Birmingham New Street, also known as New Street station, is the largest and busiest of the three main railway stations in Birmingham city centre, England. It is a central hub of the British railway system. The station is a major destination for Avanti West Coast services from , , and , and West Midlands Trains services from and London Euston both via the West Coast Main Line. The CrossCountry network centres on New Street, as well as local and suburban services within the West Midlands; these include those on the Cross-City Line between , and , the Chase Line to and , and the Camp Hill line to . The three-letter station code is BHM.
The station is named after New Street, which runs parallel to it, although the station has never had a direct entrance from New Street except via the Grand Central shopping centre. Historically, the main entrance was on Stephenson Street, just off New Street. As of 2022, the station has entrances on Stephenson Street, Smallbrook Queensway, Hill Street and Navigation Street.
New Street is the thirteenth busiest railway station in the UK and the busiest outside London, with 36.6 million passenger entries and exits between April 2024 and March 2025. It is also the busiest interchange station outside London, with over 5 million passengers changing trains there annually. In 2018, New Street had a passenger satisfaction rating of 92%, the third highest in the UK.
The original New Street station opened in 1854. At the time of its construction, the station had the largest single-span arched roof in the world. In the 1960s, the station was completely rebuilt. An enclosed station, with buildings over most of its span and passenger numbers more than twice those for which it was designed, the replacement was not popular with its users. A £550m redevelopment of the station named Gateway Plus opened in September 2015; it includes a new concourse, a new exterior facade and a new entrance on Stephenson Street.
History The first railway stations
New Street station was built in central Birmingham by the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) between 1846 and 1854, on the site of several streets in a marshy area known as "The Froggery"; it replaced several earlier rail termini on the outskirts of the centre, most notably Curzon Street, which had opened in 1838 and was no longer adequate for the level of traffic. Samuel Carter, solicitor to both LNWR and the Midland Railway, managed the conveyancing.
The LNWR originally shared the station with the Midland Railway; however, in 1885, the Midland Railway opened its own extension alongside the original station, effectively creating two stations side by side. The two companies' stations were separated by a central roadway, Queens Drive. Traffic grew steadily and, by 1900, New Street had an average of 40 trains an hour departing and arriving, rising to 53 trains in the peak hours.
Original LNWR station
In 1846, the LNWR had obtained an act of Parliament, the (9 & 10 Vict. c. ccclix), to extend their line into the centre of Birmingham, which involved the acquisition of some of land and the demolition of around 70 houses in Peck Lane, The Froggery, Queen Street and Colmore Street.Aris's Birmingham Gazette, 16 February 1850. The Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion chapel, on the corner of Peck Lane and Dudley Street, which had only been built six years before,It had been opened on Tuesday, 16 May 1843. Aris's Birmingham Gazette, 20 November 1848. was also demolished.Aris's Birmingham Gazette, 20 November 1848. The station was formally opened on 1 June 1854, although the uncompleted station had already been in use for two years as a terminus for trains from the Stour Valley Line, which entered the station from the Wolverhampton direction. On the formal opening day, the LNWR's Curzon Street station was closed to regular passenger services and trains from the London direction started using New Street.
The station was constructed by Messrs. Fox, Henderson & Co. and designed by Edward Alfred Cowper of that firm, who had previously worked on the design of the Crystal Palace. When completed, New Street had the largest arched single-span iron and glass roof in the world, spanning a width of and being long. It held this title for 14 years until St Pancras station opened in 1868. It was originally intended to have three spans, supported by columns; however, it was soon realised that the columns would severely restrict the railway's operations. Cowper's single-span design, was therefore adopted, even though it was some 62 feet (19 metres) wider than the widest roof span at that time. George Gilbert Scott praised Cowper's roof at New Street, stating "An iron roof in its most normal condition is too spider-like a structure to be handsome, but with a very little attention this defect is obviated. The most wonderful specimen, probably, is that at the great Birmingham Station…" When first opened, New Street was described as the "Grand Central Station at Birmingham" by Richard Foster.
The internal layout of tracks and platforms was designed by Robert Stephenson and his assistants; the station contained a total of nine platforms, comprising four through and five bay platforms. The main entrance building on Stephenson Street incorporated Queens Hotel, designed by John William Livock, which was opened on the same day. It was built in an Italianate style and was originally provided with 60 rooms. The hotel was expanded several times over the years and reached its final form in 1917, with the addition of a new west wing. The scale of the station at this time was documented in the station's entry in the 1863 edition of Bradshaw's Guide:
The roof of the original station was strengthened with additional steel tie bars during 1906–07, as a precaution following the collapse of a similar roof which killed six people at Charing Cross station in 1905.
