A brand new railway station is set to open in Birmingham, designed to cater to upcoming HS2 trains.
Birmingham Curzon Street station will link the city with London, with a journey time of just 49 minutes.
Trains will continue on the existing rail network to destinations including Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow.
The station will be the first brand new intercity terminus to be built in Britain since the 19th century.
It will be located east of Birmingham city centre.
Curzon Street’s design takes inspiration from the arched roofs built by the Victorian railway pioneers, updated for the 21st century.
The station design focuses on accessibility, open space and the landscape around it.
The design aims to place passenger experience at the forefront, with additional cycle parking spaces, planted areas that collect rainfall, landscaping, lighting, paving, and seating, accessible entrances and durable external ceramic tiles.
There are open spaces and four public areas, including two squares and a promenade.
The station will have cycle parking for more than 550 bicycles and accessible pedestrian routes.
It will have a connected layout in the eastern concourse so passengers can change platforms without leaving the ticketed area.
The station design also focuses on accessibility and sustainability.
It has an ‘excellent’ sustainability rating from BREEAM (the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method).
This rating recognises its low energy usage, which was achieved by using LED lighting and solar panels, and minimising the building’s impact on the natural environment.
The station will strengthen Birmingham’s transport connections and support the regeneration of Eastside and Digbeth.
It is set to play a vital role in the long-term economic future of the West Midlands.
The project supports more than 1,000 jobs during its main construction phase.
When it’s operational, Curzon Street will connect passengers to the local transport network, including buses and the Midland Metro. A tram line will run alongside and under the station.
However, HS2 plans have been mired in controversy – due to constant delays.
The line was originally meant to have been completed this year, but it’s now due to open anywhere between 2029 and 2033.
Last month, villagers in the picturesque Water Orton, in Warwickshire, claimed their peaceful community has been destroyed by ongoing HS2 works.
They said heavy machinery is causing their homes to vibrate with a cloud of dirt and dust hovering over their gardens.
Families fed up with the daily misery moved out of their homes, with the dwindling number of children in the area causing the area’s primary school to reduce its capacity.
The project was recently dubbed a ‘£640million per mile national humiliation’.
The 120-mile-long construction site that is HS2 has become such a muddy wasteland that it shows up on satellite images far more prominently than any motorway.
Nowhere is it more of a mess than between Steeple Claydon and Calvert, Buckinghamshire. Some roads are closed, others lead to depots filled with lorries. Great earth mounds rise skywards where green fields used to lie.
Locals living near what used to be cherished countryside complain of deafening noises on the rare occasion when any work seems to be being done, which some liken to a Chinook helicopter taking off, and constant diversions.
