Posted 12th August 2009 | 3 Comments
Work on Birmingham ‘Gateway’ set to start — but public will not see difference until 2012
Artisits impression of the build
PREPARATOIRY work is to start in September on the rebuilding of passenger facilities at Birmingham New Street. But the 40 million passengers using the station will not notice any difference for another three years, and it will be six years before the whole project is completed.
When work gets under way it will be out if sight of passengers using the existing station concourse and the bridge connecting the 12 platforms. Behind this passenger bridge is the present ground floor of the Pallasades’ shopping centre car park, which will close on 1 September ready to be transformed into the first half of the new station concourse.
Birmingham City Council — which is the driving force behind the ‘Gateway’ project — and Network Rail, which owns the station, say it will see the 1960s-built station transformed into “a landmark, 21st century transport hub.”
Network Rail explained: “The new concourse is expected to open to the public in 2012. Then in the second phase of the project, the old concourse will be redeveloped to deliver a world-class station upon completion in 2015.”
Last month, Birmingham City Council received notification from the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government that the Compulsory Purchase Order relating to the Gateway project had been confirmed. The approval includes confirmation of CPOs for the 14-acre site and the removal of the public rights of way through the shopping centre.
Details of the CPOs have been published today in The Birmingham Post. They are so comprehensive that they extend over one and a half pages of the newspaper.
The key objector had been Warner Estates, owner of the Pallasades Shopping Centre, but the company has since sold the development to Birmingham city council for £91 million, leaving only 18 objectors, mainly a handful of small shop lease holders and flat owners.
Jo Kaye, Network Rail's route director, said: "It's an exciting time for the millions of users of New Street station as the £600m transformation of the station begins to move from a vision to a reality.
"With preparatory work just a few weeks off, passengers are one step closer to a massively improved station which will be bigger, brighter and so much better.”
The New Street Gateway project will double passenger capacity and deliver:
- a concourse that is three-and-a-half times bigger than at present and enclosed by a giant, light-filled atrium
- more accessible, brighter and clearer platforms, serviced by over 30 new escalators and over 15 new public lifts
- a stunning new station façade, adding to Birmingham’s growing reputation for good design
- better links to and through the station for pedestrians with eight new entrances
- the stimulus for the physical regeneration of the areas surrounding the station
Mick Laverty, chief executive of Advantage West Midlands, the regional development agency, said: "New Street Gateway is vital to the regional economy.
“We anticipate the project will generate over £2bn in transport and wider economic benefits for the region and lead to the creation of over 10,000 jobs, which is why Advantage West Midlands is providing £100m to support the redevelopment.”
Reader Comments:
Views expressed in submitted comments are that of the author, and not necessarily shared by Railnews.
philip, carlisle, england
the above coments are all very grand and visionary but i have heard that the exixting birmingham london inter city services are not always loading all that well anyway so i wonder where the tens of thousands of new customers are going to appear from to use all these tgv s, eurostars ,ice s ,bullet trains s etc etc maybe the present proposal is not all that bad an idea for where we are right now combined with a modern signalling system to allow the pendilinos to operate at their full speeds and replace the 4 and 5 car tilting voyagers on the northbound services and if the high speed line eventually gets built then thats great too
H T Harvey, Birmingham, UK
Your absolutely right Geoff
The project was headlined as 'glass fronted atrium' , 'airport style waiting lounge', cathedral', 30 escalators, 10 lifts .
The reality is it is focussed on 'retail' opportunities, office development, and 'show' and only the escalators and lifts will do anything for the rail passenger.
The private sector was supposed to contribute a large proportion but as far as I know have not put one penny of their money where their mouth was.
The best thing that could happen to New St would be that it was reduced to a 4 platform underground station for suburban services and Grand Central proposal resurected. Despite the scurrilous actions of the city and developers who have put student accomodation before the strategic transport needs of the citythere is still sites vailable to provide for Grand Central close to the city centre.
However the New St Gateway!!!! require the footfall of a major city station so you can bet your life the New St mafia will fight tooth and nail against a 'proper' station for the city ie Grand Central
Geoff Steel, Northampton, United Kingdom
I believe the announcement for Birmingham New Street is a classic example of how this government and its "not for dividend" rail infrastructure company does not have a long term strategy at all for rail but develops projects individually without even considering how they will all join up.
On one hand the new Birmingham New Street concourse will be a great improvement on the existing one providing the public with much improved access and a better station environment. Few users would argue that the existing station has passed its sell by date.
On the other hand, whilst it might be a commercially viable project what it doesn't appear to do is address the key issue of railway capacity at Birmingham particularly when the demand for rail travel has increased substantially and will no doubt continue to do so as we come out of recession.
Whatever is done at concourse level cannot hide the fact that the track configuration at both ends of the station will still be very restrictive by slow approach speeds; conflicting moves and mid point signals along the platforms effectively cutting the station into two sections.
What I would be interested to know is how does all this fit in with the possible announcement (expected later this year) that HS2 is going to be arriving into Birmingham maybe as soon as 2020 for which works no doubt will have to be underway when this 'landmark' station is finally completed in 2015?
How is HS2 going to be able to interact with Birmingham New Street assuming that all the extra trains will not be able to gain access the station? I would have thought that when HS1 is opened up to other operators that we can expect to see trains such as TGVs and ICEs coming through to Birmingham and beyond from across Europe. How will they serve the City?
In my view we should not be wasting money on a cosmetic make over of New Street but construct a new purpose-built central hub station to meet the needs of this great city built around a central core for the high speed lines with direct interchanges with the "classic rail routes"; cross city and local metro and other modes of transport. Neither Birmingham New Street or Snow Hill will ever be able to achieve this without massive alterations to the rail infrastructure and the huge inconvenience this would bring.
The new interchange will be able to provide the capacity required and could be funded by selling off the existing sites for redevelopment given their prime location. All this could be achieved with minimal impact on existing train services and allow Birmingham to demonstrate that it is committed to providing a modern integrated transport hub that will serve the city for generations to come.
Finally, what we desperately need is a new long term strategy from the government that will plan and start building the capacity required across the country in all our major conurbations in preparation for a HS rail network. You only have to look at St Pancras and conclude that it will not have sufficient capacity when we build more HS lines.