First Look of the new "University" Station building | Birmingham | West Midlands Railway | #vlog

A look at the University station's new building that has finally been opened to the public in January 2024, against a scheduled opening of July 2022.

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I am not someone who prefers to be in front of the camera, as my forte is to stand behind it. Yet, some videos are better off being explained as a vlog. In this video, I talk about the old and new entrances to the University Station, the way it has been refurbished, and of course, some drawbacks which could have been done better.

The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as the Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery), and Mason Science College (established in 1875 by Sir Josiah Mason), making it the first English civic or 'red brick' university to receive its own royal charter, and the first English unitary university. It is a founding member of both the Russell Group of British research universities and the international network of research universities, Universitas 21.

In 1978, University station, on the Cross-City Line, was opened to serve the university and its hospital. It is the only university campus in mainland Britain with its own railway station.

University railway station serves the University of Birmingham, Birmingham Women's Hospital, and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in the West Midlands of England. It is on the Cross-City Line, which runs from Redditch and Bromsgrove to Lichfield via Birmingham New Street. Most services are operated by West Midlands Railway who manage the station, but some are operated by CrossCountry.

The station is the only main line railway station in Great Britain built specifically to serve a university.

Located on the former Birmingham West Suburban Railway, University station was built in 1977–8 to the designs of the architect John Broome as part of the upgrade of the Cross City line. The station was opened by William Rodgers, the Secretary of State for Transport, on 8 May 1978. It is a short distance away from the former Somerset Road station which closed in the 1930s. The station is part built on the site of the ancient Metchley Roman Fort. The Cross-City Line was electrified in 1993 and the current Class 323 electric multiple units were introduced by British Rail on local services.

In July 2019, West Midlands Rail Executive (WMRE) and Transport for West Midlands (TfWM)[4] announced plans to redevelop the station in order to accommodate increasing passenger numbers generally and those arising from the upcoming 2022 Commonwealth Games, of which two events will be held at venues on the University of Birmingham campus.

University station is the seventh busiest station in the Transport for West Midlands region in terms of passenger numbers, and the busiest without a direct link to London. Just under four million passenger journeys were made to and from the station in the periods 2018–19 and 2019-20.

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