Longbridge railway station serves the

Longbridge Longbridge is an area of Northfield in the south-west of Birmingham, England, located near the border with Worcestershire. Public Transport Longbridge is described as a hub for public transport with a number of bus services run by Kev's Coa ...

area in the south-west of

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It is on the

Cross City Line The Cross-City Line is a commuter rail line in the West Midlands region of England. It runs for from Redditch and Bromsgrove in Worcestershire, its two southern termini, to Lichfield, Staffordshire, its northern terminus, via Birmingham New ...

. The station and all trains calling there are operated by

West Midlands Trains West Midlands Trains (WMT) is a train operating company in the United Kingdom. It operates passenger trains on the West Midlands franchise between London and the English Midlands under two trade names: West Midlands Railway (WMR) (within the ...

History

Two previous stations serving Longbridge have existed: The first was opened at a location just south of the current station in 1840, when the original

Birmingham and Gloucester Railway The Birmingham and Gloucester Railway (B&GR) was the first name of the railway linking the cities in its name and of the company which pioneered and developed it; the line opened in stages in 1840, using a terminus at Camp Hill in Birmingham. It ...

opened, it did not prosper and closed in 1849.Boynton, John (1993). Rails Across The City, The Story of The Birmingham Cross City Line. Kidderminster: Mid England Books. . Longbridge Station - geograph

Another Longbridge station had existed nearby, on the

Halesowen Railway The Halesowen Railway, also known as the Halesowen and Northfield Railway and the Halesowen Joint Railway, was a standard gauge railway in what is now the West Midlands of England. It connected the Great Western Railway's branch from Old Hil ...

branch to

Old Hill Old Hill is a small village in the metropolitan borough of Sandwell in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England, situated around north of Halesowen and south of Dudley. Initially a separate village it is now part of the much larger ...

: this station only ever served workman's trains, and operated between 1915 and 1964. Until closure of much of the Longbridge factory, the disused track and Longbridge station building remained in situ. The current station, on Tessall Lane, was built to the designs of the architect John Broome and opened in 1978 under the auspices of

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

, as part of the

West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive The West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive (WMPTE) was the public body responsible for public transport in the West Midlands metropolitan county in the United Kingdom from 1969 until 2016. The organisation operated under the name Centro f ...

's Cross-City Line scheme. It was built as a simple two platform station on the four-track line, with a turnback siding just south of the station for terminating services. Initially nearly all Cross-City Line services terminated here, until 1980 when some were extended to . The line was electrified in 1993.

Services

During Monday-Saturday daytimes, northbound trains operate every 10 minutes with two trains per hour to Four Oaks, two to Lichfield City and two through to Lichfield Trent Valley. Southbound trains operate every 20 minutes to

Redditch Redditch is a town, and local government district, in north-east Worcestershire, England, approximately south of Birmingham. The district has a population of 85,000 as of 2019. In the 19th century, it became the international centre for the ...

and every 20 minutes to

Bromsgrove Bromsgrove is a town in Worcestershire, England, about northeast of Worcester and southwest of Birmingham city centre. It had a population of 29,237 in 2001 (39,644 in the wider Bromsgrove/Catshill urban area). Bromsgrove is the main town in the ...

. On Sundays, trains operate every 30 minutes between Redditch and

Lichfield Lichfield () is a cathedral city and civil parish in Staffordshire, England. Lichfield is situated roughly south-east of the county town of Stafford, south-east of Rugeley, north-east of Walsall, north-west of Tamworth and south-west of B ...

. Services are operated by

Class 323 The British Rail Class 323 are electric multiple unit (EMU) passenger trains built by Hunslet Transportation Projects and Holec. All 43 units were built from 1992 through to 1995, although mock-ups and prototypes were built and tested in 1990 ...

electric multiple units An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a number ...

. Since 29 July 2018, the trains that used to start or terminate here have been extended through to/from (except for a small number of early morning and late night trains) following the completion of a scheme to extend the Cross City electrification from Barnt Green.Bromsgrove Corridor resignalling
''Rail Engineer'' article 17 January 2017; Retrieved 7 June 2017 Three trains per hour operate to/from Bromsgrove Mon-Sat and two each way per hour on Sundays (the latter start/terminate at New Street). Longbridge railway station with Class 323

Longbridge railway station with Class 323

Disabled access

The ticket office and footbridge have level access from Longbridge Lane. Platform 1 (for trains towards ) has step-free access by means of a lift from the footbridge, and platform 2 (for trains towards ) has a ramp from the footbridge to platform level.

References

External links

Rail Around Birmingham and the West Midlands: Longbridge railway station
{{West Midlands railway stations, open Railway stations in Birmingham, West Midlands DfT Category E stations Former Midland Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1841 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1849 Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1978 Railway stations served by West Midlands Trains 1841 establishments in England John Broome railway stations