Birmingham New Street Station: Close up of the 1950 plan showing the revised platform layout which was adopted before the station opened in 1854

LMS Routes

London North Western Railway:

Rugby to Wolverhampton
Rugby to Leamington
Rugby to Market Harborough
Nuneaton to Leamington
Coventry Loop Line
Leamington to Weedon
Trent Valley Line
Birmingham New Street to Lichfield
Birmingham New Street to Harborne
Birmingham-Soho-
Perry Barr-Birmingham

Midland Railway:

Nuneaton to Birmingham New Street
Birmingham New Street to Tamworth
Evesham to Birmingham
Hampton in Arden to Whitacre
Birmingham West Suburban Railway
Rugby to Leicester
Water Orton to Walsall
Halesowen to Northfield

Stratford Midland Junction Railway

The Shakespeare Route

Birmingham New Street Station: lnwrbns_str1310b

Close up of the 1950 plan showing the revised platform layout which was adopted before the station opened in 1854

Close up of image 'lnwrbns_str1310' showing the 1950 plan and the revised platform layout which was adopted before the station opened in 1854. The original design anticipated that there would be just two platforms with just four tracks between each face. Very quickly it was realised that this was too restrictive and the two bay platforms at the top were formed by using the centre portion of the platform. At the bottom a similar action was taken although in this instance the additional platforms were designed for through traffic. This change in design explains why New Street station's LNWR platforms were very narrow.