BIRMINGHAM AND WEST MIDLANDS RAILWAY ATLAS – SECOND EDITION

THIS second edition of the Birmingham and West Midlands Railway Atlas updates the first edition published six years ago, and includes a lot of new information.

The railway network in the West Midlands has changed in that time, with extensions to the Midland Metro planned and built, plus plans for the reopening of the Camp Hill line progressed and new chords planned at the eastern end of that line. In the Coventry maps, the planned Very

Light Rail line is shown with all its intermediate stations.

In the future, with the opening of HS2, it will change a lot more. The author has incorporated a great deal of detail, including not only routes for the HS2 running lines, but also the platform arrangement at the new Curzon St and Birmingham Interchange stations, plus the track layout at the HS2 fleet maintenance depot to be built at Washwood Heath.

Multiple maps cover central Birmingham in more detail, with one for each major station; it might be worth including an overall Birmingham city centre map across two pages in any future edition so everything can be seen on one double page.

As well as showing new and future lines, the real strength of this atlas is that it also shows all the historical lines and former stations, which reveals a huge amount about the railway and tramway history of the West Midlands.

One other suggestion for future editions: the use of a bold colour for the current and future Midland Metro routes alongside the old tram network in a lighter version of the same orange is perhaps too subtle for anyone with less than perfect vision.

Highly recommended to anyone with an interest in the railways of the West Midlands. KF

Published by Crecy www.crecy.co.uk

128 pages, hardback. £25.00