Birmingham’s New £60m Railway Project: A Look At The Camp Hill Line

The Camp Hill Line is a project that has been proposed for the best part of the last two decades by Birmingham City Council, however after being postponed for a few years, the project is finally expected to open at the end of this year. In this video, I’ll be taking a look at the areas served by the proposed project, the benefits and negatives of this project, and how I believe the project will impact public transport within Birmingham. If you like this video make sure to like, subscribe and share this video as it massively helps me out when you do! I really hope you will enjoy or have enjoyed the video!

As with most of my videos, there are images in here that aren’t my own, and so all copyright goes to their respective owners.

Copyright SomeNorthLondoner 2024

Hello everyone and welcome back to another video you’re joining me here at Birmingham New Street and today I’ll be explaining an exciting Railway project coming to this city that I think you all should be looking forward to much of the hype round improvements to birmingham’s public transport system is to do with

Their Midland Metro tram system and whilst there are future expansion plans for the Midland Metro System that I will be covering in future videos no doubt one of the Lesser known projects that hasn’t generated as much hype is the Brey Hill extension to the Midland Metro or the prior extensions to wolver

Hampton station EDB Baston Village is the reopening of the stations on the Camp Hill line a 7mile railway operating between Birmingham New Street and Kings Norton through the settlements of Highgate Bol Heath mosy and Kings Heath before meeting the current Cross City Line at Kings Norton the railway

Currently sees use of of freight movement however what is quite exciting about this Railway line is the planned rein statement of stations along this route which have been closed for over 80 years so in this video I will be discussing the history of the Camp Hill line the details of these future

Proposals the areas that the Camp Hill line when stations eventually reopen would serve on the route and what I think of the reim statement of stopping passenger service on this route if you like this video please make sure to like subscribe and share this video as it

Massively helps out when you do and now join me as we look at the Camp Hill line the next station is Bville the Camp Hill line initially opened back in December of 1840 by the Birmingham Gloucester Railway although only as far as Camp Hill which is located near Bal Heath as it was a temporary Terminus until the line was extended through to Ken Street the main Birmingham Terminus at the time in the

Following year once the service was extended through to Birmingham the station was split into a Goods yard and a smaller passenger station initially the Camp Hill line opened with stations at Kings Norton lifford Kings Heath and Camp Hill eventually the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway merged with the Midland Railway and the Terminus was

Swapped from Ken Street to Birmingham New Street a junction was then constructed at bordley in 1861 to create a north south connection from the Camp Hill line the Great Western Railway Mainline towards London and Oxford which is now part of the chilon mainline into London marlebone when Birmingham New

Street initially opened the Lor Street to Junction to St Andrews Junction connection didn’t exist so services that came from the Oxford and Bristol Direction in order to join the lines of Derby had to reverse at New Street although this is no longer necessary once the link was constructed and opened in

1864 this meant that Camp Hill station was used to detach certain parts of the the train to run towards Birmingham New Street whilst the other parts would continue on in the derby Direction This continued until 1885 when the Kings nor of Birmingham portion of the Cross City

Line fully opened and so what are now cross country trains were able to pass through Birmingham New Street and rejoin their line of route at Kings Norton a curve at lifford was then opened in 1892 which allowed for a circular Birmingham New Street to Birmingham New Street to

Operate on the line via fiveways down to lifford before joining the Camp Hill line and following that back into New Street a similar operation to some of the Southwest London SWR services that currently operate this circular service operated until 1941 when the stations were mothed as part of the wartime rationalization of

The network and were permanently closed in 1946 now let’s move on to the history of the project then shall we the Camp Hill line reopening has long been proposed by Birmingham city council with the first proposals dating back to 2007 where there was a look into the viability of a

New Birmingham Mo Street to Kings and auton service along the Camp Hill line with station sites opening at Mosley Kings Heath and hazelwell which was popular locally as a 1,500 signature petition was handed to the council asking for a reopening of the line however at present there is no direct

Link from the Camp Hill line for the proposed service to use and I’ll get back to that in more detail later on in the video but there were looks at in stating a railway viaduct in the borders Le area over the middleway to connect up to the lines into Mor Street the

Terminating services would have likely use the currently disused platforms 5 and six inside Mo Street Station however it wasn’t until the late 2010s when the project really started to see progress politically as mayor of Birmingham Andy Street pledged the reintroduction of a stopping service along the Camp Hill line by

