Kings Norton railway station

Kings Norton railway station serves the Kings Norton and Cotteridge areas of Birmingham, England. It lies on Cross-City Line from Redditch through Birmingham New Street to Lichfield. The station's main entrance is located on Pershore Road South, the A441.

History
The current Kings Norton station is the second station to be built in the Kings Norton area. The original Lifford railway station (the first of three stations to bear the Lifford name) was first built on what is now the Camp Hill Line ).

Opening in 1849, Kings Norton was developed as part of the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway's line to Curzon Street via the Camp Hill Line. The platforms were extended in length in 1892 with the extension of the Midland Railway's Birmingham West Suburban Railway. This enabled the construction of a large coal and goods yard with sidings for the adjacent Triplex factory. In the mid 1920s, two additional lines and platforms were added - opening to traffic on 14 March 1926. Stations on the Camp Hill Line were closed to Passenger Traffic from January 1941, although passenger trains continued to use the line and stop at Kings Norton Station

Today
With the development of both bus and tram services, the need for such a large facility reduced from the 1930s onwards. The result is that today although all four platforms all remain in place, only the outer two remain in passenger use, with the middle island platform now derelict.

Refurbished as part of the Cross-City line in 1978, it retained some of its original features following refurbishment, unlike the other 'cross city line' stations. The original station building survived, leased out for commercial purposes, until it was demolished in February 2006 for safety reasons. An extension car park provides a Park and Ride facility.

Kings Norton is served by London Midland services, using Class 323 electric multiple units. London Midland operate the Cross-City line on behalf of Centro.

Kings Norton Station is equipped with real-time information departure boards which were installed in 2006 by Central Trains.

Disabled access
There is step-free access to platform 1 (for trains towards ) from the ticket office entrance. Step-free access to platform 4 (for trains towards ) is via the Pershore Road South road bridge and the car park.

Future
Kings Norton Station could see refurbishment of the island platform for passenger use, should the proposal to reopen the Camp Hill Line progress. This could see the introduction of 3 (possibly 4) trains per hour between Kings Norton and. Only the two outer railway lines at Kings Norton are electrified fully (platform 3 is electrified but as a terminal point only), however the type of cantilever used on the platform means the lines can quite easily be fully electrified should the Camp Hill Line reopen for passenger traffic, though the track layout will need amending.

In the media
Kings Norton Station has been used, along with many other areas of Birmingham, as a location in the BBC daily serial Doctors (for example in an episode first broadcast on the 9th November 2011).