West Midlands 30-year Rail Strategy: 2018-47

[Jorge Da Silva]

The new 30 year strategy for the West Midlands has been published and is up for consultation. It is very interesting to see what is being proposed from 2018 to 2047.

http://wmre.org.uk/media/10731/west-midlands-rail-report_final_11082018.pdf

Up to 2025 before HS2
Short Term Strategy

• Train lengthening
• New cross-Birmingham links and through journeys to London
• New Crewe-Stoke- Birmingham service
• Frequency increases:
• Coventry-Nuneaton
• Shrewsbury Line
• Improved evening and Sunday services
• Train lengthening
• Improved evening and Sunday services
• Consideration of new connectivity options for Brierley Hill and West Midlands
Safari Park
• Snow Hill Station regeneration
• Train lengthening
• Introduction of local passenger services and stations on Camp Hill line
• Worcestershire Parkway new station
• Improved Sunday and evening services
• Worcester to Birmingham frequency uplift
• University Station regeneration
• Train lengthening
• New through services to London and Birmingham International
• Improved Sunday and evening services
• New stations at Willenhall and Darlaston
• New Wolverhampton to Walsall /Birmingham service via Willenhall
• Perry Barr regeneration for supporting Commonwealth Games
• Train lengthening and new trains
• Improved Sunday and evening services
• Enhanced
frequency to Lichfield Trent Valley
• Train lengthening
• Faster services between Stafford
and Crewe
• Improved evening and Sunday services

2026 to 2033 HS2
Phase 1 and Phase 2 Midlands Rail Hub
Indicative Medium- Term Strategy:

• Timetable improvements post HS2
• Reading-Newcastle service to serve Coventry and Birmingham International
• New Euston – Coventry – Trent Valley service
• Shrewsbury to London service improvements
• Coventry to Leamington service enhancements
• Additional Birmingham to Leicester local services
• New Birmingham to Burton-on-Trent local services
• Nottingham to Birmingham frequency increases and faster journeys
• New stations Castle Bromwich and Fort Parkway
• Frequency enhancements to Stratford, Dorridge, Rowley Regis and Whitlocks End services
• London/Oxford to Worcester (North Cotswold Line) frequency enhancements
• Camp Hill line frequency
enhancements
• Frequency enhancements
• New station and services to Aldridge
• Extension of Chase Line services to Stafford
• New station at Alrewas
• Extension of services from Lichfield to Burton-on-Trent
• New Euston – Coventry – Trent Valley service providing frequency uplift and new journey opportunities

2034 to 2047 Post HS2
Aspirational Long-term strategy

• Higher frequency Wolverhampton to Birmingham International local service
• Coventry to Leicester direct service
• Sutton Park line new stations and services
• Further new stations and frequency enhancements
• New Birmingham to Oxford via Solihull services
• Further frequency enhancements
• Hereford to Birmingham and London frequency enhancements
• Redditch frequency enhancements
• New Worcester suburban stations
• New regional services on Birmingham to Bristol corridor
• Further frequency enhancements
• Frequency enhancements including semi-fast services
•

 

[tbtc]

I'm sure someone will say that a lot of this has already been discussed, but (as someone from outside the area) it's very interesting to read.

Some places get a big leap forward (Burton gets a second and third route to Birmingham, Shrewsbury gets an hourly London service, Hednesford/ Leicester/ Shrewsbury get four trains per hour into Birmingham, Leicester regains a direct Coventry service, five trains per hour from Cheltenham to Birmingham...), Rugeley Trent Valley to Stafford becomes four per hour, the existing Cross City Line stations don't seem to see much (but it explains that they already get a good service and that improvements on parallel routes will improve demand levels).

Okay, there's the small matter of paying for it (and waiting for HS2 to be built to free up all of this lovely local capacity...) but it looks nice - and some lovely pictures - credit to whoever took/chose those - I guess one other thing to point out is that there doesn't seem to be an unnecessary "sop" to a "left behind" area (in the way that sometimes these aspirational reports feel the need to be seen to throw some money at a fringe area just so they can reject the claims that money is only being spent on the "core" area - all of the projects and improvements look pretty necessary to me - I've not spotted any white elephants (though others may feel that they exist?). Other than Worcestershire Parkway - but it's a bit late to start cancelling that now!

 

[adrock1976]

As this relates to my original neck of the woods, I will be having a read of the linked report and may comment in due course once I have digested what the contents are.

