Cross-City Line

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, connecting the suburbs of Birmingham in between. Services are operated by London Midland. The 32 mile (51 km) long route, is the busiest commuter line outside London, in 2007 it carried 8.5 million passengers.

Constituent railways
The Cross-City Line was not built as a single route; it is a combination of lines opened at different times.

The oldest section is between Duddeston (originally named Vauxhall) and Aston, which was part of the Grand Junction Railway from Birmingham to Earlestown, opened in 1837. This was extended towards the centre of Birmingham, at Curzon Street, the following year, and into Birmingham New Street in 1854. The line from Aston to Sutton Coldfield was opened in 1862, and extended to Lichfield City in 1884, where it connected with the South Staffordshire Line between Walsall and Lichfield Trent Valley, which had opened in 1849.

On the south side of the city, the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway had opened in 1841, linking to Curzon Street via the Camp Hill Line. The branch line from Barnt Green to Redditch followed in 1859. The Birmingham West Suburban Railway, taking the route of the Cross-City Line between Kings Norton and Birmingham New Street, opened in 1876.

These lines from Birmingham to Barnt Green were operated by the Midland Railway and the line to Lichfield was operated by the London and North Western Railway, so there were no through services. This continued despite the Grouping of the LNW and Midland Railways to form the London Midland and Scottish Railway in 1921, and subsequent nationalisation to form British Railways.

Consolidated route
The Cross City line in its modern form came into existence in 1978, as a project of the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive (WMPTE) The £7.4 million Cross City line project was sanctioned in May 1975 and launched on 8 May 1978. It involved consolidating the services into Birmingham from north and south into a single through service, and the re-opening of Five Ways station (the original had closed in the 1940s), and new stations to serve the University of Birmingham and Longbridge (the original station at Longbridge was on the branch line to Halesowen and Old Hill) several of the other stations were rebuilt at the same time. Of the new stations the only one to be officially opened was University which the then Secretary of State for Transport William Rodgers MP formally opened on 8 May 1978. There is a plaque on platform 2 marking this occasion.

Services initially ran on a 15 minute frequency between Longbridge and Four Oaks via Birmingham New Street, using refurbished Class 116 Diesel Multiple Units. Services were extended to Redditch in 1980, initially on an hourly frequency, but the service proved popular, and was eventually increased to half hourly. On 28 November 1988, services were extended to terminate at the high level platforms of Lichfield Trent Valley.

Electrification
The route was electrified between 1991 and 6 June 1993. The decision to electrify was made on 7 February 1990 by the then Transport Minister Cecil Parkinson during the campaign for a by-election in the Mid Staffordshire constituency. Redditch, Alvechurch, Aston and Blake Street stations were rebuilt at this time. A number of other stations including Barnt Green were extensively modified to accommodate the new longer electric trains. A new fleet of Class 323 Electric Multiple Units were introduced to work the electrified line, and replace the elderly diesels.

Services
For many years, passenger services on the line were worked by elderly Class 108, 115, 116, 117, 118 and 121 diesel multiple units. By the early 1990s these units were becoming increasingly unreliable, and new Class 323 electrical multiple units were ordered for the electrification of the route. By 1995 the last of the old trains had been withdrawn.

Current daytime service levels are:


 * 6 trains per hour between Four Oaks and Longbridge via Birmingham New Street:
 * of which two continue to Redditch
 * of which four continue to Lichfield City:
 * of which two continue to Lichfield Trent Valley

The southern half of the Cross-City line also forms part of the Cross Country Route, and some longer distance services stop at University station, including CrossCountry trains to Cardiff and London Midland service to Hereford.

Future
The line between Barnt Green and Redditch is currently single track, which restricts the service to two trains per hour. There are plans for the introduction of a passing loop at Alvechurch to allow the service to be increased to three trains per hour. Electrification will also be extended from Barnt Green to Bromsgrove station, which will be added as a southern terminus. These changes will allow three trains per hour to run to both Redditch and Bromsgrove.

There are long-standing proposals for improvements to the line including the re-opening of a short spur south of Longbridge to Rubery and Frankley and the re-introduction of local trains on the Camp Hill Line (effectively a loop between Birmingham New Street and King's Norton).

Route description
The railway stations and cities, towns and villages served by the line are listed below. A large stretch of the northern part of the line closely follows the A5127 road.
 * 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 railway station - in central Lichfield
 * Shenstone railway station in Shenstone, Staffordshire
 * Blake Street railway station in Hill Hook, Sutton Coldfield
 * Butlers Lane railway station in Northern Four Oaks
 * Four Oaks railway station in Four Oaks, Sutton Coldfield
 * Sutton Coldfield railway station in Sutton Coldfield
 * Wylde Green railway station serving in Wylde Green and Boldmere
 * Chester Road railway station serving Pype Hayes and northern Erdington
 * Erdington railway station in Erdington
 * Gravelly Hill railway station in Gravelly Hill
 * Aston railway station in Aston - the Walsall Line diverges here
 * Duddeston railway station in Duddeston
 * Birmingham New Street Station in Birmingham City Centre
 * Five Ways railway station in Five Ways, Birmingham
 * University of Birmingham in the University of Birmingham
 * Selly Oak railway station in Selly Oak
 * Bournville railway station in Bournville
 * Kings Norton railway station in Kings Norton and Cotteridge
 * Northfield railway station in Northfield, Birmingham
 * Longbridge railway station in Longbridge
 * Barnt Green railway station in Barnt Green - branches off the main line to Cheltenham here.
 * Alvechurch railway station in Alvechurch
 * Redditch railway station in Redditch

Media

 * In 1990, Railscene produced a driver's eye view of the then-diesel line, featuring the elderly rolling stock still in operation. Many features of the line have since been changed, for example, the rebuilding of Alvechurch and Redditch stations, the abolition of Lichfield City's goods sidings and closure of the Brownhills Line and the removal of the fourth platform of Lichfield Trent Valley.
 * There was a highly publicised opening ceremony to celebrate the electrification and service enhancement at Redditch in 1993.
 * In 1995, 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 available on Microsoft Train Simulator (MSTS)
 * There is a highly-detailed reproduction of the part between Redditch and Birmingham New Street for the free train simulators BVE and OpenBVE