2020 and in September of 2018 released design signs of the three new stations with the intention of the reopening taking place in 2021 however like with most Railway projects the date moved even further back to 2023 once funding had been found for the project and was moved even

Further back to services commencing at the end of 2024 from my visits to the Station construction sites whilst recording this video none of the stations looked anywhere near finished and so it remains to be seen whether or not the end date of 2024 is still re istic although I’m optimistic Construction Company vulka

Fitzpatrick has taken the Helm of this project where they will be constructing three brand new stations at mosy Village Kings Heath and pineapple Road these stations are to be built to allow six Carriage trains have step-free access and secure bike parking which will massively help achieve two of the main

Goals of the project which will be to cut carbon emissions and reduce congestion on birmingham’s roads now let’s go back to the history history of the Camp Hill line shall we initially service that would form part of the present day Cross City Line operated along the Camp Hill line IE trains Bound

For Reddit and Broms grve although they carried on further than these two destinations at this time and operated through to Birmingham New Street along the Camp Hill line the Camp Hill line when stopping services will be reintroduced will have stations reopening at pineapple Road Kings Heath and mosy Village although when the line

Was operating stopping Services many more existed on the route so let’s run through the ones that are not going to be reopened first the first station on the Camp Hill line out of Birmingham was Camp Hill itself located just off the high Gate Road in Birmingham it opens in

December of 1840s the temporary Terminus of of the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway although once the extension to Ken Street was completed the station shut in a in August 1841 and was relegated to Goods trains use only although reopened in November of the same year the station was closed again

But reopened in December of 1867 under the name Camp Hill and balel Heath reflecting the area just down the road from where the station was located however in April of 1904 the station name reverted back to just being named Camp Hill however due to the wartime economy

Measures being put into place and like with all the other stations on the Camp Hill line the stations were subsequently closed and never reopened Camp Hill had a Goods yard located next to to it with a three-story High Warehouse storing goods and grain it was a well-designed

Goods yard as it allowed for road vehicles to access the yard without disrupting any local traffic and the yard continued operation for many years after the passenger station was closed finally closing in February 1966 the next station is could you continued down the Camp Hill line was Bryson Road located down Brighton Road

Just around the corner from the baly triangle area it opened in 1875 and was located located on the border between bll Heath and Mosley I believe the station’s existence was the main reason for campill and bll Heath being renamed back to just being Camp Hill as the station’s location was far

Closer to balol Heath in Camp Hill however I’ll get back to this station later on in the video lifford was the third station on the Camp Hill line that will not reopen as part of the project a station which has been in three different locations for the century or

So that the station was open the first station opened on the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway aka the Camp Hill line in in December of 1840 but then closed 4 years later in December 1844 the Sten station named lifford opened in June of 1876 but was this time on the newly

Constructed Birmingham West Suburban Railway which is now part of the Cross City Line although this was also shortlived and closed on the 28th of September 1885 it was the same day that the third liford station this time reopened on the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway once again was opened and ser the state the

Community until 1941 the proposed campill line service will start at Birmingham New Street a major Hub in the West Midlands offering links towards Wales on transport for Wales longdistance cross country Services towards Manchester Edinburgh Bristol reading Cardiff and Plymouth of an West Coast Services towards London the Lake District and crew and more

Local London Northwestern and West Midlands train Services towards Liverpool London Milton keing and other destinations across the West Midlands Birmingham New Street is also home to the Grand Central tram stop located just outside the station which will provide more local links for those living in mosy Kings Heath and sturley the station

Is also within walking distance to Mo Street which allows passengers to change for children Railway Services towards sahal Warick and Royal lemington Spa I won’t go to into too much detail about Birmingham New Street as this isn’t the star of the show however it is located right next to the ball ring shopping

Center just down the road from the local children’s hospital which will no doubt be of use to many and is in an area served by an extensive number of bus services the first station that the project will be reopening is a station in mosy named mosy Village I think it’s

Worth mentioning at this point that two of the three of the proposed stations to reopen had their names voted on by local residents which I think is excellent as it has likely made the project more popular locally as people are able to have their say on what to name the

Stations and it makes it feel more communal MOSI station first opened on the 1st of November 1867 by the Midland Railway although this technically wasn’t the first MOS Station instead stealing the name from the downline Kings Heath station which eventually was renamed to Kings Heath the station was initially constructed

