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A further ”260m ($505m) of government funding has been secured to improve Birmingham New Street Station on top of the ”128m set aside in last year”s Rail White Paper.
The Department for Transport (DfT) will provide a further ”160m - which comes from the Regional Funding Allocation - and ”100m will come from the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR).
Birmingham City Council Leader, Mike Whitby, said: ”With the support of business, local politicians, and most importantly, the general public, the government has responded to our call for a better station for Birmingham. From 2011, passengers and the general public will enjoy the first benefits of this transformation.”
Since last July ” when the initial funding was announced ” the DfT has looked at Network Rail and Birmingham City Council”s proposals for improvements and added to them. The new ”Gateway Plus” scheme will double the size of the station concourse, widen the two busiest platforms (8 and 9), increase the number of escalators from five to 31, raise the number of lifts from five to nine and add three pedestrian entrances from the city centre.
”Birmingham is a key gateway to towns and cities across Britain and this investment will make New Street a more enjoyable experience for the 17m passengers who use it each year,” said Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly. ”This scheme has improved immeasurably so that it can now meet the needs of passengers and deliver a much needed boost to capacity.
”The Government is making a major investment and it is now up to Birmingham City Council and its partners to transform this station into one of the best in our country.”
BERR Secretary of State, John Hutton, said: ”This development will both improve facilities for businesses in New Street and create an extra 5,000 jobs. This project will propel Birmingham and the more than 350,000 businesses of the West Midlands to greater prosperity.”
Though the investment will help accommodate passenger increases in the next decade ” forecast at 30% - the DfT says the focus of the scheme is to ease the current congested conditions. Network Rail plans to start works in the second half of 2009, by which time London-Birmingham services on the West Coast Main Line will have doubled, but the engineering company batted away suggestions that works could cause major disruptions.
”With any development we do it while continuing to run trains, so whatever changes we make we”ll work around the services ” there might be some changes from time to time, but it”s not something that will affect services on a regular basis.”
The DfT said the project is expected to be completed by 2013/14.