Why did Birmingham Moor Street stay open?

[AJS90]

I’ve read before that the only reason Birmingham Moor Street didn’t close at the same time as Snow Hill in 1972 was because there was insufficient capacity at New Street for the local services from Leamington and Stratford to be re-routed there.

Given how basic the frequencies were on some lines around Birmingham at the time, could they seriously not find room for an extra 4tph to terminate at New Street?

Were there other reasons why the station was kept open or was Moor Street a peak hours only operation for a time? I know the station was allowed to become somewhat run down by the time the terminus closed in the late 80’s.

 

[Ridercross]

For 1972 actually read 1968 as that was the date that the line through the tunnel to Snow Hill closed. Snow Hill would only be served from the North/West from then and Moor Street became the terminus of the lines from the South/East only.

In 1969 BR intended to close the line through Shirley and Henley in Arden to Stratford, and I understand that the intention then was to close Moor Street and send the remaining trains to Leamington and Stratford (via Dorridge) to New Street. That never occurred of course as that line was reprieved after court action took place. At that time of course the West Midlands PTE was being formed and they always intended to promote and improve local rail. That happened of course and the amount of trains serving Moor Street began to increase during the 1970s.

 

[AJS90]

For 1972 actually read 1968 as that was the date that the line through the tunnel to Snow Hill closed. Snow Hill would only be served from the North/West from then and Moor Street became the terminus of the lines from the South/East only.

In 1969 BR intended to close the line through Shirley and Henley in Arden to Stratford, and I understand that the intention then was to close Moor Street and send the remaining trains to Leamington and Stratford (via Dorridge) to New Street. That never occurred of course as that line was reprieved after court action took place. At that time of course the West Midlands PTE was being formed and they always intended to promote and improve local rail. That happened of course and the amount of trains serving Moor Street began to increase during the 1970s.

So I guess it was the newly created WMPTE stepping in to save Tysley - Wilmcote that saved it for Moor Street. I know that when WMPTE was first created it covered a larger area than the metropolitan county that was created in 1974, but it does seem slightly odd that so much fuss was made of keeping Tysley - Wilmcote open.

At roughly the same time they chose not to develop Snow Hill - Wolverhampton lower level and allowed BR to close it. The reasoning behind it was that it duplicated the Stour Valley line, but then again Tysley - Wilmcote duplicated Birmingham to Stratford via Solihull. I can understand keeping it open as far as Shirley as a suburban service, but south of there the line is very rural in character and was surely a stronger case for closure than Snow Hill - Wolves. After all, Bilston, Wednesbury and West Brom all lost their rail service and if they’d re-built Snow Hill as a more modest two platform through station like Five Ways and reduced Wolves lower level to a single platform terminus, I think that could have been enough to save it.

Do we know exactly how this court case came about?

 

[Sprinter107]

I’ve read before that the only reason Birmingham Moor Street didn’t close at the same time as Snow Hill in 1972 was because there was insufficient capacity at New Street for the local services from Leamington and Stratford to be re-routed there.

Given how basic the frequencies were on some lines around Birmingham at the time, could they seriously not find room for an extra 4tph to terminate at New Street?

Were there other reasons why the station was kept open or was Moor Street a peak hours only operation for a time? I know the station was allowed to become somewhat run down by the time the terminus closed in the late 80’s.

I know that there was a period after it had been reprieved that Moor Street closed after the evening rush hour, as the last train towards Shirley went at 18.40ish, there being no evening service at all along the North Warwickshire line. The locals to Leamington went into New Street during the evening. Then around the late 70s, they introduced an experimental service of 3 evening trains, just using one set between Moor Street and Earlswood, this is when i think Moor Street was given evening trains back. Those evening trains were retained, but didn't go to Earlswood for very long, and ended up running as far as Shirley.
But right into the 1980s, Moor Street was closed on Bank Holiday Mondays, the hourly Leamington and Stratford trains running from New Street, there being no Shirley or Dorridge short workings on bank holiday's.