EDIT: I have noticed on the opening page that there is an image of what was my local station (Cradley Heath, as the station sign is fuzzy) when I used to be in the West Midlands.

 

[Class 170101]

I don't see where you could terminate at Burton and feel it would be better if the service was extended to Derby. I would also look to see if there is any value in extending Birmingham to Lichfield City services onwards to Derby too. (And yes electrification of those routes to Derby will be needed.)

In addition unless I have missed it there seems to be little reference to the Tram network in Birmingham. The route between Stourbridge Jn and Water Orton via Walsall and Sutton Park seems to be neglected in terms of radial routes for both frieght and potential passenger flows in the report.

 

[SoccerHQ]

Cross City line being extended to Burton eventually would be good idea I think.

Living in Sutton and having to travel up to Leeds once a month, I've always thought it would be nice to go via Lichfield rather than the hassle of changing at New Street. Do occasioningly take the quick X12 bus from Lichfield but the just made the 11.26 by a minute at Burton so quickly scrapped that idea.

Could work with a quick express service if sent out after the Four Oaks terminator, let's say Aston, Erdington, Chester Road, Sutton, Four Oaks, Blake Street, and then the two Lichfields before the ten minutes or so to Burton. 40 minutes so not too bad when you think it's generally half an hour from New Street plus the 20 + it takes from Sutton or other stations in North Brum.

 

[SoccerHQ]

I don't see where you could terminate at Burton and feel it would be better if the service was extended to Derby. I would also look to see if there is any value in extending Birmingham to Lichfield City services onwards to Derby too. (And yes electrification of those routes to Derby will be needed.)

In addition unless I have missed it there seems to be little reference to the Tram network in Birmingham. The route between Stourbridge Jn and Water Orton via Walsall and Sutton Park seems to be neglected in terms of radial routes for both frieght and potential passenger flows in the report.

Said it before but given there's going to be 6k + new homes at Langley built in next few years it would be the ideal time to have a feasibility study on the Sutton Park line. Plan just seems to be to dump extra traffic on the A38 and through Walmley which will work I'm sure....

 

[Bletchleyite]

Not sure what I think of a '6-4-2' TPH pattern, as that doesn't provide for proper consistent connections.

You either want to use '6-3-1' or '8-4-2' for the connections to always work.

 

[adrock1976]

WCML cross-Birmingham: There was previously a local all stations Wolverhampton - Coventry every 30 minutes (except Sundays) from circa 1990-2008 before Virgin West Coast increased the frequency of the London Euston Intercity trains from every 30 minutes to every 20 minutes. The ex Wolverhampton locals were revised to run to Walsall via Aston, with the former Network SouthEast London Euston via Northampton trains increasing in frequency to broadly every 20 minutes, taking over the local station calls between Coventry and Birmingham. A side effect is that the frequency at the local stations between Birmingham and Coventry is an uneven 20/40 minute split.

Camp Hill: These plans have been touted since I was a small child.

Wolverhampton - Walsall via Willenhall: Good to see trains reinstated as the present route via Birmingham does not encourage people to leave cars at home and use public transport. Also, there was a suggestion around 10 years ago or so that there were plans to have a 10 minute frequency between Birmingham and Walsall, with trains every 30 minutes to each of Rugeley Trent Valley, Aldridge, and Wolverhampton.

Leamington Spa - Nuneaton and Birmingham - Shrewsbury: I believe these are already being implemented in the next few years anyway.

6-4-2 Frequency: Worcester - Hereford seems weird in that the end points plus Great Malvern has 4 trains per hour, but Malvern Link, Colwall, and Ledbury have 2 trains per hour. There are single track sections west of Great Malvern, with Ledbury being a passing point. Also, Crewe - Rugby as well as Stafford, Lichfield TV, Tamworth, and Nuneaton have 4 tph, with the local stations having 2 tph - unsure if this would be 2 local trains and 2 traditional Intercity trains along the Trent Valley Railway.

 

[The Planner]

Very little of it is new, Burton has been talked about for years and would involve a rebuild of the layout which is also talked about just not in that document. Some of the 6 train an hour stations aspirations would decimate long distance traffic as the lines will end up like XC on the Cross City with loads of pathing time in.

 

[DarloRich]

Is there any funding assigned to any of this wish list?

