Birmingham is a major transport hub, due in part to its location in central England. The city is well connected by rail, road, and water. Public transport and key highways in the city are overseen byTransport for West Midlands (TfWM).[1]
The first railway station to open in Birmingham wasVauxhall station, which opened in 1837 as a temporary railway shed. It served as the temporary Birmingham terminus of theGrand Junction Railway fromWarrington.Curzon Street railway station opened in 1838 as the permanent terminus in the city and Vauxhall became a goods-only station until it was rebuilt and opened in 1869 under theLondon & North Western Railway (LNWR). The Curzon Street station entrance hall remains today in its original form, designed byPhilip Hardwick, mirroring his design of theEuston Arch at the London terminus of the railway line. It isGrade I listed and is the world's oldest surviving piece of monumental railway architecture. It closed to all railway traffic in 1966.[2]
New Street station opened in 1854, and Curzon Street station fell out of passenger use, running only holiday excursions for the public. New Street helped by becoming a hub for railway lines, easing connections between them. Despite this, an extension of New Street station was required in the 1880s so thatMidland Railway trains betweenDerby and Bristol no longer needed to useCamp Hill railway station[3] which opened in 1840.[4]
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Snow Hill station was the next major station to open in Birmingham, opening in 1852 as Livery Street station. It connectedLondon Paddington toWolverhampton Low Level. The station was rebuilt in 1871 to accommodate longer trains and again between 1906 and 1912. The latter scheme was undertaken so that the station could compete better with New Street. Other stations on the line in Birmingham wereSoho & Winson Green andHockley. To alleviate pressure on Snow Hill,Moor Street station was opened in 1909 as a terminus for the North Warwickshire lines. The two stations were linked by tunnel which closed in 1968, only to be reopened in 1987 underBritish Rail, when the new Moor Street station was completed. The 1960sBeeching cuts stated Snow Hill station as being unnecessary and the station closed in 1972 along with the line to Wolverhampton Low Level. The station was demolished by 1977, with only the original gates and booking hall sign surviving. However, in the 1980s,British Rail decided to re-open Snow Hill station as part of the cross-city transport plan for Birmingham. It reopened in 1987 as part of a completely redeveloped site with new office buildings replacing the original hotel, and multi-storey car parking over the station concourses. In 2011 a new station entrance was opened linking Snow Hill station to theJewellery Quarter, on the other side of the A41Queensway inner distribution road.
In 1986, Moor Street was relocated adjacent to the original station. However, in 2002, the original Moor Street station was renovated by the Birmingham Alliance andChiltern Railways at a cost of £11 million, and converted into a shopping and refreshment area connected to the new platforms.
TheHarborne Branch Line opened in 1875, connecting New Street to the outlying suburb ofHarborne. A connection to the LNWR was created atMonument Lane. The branch terminated atHarborne railway station. The line began to suffer from falling passenger numbers, largely due to the increasing popularity of buses but also due to train delays as a result of congestion of routes at New Street station.Icknield Port Road station closed in 1931, and the other stations closed to passengers on 26 November 1934. The last passenger train to run on the line was an enthusiasts' special on 3 June 1950. The line closed to freight traffic on 4 November 1963.
In 1978 theCross-City Line came into being, comprising the former Midland Railway line betweenRedditch and New Street viaSelly Oak and the London and North Western Railway Line between New Street andLichfield. It connectsSutton Coldfield, which was absorbed into Birmingham in 1974, with the Birmingham city centre. This line provides the only passenger service to Sutton Coldfield; theSutton Park Line, opened in 1879 and closed to passengers in 1965, is still in use as a freight-only line avoiding central Birmingham.
A large number of railway lines meet atBirmingham New Street railway station, which is a hub of the UK rail network and is the calling point for most intercity services to and from Birmingham.[5] Trains toLondon Marylebone operated byChiltern Railways stop atMoor Street station, and most continue toSnow Hill station.[6]
New Street Station has been redeveloped in a £500 million scheme namedGateway Plus.[7] The project improved passenger facilities and increased passenger capacity at the station, which had been running at over double its capacity. The first stage of the development was completed in April 2013, when the old concourse was closed. The project was completed in 2015.[8]
Phase One ofHigh Speed 2 is to have its first spur to Birmingham linking with London.[9] Phase Two will create new high speed links from Birmingham to Leeds and Manchester. Since New Street does not have sufficient capacity for the new high-speed trains, a new dedicated high-speed railway station will be built atCurzon Street, partly on the site of the former station, and adjacent to Moor Street.[10] A new station calledBirmingham Interchange will be opened adjacent toBirmingham International to serve the city's airport and theNational Exhibition Centre.[11]
There is a network of rail services within Birmingham and theWest Midlands county, operated byWest Midlands Trains and supported byTransport for West Midlands (TfWM) (formerly calledCentro). During 2014/15, there were nearly 51 million rail passenger journeys in the TfWM area.[12] Birmingham has the highest proportion of rail commuters in England outside London.[13] In the past few decades the proportion of journeys into central Birmingham by rail has grown sharply: 27% of journeys into Birmingham city centre in the peak hours were made by rail in 2012, compared to 17% in 2001, and 12% in 1991.[14][15]
Most of the Birmingham and West Midlands County local commuter lines are centred on New Street station, including theCross-City Line, theChase Line and theCoventry-Wolverhampton Line. Three commuter routes, known collectively as theSnow Hill Lines, run through Snow Hill and Moor Street stations.
