Cross-City Line

The Cross-City Line is a suburban rail line in the West Midlands region of England. It runs for from Redditch and Bromsgrove in Worcestershire, its two southern termini, to Lichfield, Staffordshire, its northern terminus, via , connecting the suburbs of Birmingham in between. Services are operated by West Midlands Railway.

Cross-City Line services began in 1978, as a project of the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive (WMPTE) to improve local rail services. It made use of pre-existing railways lines, which previously did not have any through services. Services were extended to in 1980, and to in 1988. The route was electrified in 1993. In 2018, services were extended to , which was added as a second southern terminus.

History

Constituent railways

What is now the Cross-City Line was not built as a single route; it is a combination of lines opened by different companies at different times between 1837 and 1885.

On the northern half of the route (Birmingham–Lichfield):

The oldest section is between (originally named Vauxhall) and , which was part of the Grand Junction Railway from Birmingham to , 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 was opened by the London and North Western Railway in 1862,) and new stations to serve the University of Birmingham and (the former station at Longbridge was on the branch line to Halesowen and Old Hill). Most of the other stations on the southern half of the route were rebuilt at the same time, and improvements were made to signalling and junctions. Of the new stations, the only one to be officially opened was University, which the then Secretary of State for Transport Bill Rodgers MP formally opened on 8 May 1978. There is a plaque on platform 2 marking this occasion.

1980s developments

Services were extended to in 1980, initially on an hourly frequency, increased to half-hourly in 1989. The service to Lichfield City was increased to half hourly in 1986, and on 28 November 1988, some services were extended to terminate at the re-opened high level platforms of .

1990s: Electrification

thumb|[[London Midland arriving at in 2009]]

By the late-1980s, the elderly diesels operating the service were becoming increasingly unreliable, and the WMPTE (now reorganised as Transport for West Midlands, formerly Centro) pressed for electrification. The decision to electrify the line 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. The line between Barnt Green and Redditch was closed for eight weeks for the works to be carried out, and was reopened on 1 September 2014. The improved service began in December 2014.

Electrification was also extended from Barnt Green to Bromsgrove station, which was rebuilt in 2016 and was added as a second southern terminus once electrification was completed in August 2018. These changes allowed three trains per hour to run to both Redditch and Bromsgrove.

Three of the ten new trains that London Midland introduced in 2014 displaced Class 323s on other routes in the West Midlands to enable an increase in capacity between Longbridge and Redditch, and the extension of all remaining Longbridge trains to Bromsgrove after electrification. Class 350s are not currently authorised to be used on the Cross City Line.

Post-pandemic the Cross-City Line weekday service has been reduced from 6 to 4 trains per hour in each direction usually operated by two sets of s, forming 6 cars. 6 trains per hour are expected to be reintroduced as part of Midlands Rail Hub. The were finally withdrawn from the line after 30 years of service, on 27 September 2024.

As part of the new West Midlands Trains franchise, they were replaced by Aventras.

Current services

In the December 2024 timetable, the off-peak weekday and Saturday service on the core section of the line between and comprises four West Midlands Railway trains per hour in each direction. Two northbound trains per hour continue from Four Oaks to while two southbound trains per hour continue from to , and the other two southbound trains per hour continue to .

The service consists of:

2tph from to
2tph from to

Between and , the Cross-City Line is contiguous with the Cross Country Route. Some longer distance services stop at , including CrossCountry trains to and West Midlands Railway trains to .

Tracks are also shared with the Chase Line between and .

Future

In October 2018, as part of a 30-year strategy of Transport in the West Midlands several proposals were put forward. By 2034, there would be longer trains, electrification of the line from to allowing 2 services per hour to be extended to via a newly reopened . Beyond 2034, it was proposed that new semi-fast service could serve more larger stations.

There is also a single tracked mothballed line to the former Anglesey Sidings which was in use until 2001. The line remains in situ but rusty beyond repair. There is a possibility that the line which connected to Walsall from Lichfield via Brownhills and Pelsall could reopen as Mayor of the West Midlands Andy Street promised to look and make the reopening of the line feasible. West Midlands Combined Authority also released a plan for the line as part of a 10-year transport plan called the 2026 Delivery for Transport.

Passenger volume

In 2021–22, the Cross-City Line's 24 stations (excluding New Street) had combined passenger numbers of 12.4 million, The busiest station on the route besides Birmingham New Street is , with 3.05 million passenger entries and exits, and the least busy station is with 151,042 passenger entries and exits in 2023/24.

Route description

thumb|Diagram of route

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

– on the outskirts of Lichfield, with connections to London Northwestern Railway services along the Trent Valley line between London Euston and
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 Four Oaks
Four Oaks railway station in Four Oaks, Sutton Coldfield
Sutton Coldfield railway station in Sutton Coldfield
Wylde Green railway station serving Wylde Green and Boldmere
Chester Road railway station Pype Hayes, Erdington and Wylde Green
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 railway station in Birmingham City Centre
Five Ways railway station in Five Ways, Birmingham
University railway station serving the University of Birmingham and Queen Elizabeth Hospital
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
Bromsgrove railway station in Bromsgrove

A large stretch of the northern part of the line closely follows the A5127 road.

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. On the video near Lichfield an elderly Class 304 unit is used on the opposite direction service – this was due to not all 323 units being in traffic in time for the new services starting.
A full replica of the Cross-City line was released for the Train Simulator franchise in March 2021 and on Train Sim World 3 in November 2022 by Dovetail Games, both featuring the Class 323.
There is a highly detailed reproduction of the part between Redditch and Birmingham New Street for the free train simulators BVE and OpenBVE.