Stunning footage of Birmingham New Street, 2015

[JamieLei]

[Ameecher]

When do we get ICE3s then?

[Dave]

If it looks this good I'll film myself nailing my head to a table.

[Kevo00]

If it looks this good I'll film myself nailing my head to a table.

Lol.

Just remember that there is probably a similar film from the 1960s rebuild languishing in the vaults somewhere, at Kew or in the Birmingham City Archives. Or at least artists impressions showing what a great public space the new station was going to be.

[John]

When do we get ICE3s then?

Right after they develop that white shiny concrete you saw


Some of the key concepts seem strangely lacking in the video. With some areas being zipped through in no time, and others of little relevance being zoomed in on (apparently the ticket barriers are a key feature!).


And no doubt the "seamless plaster" will become "seamless concrete".


But what do you expect if you polish a turd...

[61653]

Still not sure how they'll address the problem of the lack of any natural light at platform level, other than the ends...

[JamieLei]

Still not sure how they'll address the problem of the lack of any natural light at platform level, other than the ends...

They seem to do it rather well at St Pancras Thameslink!

[Kevo00]

Some of the key concepts seem strangely lacking in the video. With some areas being zipped through in no time, and others of little relevance being zoomed in on (apparently the ticket barriers are a key feature!).

You've a lot to learn about the railway business

[Seeker]

Some of the key concepts seem strangely lacking in the video. With some areas being zipped through in no time, and others of little relevance being zoomed in on (apparently the ticket barriers are a key feature!).

Only because you'll be stuck at the barriers for so long waiting for delayed trains from only having 2 platsforms completed by 2015

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[Geo Ghost]

Themes Link at St. Pancras looks pretty good.
Actually, St. Pancras in general looks damn good! When I have a bit of spare time I enjoy just wandering around there whilst waiting for my train or waiting to meet someone. The design for Birmingham New Street looks pretty good actually! Assuming they can actually match the design anyway.

Kings Cross's redevelopment is coming across nicely though. Not easy to see in places but there's one section of roof in the main station that looks really good now. Cleaned up, open, re-painted and above all... lets in a lot of natural light. It looks brilliant and feels much more open. Not dark and dingy.
The new building looks really neat and actually matches the design.

I think the redevelopment of the Birmingham station will go well. Confident it'll work

[broodje]

There is a video somewhere form the 60sh about the electrification of the WCML. In that video something is also said about Birmingham Newstreet (and Euston!). I can't find the video at the moment, and I forget where I got the link from. Was there not a site filled with old short BBC films?

[Kevo00]

Possibly BritishRailways.tv?

[andel]

Birmingham New Street never looks good, 2015 or 1530 - its still a dive.

[broodje]

Ah, found it: http://www.macearchive.org/Archive/Titl ... 33160.html Interesting video about the WCML upgrade in 1967.

[audigex]

Is it just me, or does it look pretty much the same with new carpets and a skylight?

If they're going to do anything, they can subsidise that ridiculously expensive WHSmith, and put a covered walkway in between New St and that other one. I don't pay for a train ticket so that I can have a walk in the rain.

[61653]

It doesn't actually appear to do much to increase the capacity, either for trains or passengers. There's not much space to add new platforms, not without making the existing ones even narrower than they already are. There was talk in the heady days of when Railtrack was making profits of £2m a day (seemingly from not carrying out maintenance) of adding a 'low-level' station for the electric cross-city services... Fat chance of that happening now, of course!

[John]

It doesn't actually appear to do much to increase the capacity, either for trains or passengers.

Well no - it just adds more light.

You will find the passenger capacity goes up - more space on the concourse and more space on the platforms (apparently the platforms will get cleared in the middle).

But given that New Street physically just can't handle any more trains - it's like building another 6 terminals at Heathrow.

Ove Arup proposed a new station - Birmingham Grand Central which solved the problem. It got ignored.

See here.

[audigex]

That's highly inconsistent - the video seems to think we're getting ICE3s, whereas the PDF thinks we're getting TGVs.

[Nawdic]

For some reason, Southern want (and have more-or-less) started the refurbisment of East Croydon...


All they have done in 6 months:

Remove old NSE signage...

In 6 months?

[Ed,]

The one ting in the video that's actually feasible and useful is the declutered platforms with big yellow numbers on teh pillars that station is confusing if your not used to it.