Birmingham New Street Station Redevelopment, United Kingdom

The Birmingham New Street Station is an important hub and gateway to towns and cities across the UK. It serves long-distance trains from London's Euston Station to the north of the country, from south and south-west England to Scotland, Newcastle, Manchester and Liverpool

It provides east-west services to and from East Anglia and Central Wales, and is a major hub for local and suburban services.

The existing station was designed and built during the 1960s to serve approximately 60,000 passengers a day. It is currently visited by 140,000 passengers a day, which causes congestion at the platforms during peak hours.

Station operator Network Rail is redeveloping the station to cater for future increases in passengers visiting the station.

Known as the Gateway Project, it aims to increase the station's capacity and train facilities by 50% between Birmingham, London and Coventry, while reducing journey time from Birmingham to Scotland and Birmingham to Milton Keynes.

Construction began in 2009 and is expected to be fully completed by 2015.

Redevelopment project

The £600m Birmingham New Street Station redevelopment project is being delivered by Network Rail in cooperation with Birmingham City Council, Advantage West Midlands, Centro (the region's transport authority) and the Department for Transport (DfT).

DfT and Advantage West Midlands have contributed £400m and £100m, respectively, towards the project.

History of Birmingham New Street Station

The original Birmingham New Street Station was opened by London and North Western Railway (LNWR) in 1854. It comprised a trussed arch designed by AE Coowper of Fox Henderson and Co. The station's roof was 211ft wide and 840ft long.

The station was rebuilt in 1960s after the World War II bombings. It was designed by Kenneth J Davies of British Rail Midland Region. It contains Pallasades Shopping Centre, a nine-storey office block and a car park above the station platforms.

Alongside the station is a 20-storey building known as Stephenson Tower, which is owned by Network Rail and managed by Birmingham City Council.

Design and construction

The Birmingham New Street Station redevelopment was designed by Foreign Office Architects. WS Atkins is the project lead consultant and Mace the delivery partner.

The station will be redeveloped in two phases. Phase I includes construction of a new concourse at the existing car park above the station platforms. Preparatory works for this phase began in September 2009 and the concourse is expected to open in 2012.

Phase II will witness the closure of the existing concourse, which will be expanded to three and half times its current size of 10,500m². It will be enclosed by a giant-size, light-filled atrium providing access to clearer and brighter platforms. The busiest platforms, 8 and 9, will be widened. Phase II is expected to be completed by 2015.

The car park demolition work was awarded to Perry Barr-based engineers Coleman & Company, which in turn subcontracted RMD Kwikform for special trusses and East Midlands Diamond Drilling for Tyrolit wire sawing technology.

Because the station needs to be operated regularly, the concrete will be removed block by block and lifted by using Tyrolit wire sawing technology and special trusses. Around 7,500t of concrete will be removed, of which 85% is recyclable and will be reused in the construction of the new concourse.

Navigation Street footbridge, which is located at the west end of the station, will be extended to platform 12, creating an entrance and a second exit to Hill Street. The bridge provides access from platform 2 to 11, resulting in congestion for passengers moving to and from platform 1 and 12.

The new station will also feature a 250,000ft² John Lewis store on the south side of the existing Pallasades shopping centre. The store will be constructed on the site of the Stephenson Tower and will be the largest store outside London, with four floors. It is designed by the station architect. Planning consent will be sent for approval in 2011, and the store is to open in 2014.

Stephenson Tower will be broken down piece by piece in a period of six months to make way for the new store.

Construction work of the new atrium is underway. A 200m² of station exterior was unveiled in March 2011. It is built of mirror-polished stainless steel.

Birmingham New Street Station services

Birmingham New Street Station is serviced by trains operated by Arriva Trains Wales, CrossCountry, First Great Western, London Midland and Virgin Trains.

The redeveloped station will add 92 extra trains to the existing fleet. In addition, 106 carriages will be brought in to increase the length of the pendolinos that operate between Birmingham, London and the West Coast Main Line.

Arriva will bring in 40 extra coaches and increase the capacity by 3,000 passenger seats a day.

Station facilities

Birmingham ew Street Station's facilities includes a ticket office, toilets, showers and baby changing, a lost property and left luggage office, food and drink outlets, Wi-Fi, long and short stay parking, accessible parking and cycle parking.

As part of the station's redevelopment, the platform escalators are being increased from five to 31, public lifts from two to 15 and pedestrian entrances from two to eight.