Communications

Rail

Birmingham has three mainline stations: New Street, Snow Hill and Birmingham International - only 81 minutes from London.

Birmingham New Street station has more direct connections than any other station in the UK and is the busiest station in Europe, dealing with 1,250 passenger trains per day. The station serves over 77,000 passengers daily, equivalent to more than 28 million each year.

Work on the £7 million Multi-Modal Interchange at Birmingham International Station has been completed, and incorporates the new £11 million SkyRail "people mover", the first of its kind to be installed in Europe.  This monorail system can carry up to 1,490 passengers an hour, and has a journey time of 90 seconds.

The major rail operators running services from these stations are:

• Central Trains
• Chiltern Railways
• First North Western Trains
• Silverlink
• Virgin Trains
• Wales and Borders Trains
• Wessex Trains

Midland Metro

Line 1 of the Midlands Metro light rail transport system, a £45 million light rail system from Wolverhampton to Snow Hill station in the city centre, opened in May 1999.

A two mile extension is planned from Snow Hill through Birmingham City Centre, along Broad Street to Edgbaston shopping centre.  Work on the extension is expected to start in 2008, for completion in 2011.

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