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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, 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 Virgin Trains services along the Trent Valley line between London Euston and the North West
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 By 1995 the last of the old trains had been withdrawn, having been replaced by the current Class 323 electrical multiple units.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 (between Four Oaks and Butler's Lane), Raddlebarn Road (between Bournville and Selly Oak, to serve Selly Oak Hospital), and Wychall (between Northfield and King's Norton). More ambitious plans include 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).

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 Sumulator (MSTS)
There is also a highly detailed reproduction of the part between Redditch and Birmingham New Street for the free train simulator BVE: