NRA Medium Station of the Year 2024: University (Birmingham)

The 2024 award for Medium Station of the Year in the National Rail awards went to University (Birmingham), West Midlands Trains.

Highly Commended were: Margate (Southeastern); Market Harborough (East Midlands Railway).

University is a new entry to the National Rail Awards, following this year’s completion of work to lift its capacity from 500,000 to seven million passengers a year.

Opened in 1978 as part of an upgrade to Birmingham’s Cross-City Line, the station was already struggling to accommodate around four million entries and exits per annum by the time Birmingham was announced as the host city for the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

Anticipating a surge of additional visitors to venues on the University of Birmingham campus, Transport for the West Midlands and the West Midlands Rail Executive announced a £56 million redevelopment plan in 2019.

Extended platforms were delivered in time for the Games in July 2022 as part of the complex three-year construction programme, during which the station remained open and fully operational.

A new, larger station building with other additional or improved facilities - including lifts, more open space and an NHS facility - was officially opened in January 2024.

The original 1970s building has been retained to improve flow as an exit-only route for passengers.

The judges said: “The new station has been transformed from a barren suburban station to the seventh busiest in the West Midlands.

“This has been achieved in a narrow cutting next to a canal and now unites the University and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital into a bustling destination station, just seven minutes from central Birmingham.”

Staff were praised for not only helping passengers to navigate the new layout, but also for finding time to tend the station gardens.

Go to our results story for a list of all the winners at the 2024 National Rail Awards, together with more pictures from the event at the JW Marriott Grosvenor House hotel, Park Lane, London on 12th September.