Within a deep cutting as the nearby St Mary’s Church complained that if it wasn’t it would disrupt the tranquility and atmosphere of the area surrounding the church however this was a decision that was Ill thought out when it comes to the future of the Camp Hill line

Which I’ll cover later on in the video mosy is one of the more affluent suburbs in Birmingham and was in 2015 named the best urban place to live in the country by the Sunday Times mosy was home to many famous people in including Churchill’s predecessor Chamberlain an

Author of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit John tolken it’s also home of ocean color seed who named their 1996 three times platinum album mosy schs after the local area mosy is recognized as far back as 1086 when it was referenced in the Doomsday Book as Muay and much of the

Area was built around the shopping area named mosy Village next to mosy Village is St Mary’s Church a grade two listed Parish church that that was known for having some of the worst sounding church bells in the country which caused them to be gotten rid of in

2012 mosy is an area started to develop in the early 1900s where new housing was built on what was once extensive Farmland surrounding the area with large Edwardian style housing to accommodate the influx of middleclass folk choosing to settle in the suburbs surrounding the city center the area as well as boura

Heath in the 80s and ’90s was known for being a bit more deprived however where the area suffered from problems relating to Crime drug use and antisocial Behavior although the area nowadays is once again more well-renowned for being an affluent suburb of Birmingham some of the roads in Birmingham are known for

Being some of the richest streets in the country however there is social housing within the area suggesting there is still income inequality within the suburb nevertheless whilst I was there it was absolutely lovely mosy is home to many restaurants and bars around St Mary’s row and the area has plenty of

Communal events including a monthly f farmers market and a yearly Mosley Summer Festival and a Mosley jazz funk and soul Festival in the summer as well if you do happen to be in the Birmingham area I would strongly suggest you check the mosy area out Transportation wise

Due to there being no station at present within mosy the public transport within the area is entirely buses with one of the most frequent bus routes in the country being the 50 operating between Birmingham city center and jud’s Heath the 35 operating between Birmingham and hawksley and the one operating between

Fiveways and ACO green offering more orbital links rather than what the 35 and 50 currently offer amenities wise Mosley has a park run by local volunteers and has a community hospital located just around the corner that was built inside grade two listed Mosley hall now on to the next station we

Go the next station we we arrive at after a quick Journey on the 35 is Kings Heath the station opened back in 1840 on the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway Mainline adjacent to hybri park and was initially named mosy station up until the upline mosy station opened until it

Was then renamed to King’s Heath which is more appropriate for the station’s location despite the station closing in 1941 as part of a wartime economy measure the station was still used as a good station into the 1960s until it was demolished as for the area Kings Heath

Dates back to the 18th century when the area first came to prominence as part of the atpresent a435 becoming more well established and being built and seeing Road improvements that became a catalyst for the area to see extensive development much of the architecture along the High Street is noticeably from

That era and like with mosy the area at the time saw many wealthy folk move into the area due to how close it was to the industrial Birmingham Center the High Street is one of the main shopping areas in Birmingham comprising of a variety of stores including bakeries charity shops and

Restaurants Kings Heath is home to the first venue that reggae bands UB 40 played in being the hair and Hounds located along the High Street areas of significance in King’s Heath include the pedestrianized All Saints Church area of Kings Heath which is almost considered a

Hub of the area as it was redeveloped in the 2010s to become a pedestrianized Public Square it’s used for the suburb’s monthly Farmers Market which is a common theme in the area served by the Camp Hill line as kings noron and Mosley also have one as for transportation options

Within the area the Camp Hill line intercepts the frequent Outer Circle service the 11a and 11c the Outer Circle offers links towards aox green stford erdington Perry bar hansworth Bearwood and Kings Norton there’s also connections to Route 76 which offers connections towards solol mechley and Northfield so there were a few Fair few

Transport connections which someone could make use of if they were to change in King’s Heath now let’s move on to the next [Applause] station the final new station along the Camp Hill line to reopen is pineapple Road like with mosy Village there was a competition locally as to what to name

The station and the potential names were hazelwell sturley pineapple Road and unsurprisingly and rightfully so pineapple Road won pineapple Road was initially named hazelwell and opened back in 1902 under the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway and was built to serve the nearby 61 hectare prior estate initially the station sat on a level

