Chester Road railway station serves the areas of Pype Hayes,

Erdington Erdington is a suburb and ward of Birmingham, in the county of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Warwickshire, it is located northeast of central Birmingham, bordering Sutt ...

and

Wylde Green Wylde Green is a residential area within the town of Sutton Coldfield in Birmingham, England in the West Midlands. It was historically part of Warwickshire. The area is in the Sutton Vesey ward. History In the 16th century, this area of barren ...

in north-east

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 ...

, in the West Midlands county of England. It is sited on the

Cross-City Line The Cross-City Line is a suburban rail line in the West Midlands region of England. It runs for from Redditch and Bromsgrove in Worcestershire, its two southern termini, to Lichfield, Staffordshire, its northern terminus, via , connecting the ...

between / and , via . Pedestrian access to the station is via Green Lanes, near to the junction with the Chester Road ( A452). It is above road level, as the line here is on an embankment.

History

The line from to was built by the

London and North Western Railway The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the LNWR was the largest joint stock company in the world. Dubbed the "Premier Line", the LNWR's main line connec ...

(LNWR) in 1862, although Chester Road station was not opened until 1 December 1863. The LNWR became part of the

London Midland and Scottish Railway The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with LNER, GWR and SR. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway's corporate image used LMS, and this is what is generally ...

in 1921, as part of the

Grouping Grouping generally refers to the creation of one or more groups, or to the groups themselves. More specifically, grouping may refer to: * Shot grouping in shooting sports and other uses of firearms * the use of symbols of grouping in mathemati ...

, which was

nationalised Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization contrasts with ...

to become part of

British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commis ...

at the beginning of 1948. The station booking office and waiting room were rebuilt in 1991-1992 during the electrification of the line. The original LNWR station waiting room was dismantled, and moved to , another former LNWR station, on the preserved Battlefield Line Railway. In 2019 as part of the West Midlands Railway branding of the railway stations they manage, Chester Road station was among the stations given orange lampposts and railings. This received a lukewarm response from many locals, the local MP

Andrew Mitchell Sir Andrew John Bower Mitchell Order of St Michael and St George, KCMG (born 23 March 1956) is a British politician who was Shadow Foreign Secretary from July to November 2024 and served as Foreign Secretary (United Kingdom), Deputy Foreign S ...

and the leader of Sutton Coldfield Town Council, Simon Ward.

Facilities

Chester Road is a

park and ride A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, Rail transport, r ...

station, and has a free car park which was expanded in May 2006. There is a ticket office on platform 2, with a ticket machine opposite as well as a ticket machine before platform 1. There is a shelter on both platforms with seating areas.

Access for disabled passengers

There are ramps providing step-free access to both platforms at Chester Road. Chester Road has been classified as a step-free access category B1 station. This means that there is step-free access to all platforms, but that this may include long or steep ramps, as is the case here.

Services

The station is currently served by

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 ...

with local Transport for West Midlands branded "Cross-City" services, operated using

Electric multiple unit An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a number o ...

s (EMUs). Usual off-peak services at Chester Road follow a pattern such as the one below: Services are listed in trains per hour (tph) Mondays to Saturdays: *4 tph northbound to via , departing from Platform 1. **2 tph continue to via . *4 tph southbound to via and , departing from Platform 2. **2 tph continue to via , calling at all stations. **2 tph continue to calling at all stations except , 1tph does not call at . Sundays: *2 tph northbound to Lichfield Trent Valley. *2 tph southbound to Redditch. Services on Sundays call at all stations between Lichfield Trent Valley and Redditch. The average journey time to Birmingham New Street is around 16 minutes.

References

External links

Rail Around Birmingham and the West Midlands: Chester Road railway station
{{West Midlands railway stations, open Railway stations in Birmingham, West Midlands DfT Category E stations Former London and North Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1863 Railway stations served by West Midlands Trains