Bournville (BRV)

Bournville, adjacent to the famous Cadbury factory, is a stop on the South half of the Cross-City Line in Birmingham between Kings Norton and Selly Oak.
WMR 323 208 arrives with a Birmingham bound service


Information
Type: National Rail (Cross-City Line)
Station code: BRV
Opened: 1876
Platforms: 2

The station was opened by the Birmingham West Suburban Railway in 1876 as Stirchley Street. The station was renamed Stirchley Street & Bournville in 1880 following the opening of the Cadbury factory the year before, the name was reversed in 1888. Finally, the station was renamed Bournville in 1904 [1]. The station originally just had a single platform with a second platform added when the line was doubled in the late 1880s. This second platform is narrow due to the Worcester & Birmingham Canal next to the line.


North of the station was the Bournville Works Railway and it's sidings, Bournville itself never had it's own goods yard. The station was rebuilt in 1978, the original buildings being demolished and replaced by metal canopies when the Cross-City Line was created [2]. The line was electrified in 1993. The platform canopies are painted purple to match the Cadbury brand. The station is managed by West Midlands Railway with a service at up to every ten minute intervals in each direction. Access between the platforms is via the road bridge which crosses the line at the Southern end of the station.
The metal canopies, used on a number of Cross-City Line stations

A WMR 323 stands at the station

Station view from the ramp up to the road bridge

View down the platform, note the Cadbury purple on the canopy posts

323 207 departs



[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Bromsgrove to Birmingham (Middleton Press, 2006) Map. XIX
[2] Ibid. Fig. 82