Birmingham International is a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

in the

Metropolitan Borough of Solihull The Metropolitan Borough of Solihull is a metropolitan borough in West Midlands (county), West Midlands county, England. It is named after its largest town, Solihull, from which Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council is based. For Eurostat purpose ...

in the West Midlands of England, just east of

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

. It is on the

Rugby–Birmingham–Stafford line The Rugby–Birmingham–Stafford line (also known as the Birmingham loop) is a railway line in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is a Loop line (railway), loop off the West Coast Main Line (WCML) between Rugby, Warwickshi ...

east of

Birmingham New Street railway station Birmingham New Street, also known as New Street station, is the largest and busiest of the Birmingham station group, three main railway stations in Birmingham city centre, England, and a central hub of the Rail transport in Great Britain, Brit ...

. BHI serves

Birmingham Airport Birmingham Airport , formerly ''Birmingham International Airport'', is an international airport located east-southeast of Birmingham city centre, west-northwest of Coventry slightly north of Bickenhill village, in the Metropolitan Bor ...

, the

National Exhibition Centre The National Exhibition Centre (NEC) is an exhibition centre located in Marston Green, England, near to Birmingham and Solihull. It is near junction 6 of the M42 motorway, and is adjacent to Birmingham Airport and Birmingham International rail ...

, the

Resorts World Arena bp pulse LIVE is a multipurpose indoor arena located at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) in Solihull, England, just outside Birmingham. It has a capacity of 15,685 seats. The venue was built as the seventh hall of the NEC complex. After 1 ...

, and Resorts World Birmingham.

History

The station was designed by the architect Ray Moorcroft and opened on 26 January 1976; it has regular train services to many parts of the country. It was named Birmingham International after the adjacent airport, which had at the time that name but is today called simply

. A large space under the overbridge next to the southbound platforms suggests an allowance for future station expansion. In 2016, it was proposed to rename it to ''Birmingham Airport & NEC'', due to the airport's name change and the near presence of the

Services

The station is managed by

Avanti West Coast First Trenitalia West Coast Rail, trading name, trading as Avanti West Coast, is a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup (70%) and Trenitalia (30%) that operates the West Coast Partnership. In November 2016, the Department for Tra ...

and is also served by

CrossCountry CrossCountry (legal name XC Trains Limited) is a British train operating company owned by Arriva UK Trains, operating the current CrossCountry franchise. The CrossCountry franchise was restructured by the Department for Transport (DfT) in 2006, ...

Transport for Wales Transport for Wales (TfW; ; ) is a not-for-profit company owned by the Welsh Government and managed at arms length by its appointed board. TfW oversees the Transport for Wales Group (TfW Group) consisting of itself and its subsidiaries: Trans ...

and

West Midlands Trains West Midlands Trains (WMT) is a British train operating company. It operates passenger trains on the West Midlands franchise between London and the English Midlands under two trading names: within the West Midlands region as West Midlands Rai ...

. It has five platforms, consisting of two islands and one side platform numbered 1–5 from south to north. Birmingham International railway station4 -21y08

Birmingham International railway station4 -21y08

The basic Monday to Saturday off-peak service in trains per hour (tph) is as follows:

: * 2tph to (1 calling at , and ). All services call at . *2tph to **1tph extends northbound to via and . ***2 trains per day (tpd) run further to only, with 1 train every 2 hours running to (6tpd) and 4 trains per day (tpd) running to Glasgow Central. Services to Scotland run via . At peak times some Avanti West Coast services to/from London Euston start and terminate here.

: *1tph to via and *1tph to , via Coventry and

Transport for Wales Rail Transport for Wales Rail Limited, branded as Transport for Wales and TfW Rail ( and ), is a Welsh State-owned enterprises of the United Kingdom, publicly owned train operating company, a subsidiary of Transport for Wales (TfW), a Welsh Governme ...

