Birmingham Coach Station

Birmingham Coach Station
General information
Other names	Digbeth Coach Station
History
Opened	1929 (1929)

Birmingham Coach Station (formerly Digbeth Coach Station) is a major coach interchange in Digbeth, Birmingham, England offering services to destinations throughout Great Britain and also to Belfast and Dublin. National Express, the largest scheduled coach service provider in Europe, has its national headquarters on the site. The refurbishment was estimated to have cost £15 million.

It was officially reopened on 18 December 2009 by England national football manager Fabio Capello.

History

The original "dark and dingy" Digbeth Coach Station, built in 1929 as a bus depot

The original interchange was built on the site by Midland Red in 1929 to be used as a bus depot. This was later converted in to Digbeth Coach Station. The original building was dark and dingy as it was not originally intended to serve passengers as a coach interchange.

Plans were initially developed for a new coach station on Great Charles Street, as Digbeth was considered by National Express to be an "undesirable" location. However, after the completion of the new Bullring and the planned Eastside redevelopment, it was decided to demolish the old structure and build a new coach station on the same site.

Outline planning application for a design by MAKE Architects was submitted on behalf of National Express Ltd to Birmingham City Council in March 2006 . However this option was abandoned in favour of a competing design by SBS Architects.

The final planning application for the design by SBS Architects was submitted on 29 October 2007.

The old coach station closed in November 2007 for redevelopment and during reconstruction National Express used a temporary site in Oxford Street on the opposite side of Digbeth High Street, called Birmingham Central Coach Station. The new station has been awarded an 'Excellent' rating under the BRE Environmental Assessment Method - the most widely used system for judging how environmentally friendly a building is. A number of passengers had to stay in the Coach Station overnight on Saturday 18th December 2010 as the transport network of Britain came to a standstill and rail and road traffic was unable to enter or leave Birmingham and other parts of the country.

December 2009 - The rear of the new coach station

Services

• National Express offer services to destinations throughout Great Britain
• Ulsterbus offer services to Belfast
• Eurolines offer services to Dublin and Poland.