 

[TheDavibob]

Also, Crewe - Rugby as well as Stafford, Lichfield TV, Tamworth, and Nuneaton have 4 tph, with the local stations having 2 tph - unsure if this would be 2 local trains and 2 traditional Intercity trains along the Trent Valley Railway.

There are certainly plans for Lichfield TV to have 4 Cross City services an hour in the reasonably near future (though I'm not particularly sure to what benefit, as the loadings are light and they currently connect pretty well with WCML services, though it would be easy to resource), so that one's at least high-level only, and therefore I would assume the others don't include Trent Valley services also (Tamworth could easily get four from services to Birmingham if it gets the odd fast train, Nuneaton has both Coventry and Birmingham services and thus isn't far from four anyway).

I don't see where you could terminate at Burton and feel it would be better if the service was extended to Derby. I would also look to see if there is any value in extending Birmingham to Lichfield City services onwards to Derby too. (And yes electrification of those routes to Derby will be needed.)

I'll be honest, I don't quite see it being worth it. The Cross City works as a quick to accelarate, frequent stop service. Lichfield to Burton will be useful for people in Sutton and Lichfield travelling to Burton and vice versa (and indeed beyond, noted by @SoccerHQ ), but not for people from Burton going to central Birmingham. Given Burton to Derby is the same distance as Lichfield to Burton again, and entirely on mainlines, shoving a speed-limited stopper to Derby isn't really the best use of capacity: far better to have a reasonably consistent "stopper" via Tamworth. The only people who would gain from a Derby extension would be those living in Sutton and Lichfield wanting to travel to Derby itself, a much smaller pool than those to Burton (at which hopefully most of the North-east bound connections will also be available). [As a disclaimer, having grown up in Lichfield a Derby link would have been great, but I still can't justify it]

 

[bussnapperwm]

As a Brierley Hill resident, I'm wholeheartedly in favour of extending WMR 172 services here using the Old Worse and Worse line (Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton)

Maybe at the same time we could get a few Late Western services terminating up here from Oxford/Worcester. It is, after all, Great Western (after they brought the Stourbridge Railway and OWW) territory up here.

 

[BrianB]

Back in 1972 WMPTE printed their first Rail Development Plan and I ordered a copy, sadly I dont have it anymore. Does anyone still have one to compare with now? It was quite basic design, not very appealing to look at, but I remember it considered each line in turn and basically categorised them as a) worthy of development, b) dead ducks. Walsall and Wolverhampton didnt come out of it too well based on the 1972 social climate where 'most employment is in local industry, with little central commuting and best served by bus'... or similar wording.
I think this link refers to it
http://www.worldcat.org/title/passe...-midlands/oclc/17444520?referer=di&ht=edition

 

[trash80]

Oh i see Fort Parkway listed, when i suggested that on this forum a while ago people scoffed. Might open by the time i retire.

 

[Pigeon]

Worcester - Hereford seems weird in that the end points plus Great Malvern has 4 trains per hour, but Malvern Link, Colwall, and Ledbury have 2 trains per hour. There are single track sections west of Great Malvern, with Ledbury being a passing point.

Seems more than weird - it doesn't seem possible. You'd struggle to get even 2 trains per hour each way between Hereford and Ledbury with that great long single track section - it'd require everything to keep to time bang on, at least. And you couldn't do it at all without crossing at Ledbury which would make it daft not to pick up/set down while you were at it.

The idea of not stopping at Malvern Link is just bizarre - pointless abandonment of potential traffic for insignifcant saving of time. It's not as if it was some backwater halt that nobody uses.

I suspect the editor may have been half asleep while doing that bit.

 

[centraltrains]

An aspiration of 6 trains an hour down to Whitlock's, yes please!!!!!!

Some exciting stuff proposed in that document, but shame there is no electrification proposed for existing lines...

Bit confused by the Snow Hill lines frequency map for 2034... it says 4tph via Whitlock's & 4 via Dorddige, Moor Street will only have 4tph, but snow hill will have 8... Would they really want to non-stop trains through Moor Street?!

 

[Kettledrum]

I don't see where you could terminate at Burton and feel it would be better if the service was extended to Derby. .

Burton station is essentially one big and very wide island platform. It looks to me as if it once had a south facing bay cut into the island platform. Although long since filled in, this could be re-instated to make a platform for terminating trains.
A more radical solution would be for these trains to then reverse and serve some of the old stations on the freight only line towards Leicester, such as Ashby de la Zouch and Castle Gresley.