 

[Djgr]

So I guess it was the newly created WMPTE stepping in to save Tysley - Wilmcote that saved it for Moor Street. I know that when WMPTE was first created it covered a larger area than the metropolitan county that was created in 1974, but it does seem slightly odd that so much fuss was made of keeping Tysley - Wilmcote open.

At roughly the same time they chose not to develop Snow Hill - Wolverhampton lower level and allowed BR to close it. The reasoning behind it was that it duplicated the Stour Valley line, but then again Tysley - Wilmcote duplicated Birmingham to Stratford via Solihull. I can understand keeping it open as far as Shirley as a suburban service, but south of there the line is very rural in character and was surely a stronger case for closure than Snow Hill - Wolves. After all, Bilston, Wednesbury and West Brom all lost their rail service and if they’d re-built Snow Hill as a more modest two platform through station like Five Ways and reduced Wolves lower level to a single platform terminus, I think that could have been enough to save it.

Do we know exactly how this court case came about?

I think WMPTE and getting its act together was just a little too late for Snow Hill to Wolverhampton?

 

[Ridercross]

I think WMPTE and getting its act together was just a little too late for Snow Hill to Wolverhampton?

I guess you have to also remember that in 1971 the PTE had introduced the 79 Birmingham - West Bromwich - Wednesbury - Bilston - Wolverhampton bus route. This was done by linking together the old Birmingham/West Bromwich 75 and West Bromwich/Wolverhampton 90 routes. This effectively duplicated the rail route at a far higher frequency, and was more convenient for the centres of Birmingham, Wednesbury and Wolverhampton than the rail route.

 

[AJS90]

I think WMPTE and getting its act together was just a little too late for Snow Hill to Wolverhampton?

It’s just a shame they didn’t think of it as an opportunity to introduce a second cross city line running on a North West - South East. Re-building Moor Street and Snow Hill as two platform through stations in the same style as Five Ways, reducing Wolverhampton lower level to a single platform terminus with a stairway and footbridge linking it to the higher level station, generally improving other stations and re-opening Bradley is what I was imagining. A 15 minute Wolves - Tysley service with 2tph onwards to Shirley and Lapworth and hourly to Leamington and Stratford should have been achievable if there was the will for it.

 

[Dr Hoo]

As someone who was living in the West Midlands during this era I can confirm that you really need to understand the 'busman' politics. WMPTE was dominated by people who were focussed in integrating the separate 'corporation' operations of Birmingham, West Bromwich, Walsall and Wolverhampton, getting rid of Walsall's trolleybuses, introducing 'express' services on the new M6 motorway, etc.

If it wasn't a front-entrance, driver only, exact cash single fare only, diesel (usually double decker) bus it fell into the 'does not compute' category. It was several years before a broader appreciation of integrated multi-modal public transport, park-and-ride, etc. emerged.

 

[AJS90]

As someone who was living in the West Midlands during this era I can confirm that you really need to understand the 'busman' politics. WMPTE was dominated by people who were focussed in integrating the separate 'corporation' operations of Birmingham, West Bromwich, Walsall and Wolverhampton, getting rid of Walsall's trolleybuses, introducing 'express' services on the new M6 motorway, etc.

If it wasn't a front-entrance, driver only, exact cash single fare only, diesel (usually double decker) bus it fell into the 'does not compute' category. It was several years before a broader appreciation of integrated multi-modal public transport, park-and-ride, etc. emerged.

I know WMPTE were a little bus obsessed and Walsall’s trolley buses had had the writing on the wall for a number of years by the time they finally went in 1970.

My thought was that the Four Oaks - Longbridge cross city service started to be planned in the very early days of the PTE, so organising a second cross city route shouldn’t have been beyond them even at the time if the cash and political will was there.

 

[Dr Hoo]

To be fair, with rail well outside WMPTE's comfort zone they had to see if their first big scheme was a success before going all-in on a second.

So it was (a) beyond them, (b) there was no cash, and (c) no political will anyway.