A friend on Twitter recently raised an issue that I have also pondered : a journey from stations on the Birmingham and Gloucester line (now the Cross-City south line) to Gloucester and the south west usually involves travelling in to New Street, then catching a train out again - passing through the station you were just at, and adding between 30 and 60 minutes to your journey. The question was what could be done to improve that journey - both in terms of time, and convenience. Is there potential for a South Birmingham Parkway? Developing a new station site might sound appealing, but is expensive and has a range of legal, technical and practical issues to resolve. So let's look at improving or reusing existing stations, specifically Longbridge, Barnt Green and Bromsgrove. We are looking at locations that could be suitable for long-distance trains to call at, with interchange to local services on the Cross-City line, and good road links with adequate parking to act as a ra...
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