 

[takno]

Seems more than weird - it doesn't seem possible. You'd struggle to get even 2 trains per hour each way between Hereford and Ledbury with that great long single track section - it'd require everything to keep to time bang on, at least. And you couldn't do it at all without crossing at Ledbury which would make it daft not to pick up/set down while you were at it.

The idea of not stopping at Malvern Link is just bizarre - pointless abandonment of potential traffic for insignifcant saving of time. It's not as if it was some backwater halt that nobody uses.

I suspect the editor may have been half asleep while doing that bit.

The map on page 17 is the 'aspirational' map, with details of what they'd ideally like to achieve, hence

In some instances the frequency is already met or exceeded, while at other
stations it may never prove possible to generate a business case that can justify the aspirational frequency (for
example if demand is exceptionally low or it can only be delivered with a major infrastructure intervention)
​

The map on page 31 shows the credible aspirations for 2034, which is limited to 2tph from Hereford to Worcester, with an additional Cotswold line train from Malvern. Capacity enhancements between Hereford and Malvern are anticipated to achieve this.

 

[centraltrains]

Is 14tph (8 stoppers, 6 Express) between New Street and Bournville by 2034 realistic...? I really don't know, but it seems busy as it is now...

 

[SoccerHQ]

There are certainly plans for Lichfield TV to have 4 Cross City services an hour in the reasonably near future (though I'm not particularly sure to what benefit, as the loadings are light and they currently connect pretty well with WCML services, though it would be easy to resource), so that one's at least high-level only, and therefore I would assume the others don't include Trent Valley services also (Tamworth could easily get four from services to Birmingham if it gets the odd fast train, Nuneaton has both Coventry and Birmingham services and thus isn't far from four anyway).


I'll be honest, I don't quite see it being worth it. The Cross City works as a quick to accelarate, frequent stop service. Lichfield to Burton will be useful for people in Sutton and Lichfield travelling to Burton and vice versa (and indeed beyond, noted by @SoccerHQ ), but not for people from Burton going to central Birmingham. Given Burton to Derby is the same distance as Lichfield to Burton again, and entirely on mainlines, shoving a speed-limited stopper to Derby isn't really the best use of capacity: far better to have a reasonably consistent "stopper" via Tamworth. The only people who would gain from a Derby extension would be those living in Sutton and Lichfield wanting to travel to Derby itself, a much smaller pool than those to Burton (at which hopefully most of the North-east bound connections will also be available). [As a disclaimer, having grown up in Lichfield a Derby link would have been great, but I still can't justify it]

Connections from Lichfield TV to Cross city can be a bit hit and miss tbh. Thankfully they swopped the half hour one from the morning, used to be 54 past which meant it was near impossible to catch the 09 past to London from LTV if there was any sort of delay. Now timed at 44 past which is much better unless there's proper congestion coming out of New street in the morning which does happen from time to time.

Coming back in the evening from London the 4.40pm out of Euston is always a risky one as it dosen't arrive into LTV until 6.20 and that's if it's on time. The stopper back to Redditch/Bromsgrove is scheduled to depart at exactly that time although given that's the last part of the day where there's two stoppers within 10 minutes (one at 10 past and the other at 20 past) so that is on occasions a little late.

Plenty of people get off the London train and onto that particular one so I'd say depatures at 10 past and 30 past would work better around that time.

Seems from scanning through the plans the main drive to connect Burton to Lichfield directly is by building a new station at Alrewas which would serve where the National memorial Arboretum is (track pretty much passes right through the site). Catton hall is the opposite site so there are places of interest that aren't hugely served by the frequent buses between the two.

 

[SoccerHQ]

Is 14tph (8 stoppers, 6 Express) between New Street and Bournville by 2034 realistic...? I really don't know, but it seems busy as it is now...

I presume you'd send all the South west cross country services by Camp Hill otherwise no chance.

