







It
is doubtful except a handful of railway enthusiasts have
heard of the Birmingham West Suburban Railway, though
very many of them will know and have travelled over the
line in its present condition, forming as it does the
main line approach to Birmingham New Street from
Gloucester and Bristol and is part of the Birmingham
Cross City rail line. As an individual concern (though
operated by the Midland Railway from the beginning) it
existed for only a few years, and its transformation
from 'a very modest single line serving into an
important piece of main line caused a quite large part
of the map of Birmingham to be "rubbed out and drawn
again" as services were concentrated on Birmingham New
Street station. The course of the line hugs the bank of
the Birmingham. and Worcester Canal, and commenced at a
passenger station at Granville Street, running to a
junction with the Midland Railway (Birmingham and
Gloucester Railway) at Lifford. The bill for the
construction of the line, which was incorporated on 30th
July 1871, provided for a terminus at Albion Wharf
Bridge Street, Birmingham, on an extension from
Granville Street 'being carried over the canal on. a
viaduct of twenty arches, the gradient being as steep as
1 in 50. In 1873 a Parliamentary Bill provided for this
extension to be abandoned in favour of another extension
to a goods station at the corner of Suffolk Street and
Wharf Street, which! again crossed the canal and a sub-terranean
public right-of-way called The Gullet, falling away at 1
in 63 to Suffolk Street.
Neither of these extensions were
built but, it is assumed that the line terminated at
Granville Street station, a single wooden platform with
a shed, all traces of which have now vanished. Passenger
trains began to run on, 3rd April 1876. The Bill of 1873
also provided for a diversion of the line at Selly Oak,
presumably to allow of better. siding facilities. This
diversion, 1,947 yards in length, involved a new
crossing of the Bristol Road, and the remains of the old
viaduct could be seen for many years alongside (west of)
the. present Bristol Road bridge. The old viaduct was
removed in more recent years as part of the
redevelopment of the Battery Park site. At the Lifford end the line passed
under the Redditch Road at Breedon Cross, and under the
Birmingham. and Gloucester Railway, swinging round
thence to the right to the old passenger station at
Reachill's Wharf (known as. Old Lifford) and on to the
junction with the 'Gloucester line just beyond the
present " Lifford Curve." Alongside the old suburban
Lifford station is the Midland Lifford station that was
closed in 1941. The original line under Bredon Cross has
for many years provided road access to an industrial
park. At the other end of the line where it left the
West Suburban line just to the south of Bournville
station this area has been given over to factory units
removing any trace of the former rail line.
A Bill of 1874 empowered the Midland Railway to take possession of the line, and to make improvements upon it; two years later another. Bill empowered the Midland to acquire land on both sides of the Worcester Canal and in the Severn Street Commercial Street area, foreshadowing the big scheme of 1881. Acquisition of this land involved encroachment on the Jews' Burial Ground, and the removal of the disinterred bodies to Witton Cemetery in 1877. The way was now prepared for the 1881 Bill for the Birmingham West Suburban New Street Extension; this commenced at the engine turntable (the site the Birmingham Power Box occupied) at the west end of New Street station and terminated at a junction with the Birmingham West Suburban at what is now Church Road Junction, a few yards west of Five Ways station. The Bill provided for the acquisition of several public streets, and a further tract of the Jews' Burial Ground and Dead House.
At the New Street end, an
extension of Holliday Street to Suffolk Street, under
the canal, took the place of the old Gullet. An 'ornate
aqueduct and private roadway, in typical railway
cast-iron style, carried the canal over Holliday Street,
and a large area to the south was swallowed up to make
room for what became Suffolk Street Goods Station (known
as Central Goods). To reach these two lines of railway
were driven through a tunnel from Granville Street to
Holliday Passage, the old passenger line being used as a
siding. The new lines to New Street, from Church Road
Junction, are here at a considerably lower level and
finally disappear underground. At the other end of the line a
new junction was made with the Suburban. opposite the
site of Bournville engine shed to a junction with the
Gloucester line just east of the Redditch Road near
Kings Norton station; the "Lifford Curve" provided
another connection with the Gloucester line back towards
Birmingham. The new main line from Kings Norton to New
Street, was opened on 1st October 1885. At various
points the Midland eased out the curves, but the
original course of the Suburban can be seen from the
present line.