Birmingham Moor Street Railway Station
Serving the southern shopping areas. Birmingham New Street station is within easy walking distance.
As a result of the rapid growth of rail traffic into Birmingham at the beginning of the 20th century, the Great Western Railway significantly expanded and rebuilt its main station at Snow Hill.
However, the Snow Hill station was constrained by the double-tracked tunnel that ran underneath the city centre into Snow Hill from the south and did not have enough capacity to accommodate all traffic. Widening the tunnel was considered impractical.
Birmingham Moor Street station was built at the southern end of the tunnel to handle terminating local trains from the south and relieve traffic to solve the capacity problem.
The station was a terminus for train services from Leamington Spa, and Stratford upon Avon, the latter services travelling along the North Warwickshire Line opened in 1908.
The station was equipped with two electrically operated traversers at the buffer end of the platforms. These were a space-saving mechanism that enabled locomotives to be moved sideways between tracks instead of reversing through points and crossovers. These were removed from service in 1967 when all services to the station became diesel operated.
Moor Street also had a large goods sheds that had two levels. It was a busy freight handling facility, and a significant element was fresh fruit and vegetables that would arrive at the Moor Street Goods Shed in the mornings and be taken straight to the Bull Ring's nearby market. The site of the former goods station is now partly occupied by the Selfridges Building.
New through platforms, built at Moor Street adjacent to the tunnel that had been disused since the closure of Snow Hill station in 1972, were opened in 1987 when a new station at Snow Hill opened. The old terminus platforms at Moor Street were closed with the track disconnected.
For a period, part of the station was allowed to fall into disrepair. However, in 1988 the 'Moor Street Station Historical Society' was formed to 'Save Our Station'. Dr Bernard Juby, a medical practitioner from nearby Yardley, became its Chairman and immediately set about campaigning for the station and its warehousing to be listed. Large teams of volunteers met each weekend to clean and preserve the various buildings. The existing artefacts were carefully renovated and stored, and subsequently re-used when the station reopened.
As a result of their efforts, the old station gained Grade II Listed Building status.
In the 2000s, due to the growth in services Train Operating Company, Chiltern Railways and the Birmingham Alliance decided to restore the original terminus and reopen it to allow some services to terminate there rather than Snow Hill.
Between 2002 and 2003, the original Moor Street station building and platforms were renovated and restored to a 1930s style costing approximately £11 million.
Attractions:
The Bullring Shopping Centre and other world-class shopping; The 'Thinktank' discovery museum. The Shakespeare Express.
Address:
Birmingham Moor Street Railway Station, Queensway, Birmingham B4 7UL