Birmingham International railway station



Birmingham International is a railway station located in Solihull in the West Midlands, to the east of the city of Birmingham, England.

The station is on the Rugby–Birmingham–Stafford Line 14 km (8½ miles) east of Birmingham New Street and serves both Birmingham Airport and the National Exhibition Centre.

History
The station was designed by the architect Ray Moorcroft and opened on 26 January 1976. and has regular train services to many parts of the country. It was named Birmingham International after the adjacent airport which was at the time named Birmingham International Airport, but has since been rebranded as Birmingham Airport.

Services
The station is managed by Virgin Trains and is also served by Arriva Trains Wales, CrossCountry and London Midland. It has five platforms, consisting of two islands and one side platform numbered 1-5 from south to north.

The basic off-peak service is as follows:

Virgin Trains
 * 3 trains per hour to London Euston
 * 2 trains per hour to Birmingham New Street
 * 1 train per hour to Glasgow Central/Edinburgh Waverley (alternating each hour) via Birmingham New Street and Wolverhampton
 * 2 trains per day to Shrewsbury

During rush hour certain Virgin services to/from London Euston start and terminate here.

Arriva Trains Wales
 * 1 train per hour to Shrewsbury, of which:
 * 1 train per two hours continues to Aberystwyth and Pwllheli after dividing at Machynlleth
 * 1 train per two hours continues to Holyhead via Wrexham General and Chester

CrossCountry
 * 1 train per hour to Manchester Piccadilly
 * 1 train per hour to Bournemouth via Reading

London Midland
 * 4 trains per hour to Birmingham New Street
 * 3 trains per hour to London Euston via Northampton

Connection to Birmingham Airport


A maglev service ran from the airport terminal to the station from 1984 until 1995. The train "flew" at an altitude of 15 mm over a track 620 m in length. It operated for nearly 11 years, but was scrapped because spare parts for the system were no longer available. It was temporarily replaced by a bus.

The chosen replacement system, the DCC Doppelmayr Cable Car Cable Liner Shuttle, was announced in late 2000 and construction started in 2001. The Interchange was opened in March 2003. The system was originally known as SkyRail but in 2004 it was renamed AirRail Link.

The airport can also be reached via a dedicated fast bus service from Coleshill Parkway station, on the Birmingham to Peterborough Line.

Connection to the National Exhibition Centre
Under cover walkways, escalators and Travelators connect the NEC buildings to the station and to the Air-Rail Link, which in turn connects to Birmingham Airport.

Birmingham interchange
A new Birmingham Interchange railway station is to be built on the other side of the M42 motorway from the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham Airport and this station. The new interchange would be connected by a "rapid transit people mover" to the other sites; the AirRail Link people mover already operates between Birmingham International station and the airport.