Birmingham New Street station: All you need to know

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Birmingham New Street has now fully opened Credit: ITV News Central

Birmingham New Street station has fully opened this morning, after a five-year building project.

But why is it such an important occasion for those involved in the project, and for the city? Here is all you need to know about the new station.

The cost:

  • The original budget was £400million, before it was decided John Lewis would be part of the new build, seeing that rise to £600million.

  • Problems with poor quality concrete and the discovery of asbestos means the cost has risen by around £150million.

  • Network Rail say for every £1 spent in the project, there will be a return of £4, through things like jobs, reinvestment and renovation.

  • The funding has come through Birmingham City Council, Network Rail, Centro, Advantage West Midlands and the Department for Transport.

  • The council says it is already looking into the regeneration of the south eastern side of the station, and believe the new station will be the catalyst for growth.

The capacity:

  • Birmingham New Street is the busiest station outside London, and is the busiest rail interchange in the country.

  • Passengers can reach 275 destinations directly from the station, and 95% of the stations in the country either direct or with one change.

The new station has been built to cope with many more people travelling through it Credit: ITV News Central

  • The old station was designed to operate with 60,000 people passing through it per day - it now regularly sees 170,000 passengers per day.

  • Up to 250,000 people use the station on particularly busy days such as during the Cheltenham Festival, or during Birmingham's Frankfurt Christmas Market.

  • The new station will be able to handle 300,000 people a day

  • A train leaves the station on average every 37 seconds.

There are still 12 platforms at the new station Credit: ITV News Central

The build:

  • The building project saw 1,200 people working on the station per day on average.

  • On a peak day, 3,500 people worked on the building of the station.

An average of 1,200 workers were on site each day Credit: ITV News Central

  • Tens of the thousands of people were inducted to work on the site at some point during the building project.

  • The new plastic atrium allows sunlight into the station for the first time since the previous station was built in 1962. It is the size of a football pitch.It's made from a material known as ETFE - or ethylene tetrafluoroethylene.

  • The translucent material is strong, durable, has a high corrosion resistance, is self-cleaning and recyclable. It is also much lighter than glass, a significant benefit when the new development is being built directly on top of Birmingham New Street station underneath.

  • As well as the Eden Project in Cornwall, the ETFE material has also been used to cover the outside of Bayern Munich's Allianz Arena and the Beijing National Aquatics centre.

The plastic atrium above New Street station Credit: ITV News Central

  • There are 15 new lifts and 36 new escalators in the renovated station.

  • Work is ongoing to connect the station to the Midland Metro tram network, with New Street being a terminus.