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    Midlands Rail Hub Alliance: design and capacity notes for rail engineers

    December 19, 2025|

    Reviewed by Tom Sullivan

    Midlands Rail Hub Alliance: design and capacity notes for rail engineers

    First reported on The Construction Index

    30 Second Briefing

    Network Rail has appointed VolkerRail, Laing O’Rourke, AtkinsRéalis and Siemens Mobility to the Midlands Rail Hub Alliance to design and develop a £1.75bn programme of upgrades across the region’s rail network. Core works include two new chords at Bordesley to link the Chiltern main line into Birmingham Moor Street with the Camp Hill lines towards the South West and East Midlands, plus reopening platform 4 at Snow Hill to add direct Chiltern Railways services to London Marylebone. The alliance will also redesign Kings Norton station and its approaches to accommodate extra Cross City services and future Midlands Rail Hub-enabled stopping patterns.

    Technical Brief

    • Capex envelope is around £1.75bn for the full Midlands Rail Hub programme.
    • Alliance partners will support both design development and the subsequent build phase under Network Rail’s Central route.
    • VolkerRail, Laing O’Rourke and AtkinsRéalis bring an existing alliancing model proven on East West Rail Phase 2.
    • Early works strategy prioritises smaller operational changes delivering new journey options and extra trains ahead of major chords.

    Our Take

    With a £1.75bn scope centred on Birmingham nodes like Moor Street, Snow Hill and Kings Norton, Midlands Rail Hub sits at the larger end of regional schemes in our 307 Infrastructure stories, signalling long-term disruption and access constraints around these stations for adjacent urban development and utilities work.

    The repeated appearance of Network Rail and contractors such as VolkerRail, Laing O’Rourke, AtkinsRéalis and Siemens Mobility across our infrastructure coverage suggests that supply-chain and standards experience from other UK rail upgrades should reduce interface risk when tying the Midlands Rail Hub into legacy assets like the Camp Hill lines and the Chiltern main line.

    Linkages to HS2 and Curzon Street stations mean this project will likely shape service patterns and capacity decisions across the wider Midlands and East Midlands network, giving the West Midlands Rail Executive added leverage in future timetable and rolling stock negotiations with operators such as Chiltern Railways and Cross City services.

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    Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.

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