenance spares). The sets are drawn from Tyseley
depot's allocation of 76 three car DMUs and
consisted of Class 115 and 116 Derby built high
density units each with 262 seats. All the West
Midlands DMU fleet was in the process of being
refurbished as part of British Rail's national
programme. By May 1978 28 units had been dealt with.
To meet the operational requirements of the new
Longbridge to Four Oaks service the West Midlands
DMU fleet has been increased by 21 sets. Such a
large increase in fleet size could not be contained
within the existing facilities for maintenance and
servicing at Tyseley depot, and major alterations
had to take place in order to accommodate the
additional trains. All locomotive hauled stock
previously serviced and stabled at Tyseley depot was
transferred to Duddeston and Oxley depots where
additional sidings have been installed. This
provided sufficient space at Tyseley depot for the
installation of four new servicing sidings each
complete with concrete walkways, electric and water
servicing points and overhead lighting where trains
are cleaned and prepared for their next turns of
duty. Trains enter the depot via the three road DMU
fuelling plant which itself has been extended by one
road to assist a quick turn round. Additional
capacity has been created at the traction
maintenance depot by the construction of one new
three car length covered extension to the main shed,
equipped with full Length inspection pit.
Rearrangement of the track layout has also
streamlined the movements of rolling stock within
the depot.
Stations are opened and improved
For
the opening of the service on 8th May 1978 new
stations were built at University (serving
Birmingham University and the Queen Elizabeth
Hospital) and Longbridge (adjacent to the British
Leyland Works) and Five Ways station which had been
closed in 1944 and was rebuilt to serve the large
concentration of offices in the Five Ways area and
also an adjacent residential area. On the southern
section the other four stations area at Bournville,
Northfield, Kings Norton and Selly Oak all serve
important residential areas. The new and
reconstructed stations all follow a common basic
design of covered walkways, platform awnings and
heated waiting shelters at platform level to ensure
a good standard of passenger comfort. Public toilets
have also been provided at the principal interchange
stations. All stations are manned continuously
during the time they are open. At New Street station
the new service mainly uses Platform 5 (northbound)
and 12 (southbound). The increased number of trains
using the station has necessitated some re-platforming
and the greater use of platforms 1 and 12. There is
a new entrance/exit point between Platform 12 and
the adjacent Station Street for the benefit of
ticket holders who require direct access to and from
this part of the city centre. North of the city, the
wooden trestle platforms at Butlers Lane have been
extended from three-car to six-car length. At all
stations along the route a public-address system has
been installed. There are car parks for commuters at
five stations - Four Oaks, Sutton Coldfield, Wylde
Green, Kings Norton and Northfield. Car parking
spaces at Four Oaks have been increased from 60 to
200, at Sutton Coldfield from 67 to 100 and at
Northfield from 20 to 106. There are 45 spaces at
Wylde Green and 80 in a new car park at Kings
Norton. Parking in all station car parks is free.
The total cost was £6.3million for track, signalling
and stations and £1.1million for the depot
modifications. Approximately £4million of the total
expenditure relates to work carried out by contract
and the remainder by railway staff.
Services to Redditch
Services to Redditch continued at that time as a
"Pay train" 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.
Electrification Arrives
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 7th
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
20th May 1991 and electric services started between
Birmingham New Street and Lichfield on 30th November
1992. Significantly the 1000th electrification mast
was planted at Redditch at the most southerly point
on the electrification project. With the
electrification the three remaining manual signal
boxes at Erdington, Sutton Coldfield and Four Oaks
were closed when the this section of the line was
re-signalled as part of the electrification works
and a new mini power box was opened at Duddeston
using the shell of an old manual signal box because
there was not enough space in the Aston Power Box to
accommodate the additional route mileage. All this
was superseded in the early 2010’s when the new
Saltley Signalling centre can into use and all
signalling was progressively transferred to this
centre the section including the Redditch branch was
transferred over on 6th November 2016. New Service
starts to Redditch and Lichfield The whole line
from Lichfield to Redditch was energized 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 12th 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.
Expansion of the Cross City to Bromsgrove
After a number of delays work finally stated in
March 2014 on a new four platform station for
Bromsgrove which could become the terminus of
alternate cross city trains, the others going to
Redditch. The new £24 million station finally opened
on 12 July 2016. Work started during 2016 on the
electrification of the 9 kilometres (5.6 miles) rail
line from Barnt Green to Bromsgrove with the
reconstruction of four over bridges between Barnt
Green and Bromsgrove and the pedestrian footbridge
at Barnt Green station. Work took longer than
planned but the new electric service started on
Sunday 29th July 2018. The picture above shows unit
323202 standing in the platform at Bromsgrove ready
to form the 0942 departure which was the first
electric passenger train from the station .
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