Crossing however an overpass was built on Cartland Road over the railway later on in 1928 sturley which is the area pineapple road is located right by has his history dating back to the Bronze Age where B Mounds synonymous with the era were found along the river re and at the mosy

Bog sturley has the Worcester and Birmingham Canal flowing through the area which I’ll speak a little bit more on in the ks norn segment whil hazelwell and sturley would likely appreciate another train station at pineapple Road it is important to remember that this station is within close proximity to the

Current bourneville station on the cross City Line bourneville itself is located right next to stur High Street and is also just down the road from Cadbury World which I find quite humorous given there is a brand of chocolate named after bourneville itself prec Corona virus bourneville sought in excess of 1

Million passengers per year using the station but I imagine that passenger numbers have largely recovered to that statistic although bourneville might lose some demand to the newly opened pineapple Road I reckon if I were living in sturley I’d be a little bit more biased towards using bourneville as the

Station is painted in cabry purple and and has the canal running alongside the Birmingham bound platform as for the connections from Pineapple Road the half hourly 27 offers links towards frankley Yardley wood and Northfield and now on to our final station the southern Terminus of the

Camp Hill line is Kings Norton where the service meets the existing Cross City Line Services towards Longbridge br Grove and redit Kings Norton station was the second station in the Kings Norton area to be constructed opening in 1849 after lifford which is further down the road opened Kings Norton in 1892 saw the

Extension of its platforms due to the demand created by the opening of the Birmingham West Suburban Railway operating via University in bourneville and also saw a Goods yard constructed next to the station the station has four platforms the AL 2 being one and four seeing use by Cross City Line Services

Whilst two and three of bay platforms currently unused Kings Norton itself dates back to the Romans where has been evidence of Romans occupying the local area in the form of a Roman ditch at Parson’s Hill the name Kings norn is derived from the words nor and tan

Meaning North and held by the king respectively in 1616 King James granted permission for residents to host markets on the green which is still going strong today as when I was in Kings nor and film it turned out there was one that same day in 1796 the Worcester and Birmingham

Canal was built through Kings Norton which linked Birmingham to the river 7 allowing access to statford upon aen and the Grand Union Canal the canal features a rare Guillotine stop lock which I think looks really cool the area grew massively in the late 19th century due to the rapid urbanization of the area

Which included the construction of the new bourneville Chocolate Factory just Slightly North of Kings Norton as for the amenities within the local area there’s the St Nicholas church located further down the hill as a place of worship built upon a site that has had a church since at least the 13th century

If not earlier and has a churchard which features the graves of the 11 service Personnel of the two World Wars there’s a High Street near the station which has an array of shops and passengers are able to Interchange onto bus routes including the 18 towards Bartley green

And Drew Heath the 45 towards West Heath and the 47 towards Longbridge and the aformentioned alter Circle bus service I think that Kings noron whilst it already has excellent public transport links will still benefit from the Camp Hill service being introduced now what is the project promising the plans are at

Present for a two Trin per hour service operated with diesel Rolling Stock between Birmingham UST Street and Kings Norton calling At The afor Mention stations only there was a suggestion by Andy Street back in 2018 that Herford to Birmingham New Street services that currently operate through University

Could instead stop at the campill Line stations in Kings Norton although the obvious negative of this is that it would mean increased Journey times for those heading towards bromsgrove drit witch Worcester and morvin and so as a result very little has been mentioned about the possible service since the

Project has more ambitious plans which include the construction of C near borders Le allowing trains from the Camp Hill line to terminate at Mo Street using the newly constructed Western cord rather than Birmingham New Street relieving pressure from the major interchange however the more exciting of the chords arguably being the Eastern

Cord would allow for more pressure to be relieved from Birmingham New Street as it would allow for current Birmingham New Street and Nottingham and Leicester services to be diverted into more Street as part of this scheme currently disused platforms five and six would have to be reopened and there is the potential for

A new through platform to be constructed to Snow Hill allowing for more services to pass between the two stations however these call being constructed would require the closure and demolition of borders Le station borders Le station is currently the least used station in the entire West Midland County seeing only

One parliamentary service on a Saturday from whitlocks n to kidderminster at 1:47 p.m. the station primarily exists to move football fans from the nearby Birmingham city home ground during games although the station’s presence may be resed even more useless once the East Side Metro extension of the Midland

