Railways

The first steam railway to Birmingham was the Grand Junction from Liverpool and Manchester. It reached a temporary terminus at Vauxhall in 1837, and moved on to the London to Birmingham Railway terminus at Curzon Street the following year. The two companies combined to form the London & North-Western in 1846. The Derby line ran into Curzon Street in '39, and the Gloucester in '42: their pro-prietors formed the Midland Company in '45, with a terminus at Lawley Street. These Rea valley stations were too far from the town centre, to which narrow lanes led: so in '52 a new Central Station was built off New Street, approached by viaducts and tunnels.

The LNW's Stour Valley line began there, but the broad-gauge Oxford line was refused access: the viaduct from Bordesley on which it would have joined the other lines was never completed. A terminus was built for it on Snow Hill, approached by cuttings and tunnel, 1851-8. The Oxford Company was taken over by the Great Western, which built the Birmingham, Wolverhampton & Dudley 1ine in '54. Snow Hill Station was improved in '71, and rebuilt from 1909. In that year Moor Street Station was opened as the terminus of the new North Warwickshire line. Bypass lines were laid between Aston and Stechford (GJ to London lines) in 1880, and between the GJ and Stour Valley lines across Handsworth in '86.

The early railways were designed for fast freight haulage between towns and ports, and had few stations at first. But the demand for passenger services and suburban stations soon changed that, and new lines were expressly built for commuter traffic. These were the Sutton Coldfield (1862), the Harborne ('74), and the South-West Suburban of 1876-85. By 1909 Birmingham (1974 boundaries) had 48 stations. There were ten goods yards, including the Midland Yards at Law-ley and Suffolk Streets, and the GWR at Small Heath and Hockley: the LNW main yards were at Curzon/Grosvenor Streets and in Duddeston. From the opening of the Stour Valley line beside the Telford Cut, the LNW and BCN Companies had worked closely together, with cross-loading wharves and sidings at Monument Lane and Winson Green.

4.1. Map 4

Trains provided fast long-distance freight haulage, while narrow boats served hundreds of mines and works along 159 miles of canal. The GWR created Hockley Port on the Soho Branch. Nechells Gas Works had both wharves and branch lines, as had Saltley. Horse-drawn wagons were loaded with coal, materials, and provisions at a score of canalside and railside wharves.

Public transport by road caused the decline of railway passenger services in the City after War One. The Harborne line closed except for freight in '34, and many suburban stations closed in '40. The Gloucester line is inaccessible north of Kings Norton: the BWD and Harborne lines have been taken up, and nearly all of the sidings have disappeared, because freight traffic has also been large1y transferred to road vehicles too. However in '79 the existing track of the South-West Suburban line was given some new stations, and with the Sutton line it forms the Rapid Transit Rail Route between Longbridge and Four Oaks. There is a faint hope that the Oxford and BWD routes might be similarly revived.