Plans are being pursued to restore local passenger services to theCamp Hill line in southern Birmingham, which is currently freight only, by constructing new chords into Birmingham Moor Street station. This would also allow for new local services on the lines from Birmingham toTamworth andNuneaton.[16][17]
The West Midlands Metro is alight-railtram system promoted by TfWM. The system currently has one line which connects Birmingham toWolverhampton viaWest Bromwich andWednesbury. The original line from Wolverhampton toBirmingham Snow Hill was opened in 1999. In 2016, the line was extended across Birmingham city-centre from Birmingham Snow Hill toBirmingham New Street station, subsequently extended toCentenary Square with work in hand as of 2021 to continue the line on toFive Ways andEdgbaston, and on another line connecting to theEastside of the city-centre.[18] There are long-term plans to extend the system across Birmingham and the West Midlands. 3 new lines toBrierley Hill,Digbeth andBirmingham Airport are under construction. With more lines receiving £1.7bn in funding toWalsall,Stourbridge,Quinton,Wednesfield,Solihull andNew Cross Hospital that are currently in development / planning.[19]
Birmingham Corporation Tramways operated a network oftramways inBirmingham from 1904 until 1953. It was the largestnarrow-gauge tramway network in the UK, and was built to a gauge of3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm). It was the fourth largest tramway network in the UK behindLondon,Glasgow andManchester.
In the early 1950s, the government planned to protect essential communications by building a series of hardened underground telephone exchanges. Construction of the Anchor exchange in Birmingham started in 1953 with a cover story that a new underground rail network was being built. Work progressed until 1956 when the public were told the project was no longer economic;[20] instead Birmingham got its underpasses through the city to help relieve congestion. An underground exchange and tunnel system 100 ft belowNewhall Street had been completed at a cost £4 million. The main tunnel runs from Anchor to Midland ATE in Hill Street, from there the tunnel continued under New Street Station and on to the exchange in Essex Street.[20]
More recently, theConservative–Lib-Dem coalition running Birmingham City Council proposed an underground system as an alternative to expansion of the Midland Metro.[21] A£150,000 feasibility study[22] was conducted, looking at the benefits and drawbacks of a state-of-the-art, £3 billion underground system serving the city.[23] Upon the outcome of the report, the city council backed plans for a street metro system.[24]
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Birmingham has a wide bus network. 84% of public transport use in the West Midlands is by bus.[25] There are approximately 50 operators of registered local bus services in the West Midlands. The largest bus operator in the area isNational Express West Midlands, which accounts for over 80% of all journeys. The company changed its name from Travel West Midlands in 2008 as a part ofNational Express' re-branding. National Express West Midlands operates a large network based on a range of services radiating out of Birmingham City Centre and theroute 11 bus service, the longest urban bus service in Europe[26] which chiefly follows theA4040 circular road.
Most of the network is operated on a commercial basis, with some services (usually evenings and Sundays) supported by TfWM. Smaller operators provide a range of services, either in competition withNational Express West Midlands or under contract to TfWM. These includeDiamond West Midlands and The Green Bus. Medium distance bus services from Birmingham includeFirst Midland Red operating services toWorcester andRedditch.Arriva Midlands operates services toTamworth and Kingsbury inStaffordshire.Johnsons Coach & Bus Travel operate longer distance bus services from the south of the conurbation such as the 20 toStratford-upon-Avon and the 150/X50 toRedditch.
Despite the large number of buses serving Birmingham City Centre there is no longer a bus station. Instead buses terminate at bus stops on roads surrounding the city centre which are given codes assigned by area (e.g. Moor Street Interchange = MS*).[27] The airport can also be reached via an express bus service fromColeshill Parkway station, on theBirmingham to Peterborough Line which run four times per hour and take around fifteen minutes. Alternatively,National Express Coventry runs a regular bus service from the City Centre. The number X1 from Moor Street Queensway toCoventry runs via the airport and theNational Exhibition Centre.
Birmingham is also a major hub in theNational Express coach network, whose headquarters are in Birmingham. The group operates services from its hub atBirmingham coach station, a new coach station on the site of the former Digbeth coach station. A temporary coach station was located in nearby Oxford Street whilst building work was undertaken.[28] The company's flagship NXL Shuttle service operates services to London with frequent services to all major airports and cities in Britain. Many of these are cross-country services operating from north to south, for which Birmingham provides interchange facilities. Birmingham is also served byMegabus coaches that stop at Brunel Street, west ofNew Street station.