Metro continues to Der attend High Street which is just around the corner from borders Ley station now what are the positives of the station on the Camp Hill line reopening well as I mentioned earlier on in the video Route 50 from drw’s Heath into Birmingham serves Kings Heath and mosy two neighborhoods which

Would see the reintroduction of train stations the 50 is one of the busiest bus routes in Europe operating every four to five minutes under National Express West Midland with a supplementary every 12 minute service running alongside it operated by Diamond Bus the reopening of the stations on the

Camp Hill line would allow for a modal shift from routes such as the 35 and 50 relieving overcrowding on the services and making traveling into Birmingham from these suburbs more attractive to those who drive instead of using the train another obvious Wim would be the reduction in congestion as a result of a

Train service being reintroduced with estimates predicting a 25% reduction in the number of car Journeys Within These suburbs the introduction of a supplementary service between Kings oron and Birmingham New Street would also help relieve overcrowding on the cross City Line as the service can be busy from University onwards so this gives

Those who travel from Kings noron and bourneville an alternative to instead travel from a Camp Hill Line Station from Kings noron or pineapple Road as I mentioned in my Kings noron pineapple Road and Kings Heath segments the Camp Hill line serving these stations would also allow interchange with the Outer

Circle 11a and 11 C improving orbital links to places such as ACO green and stford how however I don’t think it would be fair to not mention the negatives of this project though for starters this is a new Railway line opening with diesel Rolling Stock I don’t have a problem with diesel Rolling

Stock being used on the UK rail network but for a project that has been considered a massive deal and has seen a lot of publicity and excitement surrounding it as well as it promising to cut carbon emissions it would have been ideal to have looked at electrifying it before opening in the

Mosy segment I mentioned to the station had to be built in a deep cutting which resulted in a tunnel being constructed that is too small to allow overhead wires to pass underneath it as a result if electrification works are considered in the future this might mean continued

Disruption to the Camp Hill line as the tracks would have to be lowered in order to fit the overhead wires beneath them so instead for the time being class 196s will be operating the Kings North into Birmingham New Street shuttle another negative of this project would be the

Frequency of the Camp Hill line a half hourly service may not encourage as much of a modal shift from cars and buses as might be expected whilst the a435 is notorious for getting jams during the peak hours especially if there are delays or cancellations this could make

The service less desirable to use as it could mean up to an hour’s wait the frequency issue will be difficult to rectify due to the flat Junctions approaching Kings Orton and also the line once opening will be using the outer platforms currently used on Cross City Services to terminate the

Introduction of the Kings noron to Birmingham via Kings Heath Services has also meant that the Cross City Line has seen a reduction and frequency from an every 10minute service between Four Oaks and Longbridge to an every 15minute frequency and this is also meant to drop from every 20 from Lichfield Trent

Valley to fors and Long Bridge to brms grve and redage to every half an hour so is there anything else that could come of the project later on well there are hopes for a station to reopen in the Bol Heath area this makes perfect sense as bulla Heath having a station would

Massively improve public transport for those living in the area as well as in the surrounding balty triangle sparkbrook and Highgate areas there has been no official confirmation as to whereabouts the station would be located although there has been some money pumped into investigating and developing

A business case for a station to be open there at a later date I do wonder whether there could always be a look into an extra two trains per hour operating the Camp Hill line and Cross City Line as a circular service from Birmingham New Street to Mo Street

Similar to how the services stopping at the Camp Hill Line stations were before the services were discontinu during the war this would mean an extra two trains per hour serving the new Camp Hill Line stations as well as a return to a six trains prow of stopping frequency between bourneville and Birmingham New

Street however I’m not sure on how operational feasible this suggestion is I do also wonder whether or not the bay platform at King nor could potentially reopen at some stage to allow the Camp Hill services to terminate there rather than in the Cross City platforms anyway

Do I think the project will be a success honestly I think it will be because even if it is going to operate on a 30-minute Headway between Kings northon and Birmingham I can still see a modal shift from buses and cars to the new Railway and there seems to be lots of enthusiasm

Locally so I expect that it’ll be a well-received Railway once it opens well that’s it from me what do you all think of the camp online what amendments would you make to the service if you could make and do you also believe this it will be a success well I for one hope

You enjoyed this video and if you did make sure to like subscribe and share this video as it massively helps you out me do and anyway see you in the next video