 

[SeanM1997]

Looks like the aspirations for services through Crewe will be:
1ph Scotland - Crewe - Birmingham - London
2ph Liverpool - Crewe - Birmingham - Northampton - London
1ph Crewe - Stoke - Birmingham - Northampton
1ph Crewe - Stoke - Birmingham - Leamington Spa
1ph Crewe - Trent Valley - London
1ph Crewe - Trent Valley - Coventry - London

This would mean 4 West Midlands Rail services between Crewe and Birmingham in addition to WCML operator, as well as 4 West Midlands Rail services between Crewe and London in addition to WCML operator. I hope this does happen - the Trent Valley line urgently needs an additional service, and operating via Coventry will improve connectivity

 

[Jorge Da Silva]

Looks like the aspirations for services through Crewe will be:
1ph Scotland - Crewe - Birmingham - London
2ph Liverpool - Crewe - Birmingham - Northampton - London
1ph Crewe - Stoke - Birmingham - Northampton
1ph Crewe - Stoke - Birmingham - Leamington Spa
1ph Crewe - Trent Valley - London
1ph Crewe - Trent Valley - Coventry - London

This would mean 4 West Midlands Rail services between Crewe and Birmingham in addition to WCML operator, as well as 4 West Midlands Rail services between Crewe and London in addition to WCML operator. I hope this does happen - the Trent Valley line urgently needs an additional service, and operating via Coventry will improve connectivity

So do I. Don’t a lot of Glasgow, Manchester and even Liverpool services go via the Trent Valleys. If so, this probably explains the massive increase of regional services using it post HS2.

 

[Jorge Da Silva]

I presume you'd send all the South west cross country services by Camp Hill otherwise no chance.

I think thats the plan.

 

[kieron]

As a Brierley Hill resident, I'm wholeheartedly in favour of extending WMR 172 services here using the Old Worse and Worse line (Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton)

Maybe at the same time we could get a few Late Western services terminating up here from Oxford/Worcester. It is, after all, Great Western (after they brought the Stourbridge Railway and OWW) territory up here.

I find it hard to tell what they're actually thinking of doing with this. On the page 5 map, it's the only line specifically described as being for Metro, but the only other reference to it is in the table on page 30, which just says "Consideration of new connectivity options for Brierley Hill and West Midlands Safari Park".

While I imagine a rail service on the line through Dudley could be well used, I wouldn't expect too much based on this draft. I'm not even sure if there's meant to be a relationship between the Brierley Hill and West Midlands Safari Park options.

 

[bussnapperwm]

I find it hard to tell what they're actually thinking of doing with this. On the page 5 map, it's the only line specifically described as being for Metro, but the only other reference to it is in the table on page 30, which just says "Consideration of new connectivity options for Brierley Hill and West Midlands Safari Park".

While I imagine a rail service on the line through Dudley could be well used, I wouldn't expect too much based on this draft. I'm not even sure if there's meant to be a relationship between the Brierley Hill and West Midlands Safari Park options.

West Midlands Railway (the TOC) had as part of their franchise plans the current Stourbridge terminators extending to Brierley Hill via the Old Worse and Worse, going initially to a station on Moor Street and then onto a station on Canal Street (the latter going to connect to the Metro, being just past the Round Oak steel terminal).

They also wanted to extend Kidderminster terminating services to the Safari Park via the SVR metals.

The West Midlands Rail Executive (part of Transport for West Midlands) is the one who released these plans in the OP which take these into account.

 

[boxy321]

An aspiration of 6 trains an hour down to Whitlock's, yes please!!!!!!

Some exciting stuff proposed in that document, but shame there is no electrification proposed for existing lines...

Bit confused by the Snow Hill lines frequency map for 2034... it says 4tph via Whitlock's & 4 via Dorddige, Moor Street will only have 4tph, but snow hill will have 8... Would they really want to non-stop trains through Moor Street?!

Moor Street is a typo I think. As Snow Hill tunnel speed is so low all trains may as well stop there.

 

[vlad]

I find it hard to tell what they're actually thinking of doing with this. On the page 5 map, it's the only line specifically described as being for Metro, but the only other reference to it is in the table on page 30, which just says "Consideration of new connectivity options for Brierley Hill and West Midlands Safari Park".

I wouldn't have thought the West Midlands Safari Park would be the sort of place that would expect people to come by rail.

 

[takno]

I wouldn't have thought the West Midlands Safari Park would be the sort of place that would expect people to come by rail.

Last time I went the drive through bit was only about an hour in a full-day trip. In any case if they started to get a lot of visitors coming without cars they could throw on some minibus tours.

 

[boxy321]

They're considering tuk tuks and camels for Blythe Valley in South Solihull. Time the planners move out to where they plan for (won't happen of course).