Seven new stations in seven weeks

Saturday 18th April 2026

It’s been pretty busy on the new station opening front these last few weeks including the final two stations on the Northumberland line (Northumberland Park on 22nd February and Bedlington on 29th March), two reopened stations on the Wolverhampton to Tame Bridge Parkway and Birmingham New Street tracks (Willenhall and Darlaston on 19th March) and three reopenings on the Camp Hill line between Kings Norton and Birmingham New Street (Pineapple Road, Kings Heath and Mosely Village on 7th April).

Here’s a snapshot of each of those seven new arrivals giving a taste of what faclities travellers in 2026 can savour when investment comes to their neighbourhood.

It’s not long since I blogged about the Northumberland line’s new stations…

… so this time round just a brief mention for Northumberland Park and Bedlington.

The former is just a single platform fitted in alongside the island platform for Tyne & Wear Metro trains (as seen on the right in the above photo looking south)…

… which itself is adjacent to a 393 space multi storey Park & Ride car park (just about seen in the background in the photo below on the left of the station)…

… offering daily parking for just £1.50. The half hourly Northern service offers a faster journey into Newcastle (12 minutes) than the Metro (20 minutes) although the latter offers convenient stops at both Haymarket and Monument before Newcastle railway station and continuing on to South Shields.

Facilities on the new Northern platform are fairly limited with a ticket machine, two shelters and two sets of open air seats.

Meanwhile further north at the new penultimate station before the terminus at Ashington, Bedlington is on a section of double track just before the junction where the tracks used by freight trains branch off towards Morpeth on the East Coast Main Line on the left or to Ashington on the right.

Both platforms have shelters and seating…

… and a ticket machine.

There’s a smallish car park alongside the southbound platform…

… and what looks like an original building from the original station at the southern end of the southbound platform alongside a cycle rack.

As you can see from the map below the station is at the extreme north eastern corner of the town…

… but I noticed a rather helpful poster on the platform…

… explaining how to access the station by bus from the surrounding area. It might help if this was made a bit more prominent and at eye level.

Once again I found impressive numbers travelling on the Line during my visit on Thursday lunch time and it’s good to hear initial funding (£2.5 million) is being made available by the Mayoral Combined Authority to look into plans for an extension beyond Ashington to Newbiggin-by-the-Sea.

After that let’s head down to the West Midlands where there’s been a multitude of station reopenings.

First up was Willenhall and Darlaston both of which closed in the 1960s since when the section of track between Tame Bridge Parkway and Wolverhampton has been devoid of stations with trains between Birmingham New Street, Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury using the more direct tracks via Sandwell & Dudley.

Now, both new stations have an hourly service to and from Birmingham New Street with trains continuing westwards to Wolverhampton and on to Shrewsbury. It’s begun as a Mondays to Saturdays operation with no service on Sundays.

As you’d expect both reinstated stations have been built from scratch so are fully accessible with a substantial and enclosed footbridge and lifts, as seen here…

… at Darlaston.

Neither have ticket offices but both have ticket machines…

… and a long covered canopy underneath which are 16 seats (in four batches of four) as seen here at Willenhall on the eastbound platform where there’s also a cycle rack.

The main (and accessible) entrance to Willenhall is to and from the westbound platform but it’s not exactly architecturally inspiring…

… and involves a maze style ramp.

However, to brighten up the otherwise greyness of the environs, in addition to the organge lamposts are a series of giant murals at the eastern end of the westbound platform…

.. including a giant station name.

Another nice feature is a name plate from the original station on display (including original defacement) as you approach the entrance…

… alongside a feature map of the area….

… and where the murals continue…

…towards the Bilston Street road bridge from where there’s also a step (and lift) entrance directly to the eastern end of the eastbound platform…

… where there are some rather nice wooden slated seats on concrete bases and supports giving a great view for tired passers by of the steps and lift rather than the cycle lane immediately behind in the road.

As you can see, it’s a rather practical station with only 33 parking spaces but local bus routes are close by including route 529 running every 7-8 minutes between Wolverhampton, Willenhall and Walsall which is noteworthy as the aim of reopening both Willenhall and Darlaston it to provide a regular train service to both those destinations using the otherwise little used section of track east of Darlaston that heads round to the north shown in the map below.

