Modern Railways – April 2019

12 Modern Railways April 2019 http://www.modern-railways.com

News Front

BORDESLEY CHORDS AT RISK

PLANNING APPLICATION THREATENS PATH OF TRACK

A PLANNING application submitted

to Birmingham City Council could

undermine plans to construct chords

linking the Camp Hill line in south

Birmingham into the city’s Moor

Street station.

The application for ‘193 Camp

Hill’ (the current Sulzer site adjacent

to Bordesley station) includes

construction of 480 homes, a hotel

and flexible business/commercial

floorspace of 1,480 square

metres. This site is adjacent to

the potential alignment for the

Bordesley chords and includes an

energy facility building (to supply

utilities to the development) that

would occupy a triangle of land

that is in Network Rail’s projected

path of the west/south chord.

In September 2018 Transport

for West Midlands, West Midlands

Rail Executive and Network Rail

announced that they intended to

build and reopen railway stations

at Moseley, Kings Heath and

Hazelwell on the Camp Hill line, with

the expectation that the stations

would be open in time for the 2022

Commonwealth Games. Whilst an

initial service may be provided over

the diesel-only line by diverting some

long-distance services from Hereford

and Worcester to Birmingham, a more

frequent service depends on the new

chords, as do other proposed services

which would be diverted from New

Street to run via Moor Street as part

of the Midlands Rail Hub plans.

The West Midlands Rail Executive,

Transport for West Midlands, Midlands

Connect and other Rail User Groups

confirmed their objection to the

planning application, but as Executive

Director (WMRE) and Director of Rail

(TfWM) Malcolm Holmes told Modern

Railways, the state of the railway

project makes a formal objection

difficult. ‘At the current (Strategic

Outline Business Case preparation)

stage of the Midlands Rail Hub

scheme, it is not possible to determine

exactly what the land requirement

for the south west chord will be with

100% certainty at the present time’ he

explained. ‘The concern is that, whilst

the Midlands Rail Hub is still at this

early development stage, it makes

it difficult to find grounds to make

a formal objection to the proposed

“193 Camp Hill” development which

would carry sufficient weight with the

planning authority or with a planning

inspector. WMRE is nevertheless

requesting that the decision to

award planning permission to any

development on, or adjacent to,

any of the potential locations of

the Bordesley south west chord be

deferred by the planning authority

until after the final alignment for the

chord has been formally approved

by Network Rail, the planning

authority and Midlands Connect.’

Speaking to Modern Railways,

West Midlands Mayor Andy Street

agreed that all parties need to work

together to find a solution, and that

the application should be modified,

stating ‘Absolutely categorically

that should be the case. Initially the

Moseley, Kings Heath line can come

as a service into New Street without

the opening of the Bordesley Chord,

but we do need to protect the

Bordesley Chord for the long-term

improvements to the service.’

Mr Street also agreed that routing

services into New Street would take

up valuable capacity which would

be an issue as further services are

introduced on other routes. Tony Miles

Bordesley: unit No 172336 has just passed under the Camp Hill line while en-route from Birmingham to Stratford on 27 August 2017. The proposed chord would

run from the Camp Hill line to Snow Hill, adjacent to Selfridges – the dome-shaped roof of this store can be seen in the background. John Whitehouse

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