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Midlands Rail Hub
Midlands Rail Hub
The Midlands Rail Hub - our flagship project - is the biggest upgrade of our rail network for a generation.
What is Midlands Rail Hub?
Midlands Rail Hub is the region’s biggest and most ambitious rail improvement scheme – a £1.5bn blueprint for faster, better and more frequent connections across the Midlands.
The scheme will add up to 10 additional trains on the rail network per hour and provide faster, more frequent or new rail links for over 30 locations including: Leicester, Bromsgrove, Nuneaton, Worcester, Hereford, Cardiff and Bristol.
The Midlands Rail Hub proposes building two ‘chords’ as well as 11 further engineering interventions throughout the region to deliver a massive step change in rail transport in the Midlands.
The West Chord: consists of improvements between Bordesley and Moor Street, allowing access to Birmingham Moor Street from South-West and Wales, and making sure services are improved on the Hereford and Worcester corridors.
The East Chord: creates an access to Birmingham Moor Street from the East Midlands.
Other plans for engineering upgrades include:
- Snow Hill platform 4
- Moor Street platform 5
- Improvements around Kings Norton-Barnt Green
- Stoke Works junction
- A Malvern Wells turnback facility
- Ledbury – Shelwick partial double-tracking
- Moor Street platforms A & B (east side)
- Bordesley viaduct widening
- Water Orton remodelling
- Nuneaton to Wigston signalling headways
- Freight loops between Nuneaton and Leicester.
What are the benefits?
More rail journeys: The scheme will add more than 14 million more seats on the rail network each year
Shorter journey times for lines from Birmingham to places like Worcester, Cardiff and Hereford
Boost economic growth: For every pound we invest, we generate over £1.50 in benefits, inclusive of those to the wider economy
Environmentally friendly: Each parcel or person moved by rail instead of by diesel/petrol vehicle creates 76% less CO2
Safeguard jobs: Maximise the benefits of HS2 and safeguard 1,600 jobs in the engineering and construction sector.
What happens next?
On the 5th December 2022, we submitted our Outline Business case to the Department for Transport.
Subsequently, in Autumn 2023 Prime Minister Rishi Sunak confirmed that Midlands Rail Hub would be delivered in full. Read Government's announcement here.
In February 2024, Government announced £123m of funding for design work to begin on Midlands Rail Hub. Read the story here.
“The Midlands Rail Hub is a vitally-important project. Rail has been a huge part of the success story of this region, and we need this kind of investment if our network is to keep growing and supporting our economy. At around £2 billion, the Midlands Rail Hub is genuinely a bargain. The Secretary of State for Transport must persuade the Treasury to support this project to boost the region’s connectivity and with it, the region’s economy.”
Andy Street
Mayor of the West Midlands