Kings Norton railway station

Kings Norton railway station serves the Kings Norton and Cotteridge areas of Birmingham, England. It lies on the Cross-City Line from Redditch and Bromsgrove through Birmingham New Street to Lichfield. The station's main entrance is located on Pershore Road South, the A441.

Kings Norton
Kings Norton railway station in 2013, only the two outer platforms are in use.
LocationKings Norton, Birmingham
England
Coordinates52.413°N 1.934°W / 52.413; -1.934
Grid referenceSP046795
Managed byWest Midlands Trains
Transit authorityTransport for West Midlands
Platforms2
Other information
Station codeKNN
Fare zone3
ClassificationDfT category D
Key dates
1849Opened
1978Rebuilt
2006Original building demolished
Passengers
2015/16 1.237 million
2016/17 1.290 million
2017/18 1.362 million
2018/19 1.509 million
2019/20 1.512 million
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

History
Kings Norton station in 1967

The current Kings Norton station is the second station to be built in the Kings Norton area. The original Lifford railway station (the first of three stations to bear the Lifford name) was first built on what is now the Camp Hill Line.[1]

Opening in 1849, Kings Norton was developed as part of the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway's line to Curzon Street via the Camp Hill Line.

In 1852 the stationmaster, Thomas Clark, was fined 50s (equivalent to £274 in 2019)[2] for causing a collision. He allowed a goods-train on the line when an express train was due, and used defective signal lamps. The express train collided with the goods train and there was substantial damage, but no loss of life.[3]

On 19 March 1864 at 6:00 pm, a luggage train with several trucks of sheep suffered a failed axle and all of the trucks behind were thrown off the line. Two of the trucks containing sheep descended the embankment and overturned, killing many of the sheep instantly. A fast train from Bristol was halted before it reached the collision site.[4]

The platforms were extended in length in 1892 with the extension of the Midland Railway's Birmingham West Suburban Railway. This enabled the construction of a large coal and goods yard with sidings for the adjacent Triplex factory. In the mid 1920s, two additional lines and platforms were added - opening to traffic on 14 March 1926. Stations on the Camp Hill Line were closed to Passenger Traffic from January 1941, although passenger trains continued to use the line and stop at Kings Norton Station.[5]

The station was rebuilt in 1978[6] by British Rail and the lines through the station were electrified in 1993.

Station masters
  • Thomas Clark. ca. 1852
  • Thomas Plumb 1870–1891
  • Levi Lovell 1892–1900
  • Aaron Walker 1900–1902
  • Alfred Smith 1902–1914 – ????
  • Frederick James Stallard 1920[7] – 1925 (formerly station master at Brightside and Wincobank, afterwards station master at Evesham)
  • A. Edkins 1940[8] – ????
  • Harry Snary 1944–1956[9] (formerly station master at King’s Heath)
  • W. Chadwick 1956[10] – ???? (formerly station master at Newcastle-under-Lyme)
  • Leslie Jones ???? – 1965

From 1965 the position of station master was abolished.

Today

With the development of both bus and tram services, the need for such a large facility reduced from the 1930s onwards. The result is that today although all four platforms remain in place, only the outer two are in passenger use, with the middle island platforms now derelict.

Refurbished as part of the Cross-City line in 1978, it retained some of its original features following refurbishment, unlike the other 'cross city line' stations. The original station building survived, leased out for commercial purposes, until it was demolished in February 2006 for safety reasons. An extension car park provides a Park and Ride facility.

Kings Norton is served by West Midlands Trains services, using Class 323 electric multiple units. West Midlands Trains operate the Cross-City line on behalf of Transport for West Midlands.

Kings Norton Station is equipped with real-time information departure boards which were installed in 2006 by Central Trains.

Disabled access

There is step-free access to platform 1 (for trains towards Birmingham New Street) from the ticket office entrance. Step-free access to platform 4 (for trains towards Longbridge) is via the Pershore Road South road bridge and the car park.

Services

Trains call here every 10 minutes in each direction Monday to Saturday daytimes and every 15 minutes in the evenings and on Sundays.[11] Since July 2018, southbound trains serve Bromsgrove as well as Redditch (every 20 minutes weekday daytimes, half-hourly evenings and Sundays).

Future
The island platforms at Kings Norton are disused, but could potentially be brought back into service.

Kings Norton Station could see refurbishment of the island platform for passenger use, should the proposal to reopen the Camp Hill Line progress. This could see the introduction of 3 (possibly 4) trains per hour between Kings Norton and Birmingham Moor Street. Only the two outer railway lines at Kings Norton are electrified fully (platform 3 is electrified but as a terminal point only), however the type of cantilever used on the platform means the lines can quite easily be fully electrified should the Camp Hill Line reopen for passenger traffic, though the track layout will need amending.

In the media

Kings Norton Station has been used, along with many other areas of Birmingham, as a location in the BBC daily serial Doctors (for example in an episode first broadcast on 9 November 2011).

References
  1. "Rail Around Birmingham".
  2. UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
  3. "Railway Accident". Shrewsbury Chronicle. England. 12 November 1852. Retrieved 25 March 2020 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  4. "Serious Accident on the Midland Railway". Birmingham Gazette. England. 21 March 1864. Retrieved 28 March 2020 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  5. Mourton, Stephen; Pinxton, Bob (2001). Birmingham - Bristol Portrait of a Famous Midland Route Part One Birmingham to Cheltenham. Runpast. pp. 29, 46. ISBN 1 870754 53 0.
  6. "City line ready to make impact on Birmingham". Birmingham Daily Post. England. 8 May 1978. Retrieved 25 March 2020 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  7. "Brightside to Birmingham". Sheffield Daily Telegraph. England. 6 July 1920. Retrieved 25 March 2020 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  8. "New Stationmaster at King's Norton". Evening Despatch. England. 23 February 1940. Retrieved 25 March 2020 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  9. "Eye on Trains". Birmingham Daily Gazette. England. 25 April 1956. Retrieved 25 March 2020 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  10. "New Stationmaster". Birmingham Daily Gazette. England. 23 February 1940. Retrieved 25 March 2020 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  11. Table 69 National Rail timetable, December 2018
Preceding station National Rail Following station
West Midlands Railway
Disused railways
Terminus   Midland Railway
Camp Hill Line		   Lifford
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