Birmingham Interchange

Birmingham Interchange is a planned High Speed 2 railway station in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, West Midlands, England,^[2] with construction expected to finish in 2027.^[3]

Birmingham Interchange
Planned location
General information
Location	Bickenhill, Solihull, Metropolitan Borough of Solihull England
Grid reference	SP199839
Platforms	4 (2 island platforms)[1]
Tracks	6
History
Opening	2027–2028 (planned)

High Speed 2
Legend
As of October 2023
to Liverpool, Glasgow & Edinburgh Handsacre Junction West Coast Main Line Snow Hill lines Birmingham New Street Birmingham Curzon Street Birmingham Moor Street Birmingham International Birmingham Interchange West Coast Main Line Old Oak Common Euston pedestrian walkway to St Pancras International interchange with National Rail at all stations
Original plan, pre-2021 Northern Powerhouse Rail Manchester Piccadilly Leeds to East Coast Main Line to York & Newcastle West Coast Main Line to Liverpool, Glasgow & Edinburgh Midland Main Line Manchester Airport High Speed Classic-compatible loop Sheffield Crewe Chesterfield Classic-compatible loop East Midlands Hub Handsacre Junction to Nottingham, Derby & Leicester West Coast Main Line   Phase 1 ╲ Phase 2   boundary Snow Hill lines Birmingham New Street Birmingham Curzon Street Birmingham Moor Street Birmingham International Birmingham Interchange West Coast Main Line Old Oak Common Euston pedestrian walkway to St Pancras International interchange with National Rail at all stations
This diagram: view talk edit

Unlike the city centre based Birmingham Curzon Street railway station, the interchange station will be a parkway, serving the east side of Birmingham and surrounding urban areas.^[4]

History

The station was designed by Arup, with support from Churchman Thornhill Finch, achieving BREEAM ‘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.^[5] In June 2021, High Speed 2 invited companies to bid for a £370 million contract to build the station.^[6]

Skanska, Unity (a joint venture with Sir Robert McAlpine and VolkerFitzpatrick, with support from WSP) and Laing O’Rourke were shortlisted. Laing O’Rourke was subsequently awarded the contract in July 2022 for its detailed design.^[7] As of 2025, initial works are ongoing, including the building of a road bridge over the station, and main construction will commence in early 2026.^[8]

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

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 38 minutes.^[4]

Transport links

A proposed 17 km (11 miles) long branch of the West Midlands Metro would terminate at this station, connecting it to the local tram network.^[10]

The station will be built on a triangular piece of land, surrounded by the M42 motorway, A446 and A45, and will be linked to the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham Airport and Birmingham International railway station^[11] by a people mover. The people mover will have a capacity of over 2,100 passengers per hour in each direction in the peak period.^[4]