Which brings us nicely to Darlaston station, which is not quite so conveniently sited as Willenhall with not much nearby other than a cemetery as well as a barren site with huts, a workman and a digger…

… so it entails a bit of a walk from Walsall Road which passes over the tracks east of the station. However the station does have a large 300 space car park which it’s hoped will provide a useful Park & Ride facility for motorists.

When I visited the station late Friday morning a week ago there were only 18 cars in the car park so maybe the hourly service hasn’t quite caught on yet…

… although quite a few arrived to board the train into Brimingham while I was there. Like Willenhall, the entrance is rather grey looking where there’s a ticket machine…

… and canopies on each platform, with another 16 seats in four batches of four.

There’s a similar set up on the Wolverhampton bound platform with another ticket machine with access only from the footbridge and lifts.

By contrast to the hourly service to Willenhall and Darlaston, the three newly opened stations on the Camp Hill line now enjoy a half hourly service between Kings Norton and Birmingham New Street with an hourly frequency on Sundays offering a new alternative to taking the bus into Birmingham city centre or, for those living on the west side of the catchment area, the line running through Bournvile, Selly Oak, University and Five Ways.

However this new travel opportunity has not come without some kickback as passengers using the busy Cross City Line hoping for the promised reinstatement of the pre-Covid 10 minute frequency have to make do with the continued current 15 minute service between Bromsgrove/Redditch and Lichfield Trent Valley via Kings Norton, University and Birmingham New Street.

That’s because the new half hourly service on the Camp Hill line takes up the available capacity at Kings Norton. It’s not currently possible to run 10 minutely via University and half hourly via Camp Hill.

None of the three new stations have a ticket office nor car park but each have good access with a footbridge, stairs and lifts as well as ticket machines. Like Willenhall and Darlaston there aren’t any bus shelter type structures but instead passengers have the benefit of a longish canopy with the rather nice wooden slatted seats in groups of three. Here’s Pineapple Road from the northbound platform…

… where there’s also a long stretch of the platform without a canopy or seats, but plenty of orange lampposts.

At the far (northern) end there’s an emergency exit kind of ‘pen’…

… on both platforms…

… including, from the northbound platform, it’s own footpath parallel to the platform leading back to the entrance…

… which seemed a bit odd.

The main entrance itself is at the southern end of the northbound platform…

… where there’s a nice little wall to sit on…

… by the ticket machine.

Access to and from the southbound platform is the other side of the bridge over the tracks…

… where there are stairs and a lift.

Next up, a two minute train ride north, is Kings Heath which gives a similar layout except the entrance/exit to Kings Heath High Street is at the northern end of the platforms rather than the southern end.

The main entrance is to and from the southbound platform where there’s a cycle rack…

… and a fotbridge over to the northbound platform…

… which also has its own access from High Street.

… with a rather sad looking single seat, all on its own.

Down at platform level, there’s the usual long canopy covering around half the platform lengths…

… with a smattering of seats while the rest of the platforms are in the open, but also with seats this time.

There’s a rather nice (what looks like an) original station sign on display too which must have been in safe keeping for the last 85 years.

And that’s about it for Kings Heath.

So let’s jump back on a train for a three minute ride further north to Moseley Village…

… where the entance/exit is at the southern end of the platforms again, above the tracks on St Mary’s Row. The platforms are a fair distance north of St Mary’s Row because of the tunnel…

… which has given the opportunity to create a large space for drop off and pick up…

… and an area for passengers to enjoy the ambiance…

… by sitting on one of the rather low bench style seats…

… before buying a ticket…

… and walking on one of the two high level walkways…

… to the lifts and stairs to each platform.

It all makes for an interesting welcome…

… before the otherwise usual canopy covered platform halves as we’ve seen at the other stations.

My travels up and down the Camp Hill line were on the Friday of the first week and it was impressive to see many local people obviously trying out the new service. It already looks like it will be a success.

The line is also used by freight trains as well as some Cross Country trains which pass through rather than use the line through University as I saw on my visit.

It’s been 85 years since these stations last saw passengers and it’s good to see them back.

Roger French

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