UK: Transport for West Midlands and the West Midlands Rail Executive are to study the feasibility of and develop business cases for five proposed stations.
- Balsall Heath on the Camp Hill line in Birmingham would require construction of the Bordesley chords and extra capacity at Moor Street station, proposed as part of the Midlands Rail Hub project;
- Coventry East (Binley) on the main line between Coventry and Rugby, which will benefit from the release of more capacity for local services following completion of High Speed 2;
- Foleshill on the Coventry - Nuneaton line;
- Castle Bromwich, which would benefit from the greater capacity into central Birmingham which would be provided under the Midlands Rail Hub;
- Tettenhall, west of Wolverhampton on the line to Shrewsbury. Wolverhampton municipality and South Staffordshire District and Staffordshire County councils have also looked at the case for a station at Brinsford, and as the sites are close, the business cases for the two will be considered together.
The five proposals have been selected from a long-list of 15 following an initial feasibility study. Funding from the West Midlands City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement has been allocated for the development of business cases which could be used to secure government funding for design and construction.
The West Midlands Combined Authority said planning for three of the stations needs to be undertaken now so that they could be ready to open with High Speed 2 and aligned with completion of the Midlands Rail Hub project to increase capacity into central Birmingham.
Stations in the TfWM are are currently being built at Moseley Village, Kings Heath, Pineapple Road, Darlaston and Willenhall, and funding has been allocated for a station at Aldridge.
‘Alongside these projects now underway, we’re turning our attention to the next set of stations and these five are a good place to start’, said Mayor of the West Midlands and WMRE Chair Andy Street on February 28.