Midland Railway extension
Midland Railway trains that had used Curzon Street began to use New Street from 1854; however, its use by the Midland Railway was limited by the fact that those trains going between Derby and Bristol would have to reverse, so many trains bypassed New Street and ran through Camp Hill. This was remedied in 1885, when a new link to the south, the Birmingham West Suburban Railway, was extended into New Street, which allowed through trains to and from the south-west to run via New Street without reversing.
To cope with the increase in traffic that this would bring, the station required an extension; the construction of which began in 1881. A number of buildings, mostly along Dudley Street, were demolished to make room for it, including a number of cottages, some business premises and a small church. Built immediately to the south of the original station, the extension contained four through platforms and one bay. It consisted of a trainshed with a glass and steel roof comprising two trussed arches, wide by long, and wide by long. It was designed by Francis Stevenson, chief engineer to the LNWR. The extension was opened on 8 February 1885. On completion, New Street had nearly doubled in size and became one of the largest stations in Britain, covering an area of over .
In early 1885, the number of daily users of the station was surveyed. On a Thursday, the number was 22,452 and on a Saturday it was 25,334.
Initially, the extension was used by both the LNWR and Midland Railway but, from 1889, it was only used by Midland Railway trains. It was separated from the original LNWR trainshed by Queens Drive, which became a central carriageway, but the two were linked by a footbridge which ran over Queens Drive and across the entire width of both the LNWR and Midland stations. Queens Drive was lost in the 1960s rebuild, but the name was later carried by a new driveway, which served the car park and a tower block, and is now the access route for the station's taxis.
On 1 February 1910, the LNWR introduced a City to City service between New Street and Broad Street, in the City of London. The service only lasted for five years, before being withdrawn on 22 February 1915, as a result of the First World War.
LMS and British Rail
In 1923, the LNWR and Midland Railway, with others, were grouped into the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) by the Railways Act 1921. In 1948, the railways were nationalised and came under the control of British Railways.
During the Second World War, Cowper's roof sustained extensive bomb damage as a result of air raids during the Birmingham Blitz. After the war, the remains of the roof were dismantled after being deemed beyond economic repair. It was replaced with austere canopies over the platforms, made from surplus war materials, which remained in use until the station was rebuilt in the 1960s.
1960s rebuild The station was completely rebuilt in the 1960s, as part of the modernisation programme for the West Coast Main Line. Demolition of the old station and Queens Hotel began in 1964 and was not completed until 1966. The rebuilt New Street station was opened on 6 March 1967 to coincide with the introduction of electric expresses on the West Coast Main Line. It cost £4.5 million to build ().
The new station was designed by Kenneth J. Davies, lead planner for British Rail's London Midland Region. Twelve through platforms replaced the eight through and six bay platforms of the previous station. The platforms were covered over by a concrete deck, supported by 200 columns, upon which the concourse and other buildings were constructed. Escalators, stairs and lifts were provided to reach the platforms from the concourse. The new station had sold its air rights, leading to the construction of the Pallasades Shopping Centre (then known as the Birmingham Shopping Centre) above the station between 1968 and 1970. The public right of way across the station, which had previously been maintained by the station footbridge, was retained in the new station via a winding route through the shopping centre. The station and the Pallasades were partly integrated with the Bullring Shopping Centre via elevated walkways above Smallbrook Queensway.
Also above the station was a nine-storey office block called Ladywood House, and a multi-storey car park dating from the 1970s. The car park closed in May 2012; it was demolished to provide space for the new concourse and was rebuilt. Stephenson Tower, a 20-storey residential tower block, was built alongside the station between 1965 and 1966. The tower, designed by the City Architect of Birmingham, was demolished in March 2012 as part of the station redevelopment.
In 1987, twelve different horse sculptures by Kevin Atherton, titled Iron Horse, were erected between New Street station and Wolverhampton at a cost of £12,000. One stands on platform 7 at New Street.
Due to its enclosed sub-surface platforms, New Street was designated as an underground station by the fire service. In the 1990s, a number of changes had to be made to the station in order to comply with stricter fire regulations, introduced for underground stations as a result of the 1987 King's Cross fire. In 1993, a new enclosed footbridge was opened at the Wolverhampton end of the station, with access to the platforms separate from the main building; this was built primarily as a fire exit, but the new exit from the station into Navigation Street was opened to the public. All wooden fittings were removed from the platforms and new fire doors were also installed at the foot of the stairs and elevators on the platforms.