£160m boost for New Street rebuild

The rebuilding of Birmingham New Street station has taken a major step forward, with the government announcing £160 million of new funding for the project.

The Transport Secretary, Ruth Kelly, announced the money in February. It comes on top of £128 million already set aside through the government's rail white paper, and a further £100 million from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, channelled through the regional development agency. That brings total government funding for the scheme to £388 million.

A station bursting at the seams

New Street is the busiest station in the country outside London and the hub of the national rail network. But it was designed in the 1960s for 650 trains and 60,000 passengers a day, and now handles more than twice that number.

Overcrowding has become a serious problem, with parts of the station sometimes closed on safety grounds. In a survey last year, it scored a customer satisfaction rate of just 52 per cent, the joint lowest of any of Network Rail's major stations.

The station's enclosed, concrete design has also been widely criticised. In 2003, readers of Country Life magazine voted it the second biggest eyesore in the country.

Gateway Plus

The redevelopment, known as Gateway Plus, will rebuild the station's street-level buildings to create a much larger and brighter concourse, with new entrances and a new exterior. The tracks and platforms will remain largely unchanged.

The shopping centre above the station, the Pallasades, is also expected to be redeveloped as part of the scheme.

Choosing a design

Architects are now being invited to submit designs for the new station, and a shortlist is expected to be drawn up in the coming months.

Welcome news for the city

Business leaders and the city council have campaigned for years for New Street to be rebuilt, arguing that it gives visitors a poor first impression of the city and holds back its economy. They have welcomed the funding as a sign that the scheme can now go ahead.

Plans for the rebuild were first shown to the public in 2006, and a feasibility study was approved in 2005.

Questions over capacity

Some critics argue that the plans do not do enough to increase the number of trains the station can handle, as the platforms will stay the same. They say that in the long term Birmingham may need extra rail capacity elsewhere in the city centre.

What next

Work is expected to start in the next few years, with the station kept open throughout. Passengers have been warned that they will have to put up with disruption while the work takes place, but supporters say the result will be a station the city can be proud of.