Redevelopment
The new Stephenson Street entrance, which will open next month
Birmingham New Street N
A transformation worth waiting for
ew Street is the busiest rail station outside London and is used by 140,000 passengers a day, more than double the
amount it was designed to handle. As well as being dark, drab and unwelcoming, it also suffers from poor access and all in all presents a bad first impression, not only of the railway, but of Britain’s second city. But now, a £600 million redevelopment project has reached its halfway point and stunning new features and changes are emerging while the station remains open for business as usual.
Around 1000 construction workers are currently on site bringing about changes that will double passenger capacity by 2015, including:
• a new concourse three and a half times bigger than present and enclosed by a giant atrium
• improved access for all • refurbished platforms • a new Moor Street Link pedestrian route alongside the concourse
• regeneration and economic growth
through new pedestrian links in the city centre and new job opportunities for the local workforce during construction (opened up by Network Rail)
• a new 20,000 sq m stainless steel station facade, consisting of 8,000 reflective panels, each one unique to adjust to the peculiar geometry of the building, weighing 1,100 tonnes in total.
Network Rail and Birmingham City Council have also overseen the upgrading and remodelling of the Pallasades shopping centre above the station, which will be re-named Grand Central Birmingham. The reconfigured complex will consist of 150,000 sq ft of high-quality retail space located next to a new 250,000 sq ft John Lewis department store, scheduled to open in autumn 2014. The project is being managed in two distinct phases. The first part saw half of the new concourse being built so that passengers can move across and start using it, and this ‘switch over’ will take place next month. After that, the existing
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