Birmingham Interchange is a planned

High Speed 2 High Speed 2 (HS2) is a planned high-speed railway line in England, the first phase of which is under construction in stages and due for completion between 2029 and 2033, depending on approval for later stages. The new line will run from its m ...

railway station in the

Metropolitan Borough of Solihull The Metropolitan Borough of Solihull is a metropolitan borough in West Midlands county, England. It is named after its largest town, Solihull, from which Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council is based. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region ...

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

, England, expected to open in 2026. Unlike the city centre based

Birmingham Curzon Street railway station Birmingham Curzon Street railway station is the planned northern terminus of Phase 1 of High Speed 2 in the city centre of Birmingham, England. The new railway will connect Birmingham to via and . Curzon Street will have seven terminal platf ...

, the interchange station will be a parkway, serving the east side of Birmingham and surrounding urban areas. The station will be built on a triangular piece of land, surrounded by the

M42 motorway The M42 motorway runs north east from Bromsgrove in Worcestershire to just south west of Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire, passing Redditch, Solihull, the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) and Tamworth on the way, serving the east of the ...

, A446 and A45, and will be linked to the

National Exhibition Centre The National Exhibition Centre (NEC) is an exhibition centre located in Marston Green, Solihull, West Midlands, England. It is near junction 6 of the M42 motorway, and is adjacent to Birmingham Airport and Birmingham International railway sta ...

Birmingham Airport Birmingham Airport , formerly ''Birmingham International Airport'', is an international airport located east-southeast of Birmingham city centre, west-northwest of Coventry slightly north of Bickenhill village, in the Metropolitan Borou ...

and

Birmingham International railway station Birmingham International is a railway station located in Solihull in the West Midlands, to the east of the city of Birmingham, England. The station is on the Rugby–Birmingham–Stafford Line 14 km (8½ miles) east of Birmingham New Stree ...

by a

people mover A people mover or automated people mover (APM) is a type of small scale automated guideway transit system. The term is generally used only to describe systems serving relatively small areas such as airports, downtown districts or theme parks. ...

. The people mover will have a capacity of over 2,100 passengers per hour in each direction in the peak period.

History

The station was designed by Arup, with support from Churchman Thornhill Finch, achieving

BREEAM BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method), first published by the Building Research Establishment (BRE) in 1990, is the world's longest established method of assessing, rating, and certifying the sustainability of ...

‘Outstanding’ certification, the first railway station in the world to do so, with measures to maximise daylight, LED lighting, reusing rainwater from its roof, and air source heat pumps. In June 2021, High Speed 2 invited companies to bid for a £370million contract to build the station.

Skanska Skanska AB () is a multinational construction and development company based in Sweden. Skanska is the fifth-largest construction company in the world according to ''Construction Global'' magazine. Notable Skanska projects include renovation of t ...

, Unity (a joint venture with

Sir Robert McAlpine Sir Robert McAlpine Limited is a family-owned building and civil engineering company based in Hemel Hempstead, England. It carries out engineering and construction in the infrastructure, heritage, commercial, arena and stadium, healthcare, educa ...

and

VolkerFitzpatrick VolkerRail is a specialist railway infrastructure services company based in Doncaster, England, providing services across the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is wholly owned by Netherlands-based VolkerWessels, a multi-disciplinary construct ...

, with support from WSP) and

Laing O’Rourke Laing O'Rourke is a multinational construction company headquartered in Dartford, England. It was founded in 1978 by Ray O'Rourke. It is the largest privately owned construction company in the United Kingdom. History The company was founded by ...

were shortlisted. Laing O’Rourke was subsequently awarded the contract in July 2022 for its detailed design and following this, its construction starting in 2023. The station will have 4 platforms, made of two 415m long platform islands. There will also be capacity for through-running services on two centrally placed tracks, leading to a total of 6 tracks. The station structure will be formed by a steel and

glulam Glued laminated timber, commonly referred to as glulam, is a type of structural engineered wood product constituted by layers of dimensional lumber bonded together with durable, moisture-resistant structural adhesives so that all of the grain ru ...

timber frame, with repeating structural forms on a 9 by 9 grid.

Services

Current service proposals suggest five trains per hour will stop at Birmingham Interchange, in each direction. Journey time from this station to London is planned to be 38minutes.

Transport links

A proposed long branch of the

West Midlands Metro The West Midlands Metro (originally named Midland Metro) is a light-rail/tram system in the county of West Midlands, England. Opened on 30 May 1999, it currently consists of a single route, Line 1, which operates between the cities of Birmi ...

would terminate at this station, connecting it to the local tram network.

References

{{coord, 52.45243, N, 1.70709, W, type:railwaystation_region:GB, display=title High Speed 2 Proposed railway stations in England Solihull