Network Rail to unveil £600m Birmingham New Street design

Network Rail is to unveil detailed plans for the £600m redevelopment of Birmingham New Street station tomorrow.

It is expected to announce the full line-up of design consultancies, architects, planners and engineers working on the £30m design project, including concept designer Foreign Office Architects and lead architect Atkins.

Transport Design Consultancy pitched to redesign wayfinding for the concourse and the adjoining retail area in July, as part of a consortium with architect Chapman Taylor and project manager McDonald, but lost out to FOA and Atkins.

‘The winner of the wayfinding element has got quite a task ahead of them – New Street has always been a problem to sign,’ says TDC founder Tony Howard. ‘The tracks are not in view from the concourse, making it difficult to orientate, and there is a bridge arrangement to deal with too.’

It is understood that the new concourse will feature airport-style lounges, though the overall design scheme has been criticised for not going far enough – the design community has repeatedly called for the 1967 building to be demolished and rebuilt from scratch.

The station was voted as having the joint-worst environment in the UK, along with Liverpool Lime Street and East Croydon, in a customer satisfaction survey published by Passenger Focus last year.

TDC is currently pitching to design a new pedestrian walkway between New Street and the adjacent Moore Street train station.