Route Number	Origin	Intermediate stops	Destination	Provider
210	Wolverhampton	Dudley, Birmingham, Birmingham International Airport, Banbury, London Heathrow Airport	London Gatwick Airport	National Express
303	Birkenhead	Ellesmere Port, Chester, Nantwich, Crewe, Stafford, Birmingham, Oxford, Reading, Basingstoke, Southampton, Fareham, Portsmouth	Southsea	National Express
304	Liverpool	Birkenhead, Chester, Birmingham, Oxford, Southampton, Bournemouth, Poole, Dorchester	Weymouth	National Express
308	Birmingham	Coventry, Leicester, Peterborough, Wisbech, King's Lynn, Swaffham, Norwich	Great Yarmouth	National Express
310	Birmingham	Coventry, Leicester, Nottingham, Mansfield, Sheffield, Leeds	Bradford	National Express
318	Liverpool	Warrington, Stoke-on-Trent, Birmingham, Worcester, Cheltenham, Gloucester	Bristol	National Express
320	Bradford	Leeds, Sheffield, Chesterfield, Derby, Birmingham, Birmingham International Airport, Warwick, Leamington Spa, Banbury	Oxford	National Express
320	Bradford	Leeds, Sheffield, Chesterfield, Derby, Birmingham, Worcester, Newport	Cardiff	National Express
321	Bradford	Leeds, Sheffield, Chesterfield, Derby, Birmingham, Worcester, Great Malvern, Hereford, Abergavenny, Merthyr Tydfil	Aberdare	National Express
322	Scarborough	Bridlington, Hull, Scunthorpe, Doncaster, Mansfield, Nottingham, Birmingham, Worcester, Newport, Cardiff, Bridgend, Port Talbot	Swansea	National Express
324	Bradford	Leeds, Sheffield, Chesterfield, Derby, Lichfield, Birmingham, Worcester, Bristol, Exeter, Newton Abbot, Torquay	Paignton	National Express
328	Rochdale	Oldham, Manchester, Manchester Airport, Wolverhampton, Birmingham, Worcester, Bristol, Bridgwater, Taunton	Plymouth	National Express
330	Nottingham	Loughborough, Leicester, Birmingham, Worcester, Bristol, Plymouth, Bodmin, Newquay, Redruth, Camborne, Hayle, St Ives	Penzance	National Express
332	Birmingham	Leicester, Nottingham, Mansfield, Doncaster, Darlington, Middlesbrough, Sunderland	Newcastle upon Tyne	National Express
335	Halifax	Huddersfield, Dewsbury, Wakefield, Barnsley, Leicester, Birmingham, Evesham, Cheltenham, Gloucester, Swindon, Salisbury, Bournemouth	Poole	National Express
336	Edinburgh	Glasgow, Carlisle, Lancaster, Preston, Salford, Manchester, Manchester Airport, Stoke-on-Trent, Birmingham, Bristol, Taunton, Exeter, Plymouth, Liskeard, St Austell, Truro, Redruth, Camborne, Hayle	Penzance	National Express
339	Grimsby	Cleethorpes, Lincoln, Newark-on-Trent, Leicester, Birmingham, Cheltenham, Bristol, Weston-super-Mare, Bridgwater, Taunton, Tiverton, Barnstaple, Bideford	Westward Ho!	National Express
420	Birmingham	Solihull	London Victoria	National Express
420	Wolverhampton	Dudley, Birmingham, Coventry	London	National Express
420	London	Birmingham, Walsall, Cannock	Stafford	National Express
420	London	Birmingham, Telford, Shrewsbury, Welshpool, Newtown	Aberystwyth	National Express
420	London	Birmingham, Telford, Shrewsbury, Oswestry	Wrexham	National Express
421	London	London Heathrow Airport, Oxford, Stratford-upon-Avon, Birmingham, Stafford, Stoke-on-Trent, Chester, Ellesmere Port, Birkenhead, Liverpool, Preston	Blackpool	National Express
422	London	London Luton Airport, Luton, Milton Keynes, Coventry, Birmingham International Airport, Birmingham, Dudley, Wolverhampton, Manchester Airport, Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Blackburn, Accrington	Burnley	National Express
530	Newcastle upon Tyne	Sunderland, Middlesbrough, York, Birmingham, Worcester, Bristol, Exeter, Newton Abbot, Torquay	Paignton	National Express
531	Newcastle upon Tyne	Gateshead, Sunderland, Middlesbrough, Darlington, Birmingham, Gloucester, Bristol	Plymouth	National Express
536	Edinburgh	Glasgow, Hamilton, Carlisle, Wolverhampton, Birmingham, Worcester, Monmouth, Newport	Cardiff	National Express
538	Coventry	Birmingham International Airport, Birmingham, Stoke-on-Trent, Manchester Airport, Manchester, Preston, Carlisle, Hamilton, Glasgow, Stirling, Perth, Pitlochry, Aviemore	Inverness	National Express
539	Edinburgh	Glasgow, Hamilton, Carlisle, Penrith, Birmingham, Stratford-upon-Avon, Oxford, Newbury, Winchester, Southampton	Bournemouth	National Express
540	London	Birmingham	Manchester	National Express
545	London	Milton Keynes, Birmingham,		National Express
550	London	Birmingham, Stoke-on-Trent, Warrington	Liverpool	National Express
570	London	Milton Keynes, Birmingham, St Helens, Preston	Blackpool	National Express
570	London	Milton Keynes, Birmingham, Preston, Lancaster, Kendal, Windermere, Keswick, Cockermouth, Workington	Whitehaven	National Express
777	Wolverhampton	Dudley, Birmingham, Birmingham International Airport, Coventry, Milton Keynes, Luton, London Luton Airport, Hitchin, Stevenage	London Stansted Airport	National Express
871	London	Luton, Milton Keynes, Coventry, Birmingham, Holyhead	Dublin	Eurolines
920	London	Milton Keynes, Birmingham, Manchester, Carlisle, Dumfries, Stranraer	Belfast	Eurolines
921	Birmingham	Manchester, Preston, Carlisle, Cairnryan, Larne	Belfast	Eurolines

External links

• October 2007 BBC news article with pictures
• Architects Website