TheM40 motorway connects to London viaOxford. TheM6 motorway also connects Birmingham to London (via theM1) and the south, and the north-west of England and Scotland. Junction 6 of the M6 is also one of Birmingham's landmarks, and probably the most notable motorway junction in the UK,Spaghetti Junction, which is officially called the Gravelly Hill Interchange. Other motorways are:
Birmingham, unlike London andManchester, does not have a single orbital motorway. Instead, three motorways form a box which surrounds most of the city. These are:
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Other major roads passing through Birmingham include:
Birmingham introduced aClean Air Zone on 1 June 2021, which charges polluting vehicles to travel into the city centre (all roads within the A4540 ring road).[29][30] Poor air quality kills around 900 people a year in Birmingham and the government has ordered the city to reduce pollution. The daily charge is £8 for petrol cars built before 2006 and diesel cars built before 2015, and £50 for lorries and coaches.[29] The money is used to improve public transport.[31]
Sustrans' National Cycle Route 5 goes through central Birmingham, connecting with National Cycle Route 81 at Smethwick. National Cycle Route 535 fromSutton Coldfield terminates just north ofBirmingham Snow Hill railway station.
In 2021, Transport for West Midlands launched a cycle hire scheme involving over 300 bikes and 43 docking stations across the West Midlands, including central Birmingham.[32] Dedicated cycling infrastructure remains relatively scarce in suburban areas of Birmingham.
Birmingham's firstairport wasCastle Bromwich Aerodrome, which operated from 1909 to 1958. Another opened as Elmdon Airport on 8 July 1939 and continues to operate, asBirmingham Airport. Aheliport,Hay Mills Rotor Station, operated passenger services to London from 1951 to 1952, with freight flights continuing until 1954. Another operated adjacent toBaskerville House in the 1950s.
Birmingham is served byBirmingham Airport in theBorough of Solihull to the east of Birmingham, which is theseventh-busiest (2013) by passenger traffic in the UK. The airport is served by the railway network atBirmingham International railway station, nearby in the same Borough. The airport and railway station are linked by the 585 m (1,919 ft)AirRail Link, originally aMaglev system, since converted to a cable-hauled SkyRail people mover. Train services are provided byAvanti West Coast,CrossCountry,Transport for Wales andWest Midlands Trains.
Bus services operate from the airport toColeshill Parkway railway station on theBirmingham –Leicester railway line. This link improves access to theEast Midlands as well as providing further links to NorthWarwickshire and South-eastStaffordshire.
The airport has two major bus services running into Birmingham: the X1 (Birmingham – Airport – Coventry), which operates 24 hours a day and X12 bus (Birmingham - Chelmsley Wood– Airport – Solihull).[33] The majority of bus services from the airport are run byNational Express West Midlands (formerly known as Travel West Midlands) with otherWarwickshire-funded services such as the 75.
Birmingham's canal network was built during theIndustrial Revolution to transport heavy goods and the city remains at the hub of the country's canal network. Canals run for 35 miles (56 km) within the city, of which most are still navigable. Birmingham is often lauded as having more miles of canal thanVenice, true by a margin of 9 miles (14 km). Birmingham however includes many semi-urban parts and is a far larger city than Venice making for a much lower canal density (concentration).[34] The type of waterway is inland providing the main access to few properties.[34] This contrasts to Venice's broad coastal canals providing the main means of access, surrounded by a lagoon of theAdriatic Sea.[34] By water volume (taking into account depths), Birmingham has more cubic metres of water in its canals than any other city in the world.
Extensive regeneration of canals has taken place since the 1980s, includingdredging to enable the smooth passage ofnarrowboats, reconstruction and construction of canalside housing. 2010s developments include theEastside area ofDigbeth and the area withinIcknield Port Loop.
Canals in Birmingham include:
Birmingham has reservoirs to feed its canals, including:
There are no navigable rivers: theRea, on which the city was founded, is little more than a culverted stream, and theTame, which passes through some northern suburbs, is not navigable. TheRiver Cole, which runs through the south-east of the city through to the north-west, is too shallow for anything bigger than a raft.
 | This section needs to beupdated. The reason given is: Statistics are over years old. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(December 2024) |
As of 2022, the public of opinion of buses has decreased drastically. The chief complaint is personal safety, punctuality and value for money. Buses travelled over 110 million miles in that year.[35] 4.8 million people used trams that year, a 41% increase on the year before. Furthermore, plans have been made to expand the single line to a large network.[36] The train stations with the highest occupancy are Dorridge and Lea Hall, at 82.1% and 81.9% respectively.[37] Through 2024 new electric trains are being brought into service on the Wolverhampton-Walsall (via Birmingham) route, and Cross City line, to replace the previous electric trains. The new trains offer a 2+2 seating layout instead of the previous 3+2 seating layout.[38]
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