Cross-City Line

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Legend Freight line to Burton upon Trent Lichfield Trent Valley for West Coast Main Line Lichfield City M6 Toll motorway Anglesey Sidings freight terminal South Staffordshire Line to Walsall (track lifted 1985) Shenstone Limit of Centro operated area Blake Street Butlers Lane Four Oaks Sutton Park Line Sutton Coldfield tunnel Sutton Coldfield Wylde Green Chester Road Erdington Gravelly Hill M6 motorway (Spaghetti Junction) Chase Line to Walsall Aston To Birmingham International Windsor Street Goods Station Duddeston Birmingham to Peterborough Line Rugby-Birmingham-Stafford Line to Birmingham International Camp Hill Line Curzon Street Birmingham New Street for all destinations Rugby-Birmingham-Stafford Line to Wolverhampton Central Goods Granville Street Five Ways Church Road Church Road Tunnel Somerset Road University Selly Oak Bournville Camp Hill Line Kings Norton Northfield Longbridge Former line to Halesowen (closed 1960) Limit of Centro operated area Barnt Green M42 motorway to Bromsgrove on Cross Country Route Alvechurch Redditch former line to Alcester (closed 1962) - Centro free car parking - Other car parking

The Cross-City Line is a suburban railway line in the West Midlands region of England. It runs from Redditch, Worcestershire, its southern terminus, to Lichfield, Staffordshire, its northern terminus, via Birmingham New Street, and services on the line are currently operated by London Midland.

History

The line as it is now came into being in the late 1970s, and was formed out of the former Midland Railway line between Redditch and Birmingham via Selly Oak and the London and North Western Railway Line between Birmingham and Lichfield. It was opened on the 8 May 1978 and included the re-opening of Five Ways station and a new station to serve the University of Birmingham; many of the other stations were rebuilt at the same time.

The route was electrified in the early 1990s, beginning in 1991 and completed on the 6 June 1993. Redditch station was rebuilt at this time.

Route description

The cities, towns and villages served by the line are listed below.

• Lichfield Trent Valley - on the outskirts of Lichfield, with connections to London Midland services along the Trent Valley line between London Euston and Crewe
• Lichfield City - in central Lichfield
• Shenstone
• Blake Street
• Butlers Lane
• Four Oaks
• Sutton Coldfield
• Wylde Green
• Chester Road
• Erdington
• Gravelly Hill
• Aston - the Walsall Line diverges here
• Duddeston
• Birmingham New Street
• Five Ways
• University of Birmingham
• Selly Oak
• Bournville
• Kings Norton
• Northfield
• Longbridge
• Barnt Green - branches off the main line to Cheltenham here.
• Alvechurch
• Redditch

Services

For many years, passenger services on the line were worked by elderly Class 108, 115, 116, 117, 118 and 121 diesel multiple units. However, by the early 1990s these trains were becoming increasingly unreliable, so new trains were built to coincide with the electrification of the route in 1993. By 1995 the last of the old trains had been withdrawn, having been replaced by the current Class 323 electrical multiple units. Services are currently operated by London Midland on behalf of Centro.

Current daytime service levels are:

• between Redditch and Longbridge: 2 trains per hour
• between Longbridge and Four Oaks: 6 trains per hour
• between Four Oaks and Lichfield City: 4 trains per hour
• between Lichfield City and Lichfield Trent Valley: 2 trains per hour

Future

There are long-standing proposals for improvements to the line. Extra stations have been proposed for Mere Green^{[citation needed]} (between Four Oaks and Butler's Lane), Raddlebarn Road^{[citation needed]} (between Bournville and Selly Oak, to serve Selly Oak Hospital), and Wychall^{[citation needed]} (between Northfield and King's Norton). More ambitious plans include the re-opening of a short spur south of Longbridge to Rubery and Frankley^[1] and the re-introduction of local trains on the Camp Hill Line^[2] (effectively a loop between Birmingham New Street and King's Norton).

There are also plans for the introduction of a passing loop at Alvechurch to allow 3 trains per hour to Redditch. Currently, the line is single-track between Barnt Green and Redditch and so it is impossible to have more than 2 trains per hour. If services are delayed, then the trains may miss out stations between Birmingham New Street and Longbridge to make up time, or the service may be curtailed at Barnt Green to prevent a knock-on effect to other services.

Nevertheless, the line's main problem is capacity on its central section. The long term aspiration is for dedicated tunnels through central Birmingham: this would either take the form of new bored tunnels (favoured by the SRA) or a re-opening of Birmingham Curzon Street Station to allow two of the existing four tunnels to be used for local trains only (formerly favoured by Central Trains). With the current funding problems on Britain's railways, it is unlikely that the Cross-City Line will see any improvement.

Media

• There was a highly publicised opening ceremony to celebrate the electrification and service enhancement at Redditch in 1993.
• In the same year Video 125 released a video of a driver's eye view of the recently electrified line, narrated by Kay Alexander. It is interesting to note on the video near Lichfield the use of an elderly Class 310 unit on the opposite direction service - this was due to not all 323 units being in traffic in time for the new services starting.
• There is a highly detailed reproduction of the Cross City Line (Redditch to Lichfield Trent Valley) available on Microsoft Train Simulator (MSTS)
• There is also a highly detailed reproduction of the part between Redditch and Birmingham New Street for the free train simulators BVE and OpenBVE^[3]

References

External links

• History of the Cross-City Line from Redditch MRC