Everyone in Birmingham has their New Street horror stories: missing trains, massive delays, heaving crowds. But are they all about to get a lot worse? Since Monday (November 10), the train doors have been closing 40 seconds before departure for all services. Have you noticed a difference?
Birmingham New Street is the busiest station outside of London and welcomes around a million weekly passengers, so it’s to help services leave the station on time. The new timings, a 10-second increase for some services, was agreed between Network Rail and the train operators to help “keep passengers on the move and on time.”
On weekends, as we build towards Christmas, an average of 175,000 people use the station each Saturday and Sunday to and from the Frankfurt market, shops, bars, and restaurants in the city centre. The change from 30 to 40 seconds means passengers are safely on board, and sat down with belongings stored away, so the train can depart on time.
Steven Ireland (not the former Villa midfielder), head of stations, security and customer relationship management for Network Rail’s Central route, said: “While only a 10-second increase for some services, that extra time allows for everything to be in place to allow the train to leave on time and help to reduce any delays to passengers.”
The five train operators which provide services in and out of Birmingham New Street – West Midlands Railway, London Northwestern Railway, Avanti West Coast, CrossCountry and Transport for Wales – have all agreed to the increase. Passengers are advised to be ready for the new changes by factoring in the extra seconds into their travel plans and to always check their journeys here beforehand.
Lucy Wootton, head of Grand Railway Collaboration: “At the moment, the time at which the doors close is inconsistent across services – some are 30 seconds and some are 40 seconds. A consistent door closure time of 40 seconds before departure will make it easier for passengers to plan their journeys and will help to allow more services and passengers leave the station on time.”