Birmingham West Suburban Rail Line

It is doubtful except a handful of railway enthusiasts have heard of the Birmingham West Suburban Railway, though very many of them will know and have travelled over the line in its present condition, forming as it does the main line approach to Birmingham New Street from Gloucester and Bristol and is part of the Birmingham Cross City rail line. As an individual concern (though operated by the Midland Railway from the beginning) it existed for only a few years, and its transformation from 'a very modest single line serving into an important piece of main line caused a quite large part of the map of Birmingham to be "rubbed out and drawn again" as services were concentrated on Birmingham New Street station. The course of the line hugs the bank of the Birmingham. and Worcester Canal, and commenced at a passenger station at Granville Street, running to a junction with the Midland Railway (Birmingham and Gloucester Railway) at Lifford. The bill for the construction of the line, which was incorporated on 30th July 1871, provided for a terminus at Albion Wharf Bridge Street, Birmingham, on an extension from Granville Street 'being carried over the canal on. a viaduct of twenty arches, the gradient being as steep as 1 in 50. In 1873 a Parliamentary Bill provided for this extension to be abandoned in favour of another extension to a goods station at the corner of Suffolk Street and Wharf Street, which! again crossed the canal and a sub-terranean public right-of-way called The Gullet, falling away at 1 in 63 to Suffolk Street.

Neither of these extensions were built but, it is assumed that the line terminated at Granville Street station, a single wooden platform with a shed, all traces of which have now vanished. Passenger trains began to run on, 3rd April 1876. The Bill of 1873 also provided for a diversion of the line at Selly Oak, presumably to allow of better. siding facilities. This diversion, 1,947 yards in length, involved a new crossing of the Bristol Road, and the remains of the old viaduct could be seen for many years alongside (west of) the. present Bristol Road bridge. The old viaduct was removed in more recent years as part of the redevelopment of the Battery Park site. At the Lifford end the line passed under the Redditch Road at Breedon Cross, and under the Birmingham. and Gloucester Railway, swinging round thence to the right to the old passenger station at Reachill's Wharf (known as. Old Lifford) and on to the junction with the 'Gloucester line just beyond the present " Lifford Curve." Alongside the old suburban Lifford station is the Midland Lifford station that was closed in 1941. The original line under Bredon Cross has for many years provided road access to an industrial park. At the other end of the line where it left the West Suburban line just to the south of Bournville station this area has been given over to factory units removing any trace of the former rail line.  

A Bill of 1874 empowered the Midland Railway to take possession of the line, and to make improvements upon it; two years later another. Bill empowered the Midland to acquire land on both sides of the Worcester Canal and in the Severn Street Commercial Street area, foreshadowing the big scheme of 1881. Acquisition of this land involved encroachment on the Jews' Burial Ground, and the removal of the disinterred bodies to Witton Cemetery in 1877.  The way was now prepared for the 1881 Bill for the Birmingham West Suburban New Street Extension; this commenced at the engine turntable (the site the Birmingham Power Box occupied) at the west end of New Street station and terminated at a junction with the Birmingham West Suburban at what is now Church Road Junction, a few yards west of Five Ways station. The Bill provided for the acquisition of several public streets, and a further tract of the Jews' Burial Ground and Dead House.

At the New Street end, an extension of Holliday Street to Suffolk Street, under the canal, took the place of the old Gullet. An 'ornate aqueduct and private roadway, in typical railway cast-iron style, carried the canal over Holliday Street, and a large area to the south was swallowed up to make room for what became Suffolk Street Goods Station (known as Central Goods). To reach these two lines of railway were driven through a tunnel from Granville Street to Holliday Passage, the old passenger line being used as a siding. The new lines to New Street, from Church Road Junction, are here at a considerably lower level and finally disappear underground. At the other end of the line a new junction was made with the Suburban. opposite the site of Bournville engine shed to a junction with the Gloucester line just east of the Redditch Road near Kings Norton station; the "Lifford Curve" provided another connection with the Gloucester line back towards Birmingham. The new main line from Kings Norton to New Street, was opened on 1st October 1885. At various points the Midland eased out the curves, but the original course of the Suburban can be seen from the present line.