Fresh funding worth £1m to support trio of new stations

Stock image of a Class 172 train operated by West Midlands Railway

New funding worth £1 million has been earmarked to develop proposals for three railway stations in the West Midlands.

Transport chiefs are looking to build the stations in Castle Bromwich, Coventry East and near Tettenhall in Wolverhampton.

A year ago, a shortlist of five stations was announced by the West Midlands Rail Executive which it said at the time had the strongest case for development first.

This has now been whittled down to three following a feasibility study which concluded they could provide much-needed improvement to public transport for these communities.

Each of the three potential new stations could be located on existing railway lines in areas with an absence of rapid public transport links and “some high levels of deprivation”, according to the rail executive.

The Castle Bromwich station would be built on the line between Birmingham and Leicester and Nottingham, restoring a station which was closed in 1968.

Coventry East would be on the line between Coventry and Rugby in the Binley area while the site near Tettenhall is north west of Wolverhampton city centre, on the line to Shrewsbury. The station names for all three could be decided in collaboration with local communities.

The other two stations shortlisted last year – Balsall Heath in Birmingham and Foleshill north of Coventry – are still being considered but not as part of this new round of funding.

They are dependent on construction commencing on the Midlands Rail Hub which is a huge masterplan aiming to improve connections between the West and East Midlands and from the south of Birmingham into Moor Street station.

West Midlands Mayor Andy Street said: “With five new railway stations under construction and a sixth on the way, we’re getting on with delivering the transport infrastructure local people want to see right across our region.

“We’ve now whittled down our list of stations to a priority list of these three at Castle Bromwich, Coventry East and Tettenhall as these are the ones most likely to deliver the biggest benefit to the communities they serve.

“For those locations which did not make the shortlist, we’re still looking at ways to bring forward delivery.

“The £1.7 billion Midlands Rail Hub scheme, now fully funded by the Government, may provide an avenue and will certainly be a game changer enabling us to connect even more towns and communities to the rail network.

“New rail infrastructure can be transformative for an area, offering residents sustainable and convenient access to rapid and reliable public transport. That’s why it’s good news that local people will benefit from these stations very soon.”

The £1 million in funding is from the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement awarded to the West Midlands Combined Authority by the Department for Transport.

This is the latest news in a long-running overhaul of the West Midlands rail network which has already seen construction start on new stations in Moseley, Kings Heath and Pineapple Road in south Birmingham and Darlaston and Willenhall on the Walsall to Wolverhampton line.

A new station is also planned in Aldridge near Walsall while work on the revamp of the existing University of Birmingham station was recently completed.