Camp Hill Line

Camp Hill Line
Legend
Rugby-Birmingham-Stafford Line Cross-City Line Birmingham New Street Curzon Street Cross-City Line West Coast Main Line (Rugby-Birmingham-Stafford Line) Birmingham to Peterborough Line Chiltern Main Line/ Birmingham to Stratford Line Camp Hill Goods Camp Hill Brighton Road Moseley Kings Heath Hazelwell Lifford Cross-City Line Kings Norton Cross-City Line & Cross Country Route

The Camp Hill line is a railway line in the West Midlands which lies between Kings Norton on the Cross-City Line and Birmingham New Street via Grand Junction on the main lines from Derby and Coventry.

It originated in a link between the first terminus at Camp Hill of the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway and the London and Birmingham Railway's Curzon Street. The B&GR had opened as far as Camp Hill in 1840, with the link to Curzon St being completed the following year; the joint MR & LNWR station at New Street was subsequently reached in 1854. As both of the MR lines approached New Street from the east, this meant that through trains between Derby and Bristol had to undertake an inconvenient reversal if calling there and so many services were instead routed directly to/from Camp Hill, calling there to allow New Street-bound passengers to catch a connecting local train. This practice continued until the Birmingham West Suburban Railway was extended through to New Street in 1885 - thereafter long distance trains were able to run through New Street and directly on towards Kings Norton & Cheltenham via this route without having to reverse.

Stopping passenger services were withdrawn in 1941 as a "Wartime Economy Measure", but the line remains open for freight traffic and for longer distance passenger train services. Seven railway stations along the line have been demolished; they are:

• Camp Hill Goods Station
• Camp Hill
• Brighton Road
• Moseley
• Kings Heath
• Hazelwell
• Lifford

Future plans

The reinstatement of local rail services to the former Camp Hill Line has been a long term aspiration of the City,^[1] and during 2007, Birmingham City Council announced that they were looking into the possibility of reopening the line between Kings Norton and Birmingham Moor Street via the construction of a railway viaduct from Sparkbrook to Bordesley, where trains would be taken into the "old" Birmingham Moor Street station. In October 2007, a 1500-name petition was handed in to the council asking for the line to be re-opened.^[2] In 2013 the proposal was shelved indefinitely.^[3]

Proposed station sites were:

• Moseley
• Kings Heath
• Hazelwell

Proposals for the reopening were estimated at a cost of around £170 million. This would have included a 3 train per hour service between Birmingham Moor Street and Kings Norton, as well as the restoration of the island platform at Kings Norton for passenger use.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Camp Hill Line.

• Birmingham City Council Camp Hill Railway Line Study Public Report, July 2007
• Birmingham City Council Detailed map of the proposed railway chord linking the Camp Hill line into Moor Street Station

Railway lines in the West Midlands
Main lines	West Coast Main Line Cross Country Route Chiltern Main Line
Inter-regional	Birmingham to Peterborough Line Crewe to Derby Line Cotswold Line Shrewsbury to Chester Line Stafford to Manchester Line Welsh Marches Line
Local	Birmingham to Worcester via Bromsgrove Line Birmingham to Worcester via Kidderminster Line Chase Line Coventry to Leamington Line Coventry to Nuneaton Line Cross-City Line Leamington to Stratford Line North Warwickshire Line Northampton Loop Line Rugby–Birmingham–Stafford Line Stone to Colwich Line Stourbridge Town Branch Line Trent Valley Line Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury Line
Freight only	Camp Hill Line South Staffordshire Line Sutton Park Line Walsall to Wolverhampton Line
Heritage	Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway Severn Valley Railway Telford Steam Railway