: *1 tph to , of which: **1 tp2h continues to and , after dividing at **1 tp2h continues to via and . One service in the evening runs to each of (Monday to Friday only) and Manchester Piccadilly via Warrington Bank Quay. One Saturday evening service terminates at Crewe, with the last two Chester-bound services on Sundays running via Crewe.

: *4 tph to , of which: **2 trains call at Birmingham New Street only, under the

London Northwestern Railway West Midlands Trains (WMT) is a British train operating company. It operates passenger trains on the Passenger rail franchising in Great Britain, West Midlands franchise between London and the English Midlands under two trading names: within t ...

brand **2 trains start here and call at , and (1tph calls additionally at ) before continuing to via , under the

West Midlands Railway West Midlands Trains (WMT) is a British train operating company. It operates passenger trains on the Passenger rail franchising in Great Britain, West Midlands franchise between London and the English Midlands under two trading names: within t ...

brand *2 tph to , via , also calling at , , , , Coventry, Rugby, , , Milton Keynes Central, and (1tph calls additionally at ), under the

brand.

Connection to Birmingham Airport

maglev Maglev (derived from '' magnetic levitation'') is a system of rail transport whose rolling stock is levitated by electromagnets rather than rolled on wheels, eliminating rolling resistance. Compared to conventional railways, maglev trains h ...

service ran from the airport terminal to the station from 1984 until 1995. The train "flew" at an altitude of 15 mm over a track 620 m in length. It operated for nearly 11 years, but was scrapped because spare parts for the system were no longer available. It was temporarily replaced by a bus. The chosen replacement system, the Doppelmayr Cable Car

Cable Liner The Cable Liner is a range of automated people mover products designed by Doppelmayr Cable Car for use at airports, in city centers, intermodal passenger transport connections, park and ride facilities, campuses, resorts and amusement parks. T ...

Shuttle, was announced in late 2000 and construction started in 2001. The Interchange was opened in March 2003. The system was originally known as ''SkyRail'' but in 2004 it was renamed

AirRail Link The Air-Rail Link is a people mover linking Birmingham Airport with Birmingham International railway station and the National Exhibition Centre in England. The current system, originally known as SkyRail, replaced the earlier Birmingham Maglev ...

. The airport can also be reached via a dedicated fast bus service from Coleshill Parkway station, on the Birmingham to Peterborough Line.

Connection to the National Exhibition Centre

Undercover walkways,

escalator An escalator is a moving staircase which carries people between floors of a building or structure. It consists of a Electric motor, motor-driven chain of individually linked steps on a track which cycle on a pair of tracks which keep the st ...

s and travelators connect the NEC buildings to the station and to the Air-Rail Link which, in turn, connects to Birmingham Airport.

Birmingham Interchange

A new Birmingham Interchange is to be built on the other side of the

M42 motorway The M42 motorway runs north east from Bromsgrove in Worcestershire to just south-west of Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire, passing Redditch, Solihull, the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) and Tamworth, Staffordshire, Tamworth on the way, ...

from the station to link it with the proposed

High Speed 2 High Speed 2 (HS2) is a high-speed railway which has been under construction in England since 2019. The line's planned route is between Handsacre – in southern Staffordshire – and London, with a Spur line, branch to Birmingham. HS2 is to ...

rail line. The new interchange would be connected to the station by an

automated people mover A people mover or automated people mover (APM) is a type of small-scale automated guideway transit system. The term is generally used only to describe systems serving relatively small areas such as airports, downtown districts or theme parks ...

, as well as to the airport and National Exhibition centre; the

people mover already operates between Birmingham International station and the airport.

References

External links

Rail Around Birmingham and the West Midlands: Birmingham International station
{{authority control Railway stations in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull DfT Category B stations Airport railway stations in the United Kingdom Railway stations opened by British Rail Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1976 Railway stations served by CrossCountry Railway stations served by Transport for Wales Rail Railway stations served by Avanti West Coast Railway stations served by West Midlands Trains 1976 establishments in England Stations on the West Coast Main Line