Tag: Cross City Line

January 31st – The grim weather continues. Having slipped out for a customer meeting in the afternoon, I came back from Birmingham in the early evening to find the train going to Shenstone full: rather than wait in New Street, I caught the Four Oaks one instead. This meant an extra couple of miles to ride home and a serious hill on the way, but I just wanted to be back there.

In steady rain, I alighted at the station, and stopped to take a picture from the over bridge.Even in the rain, it’s a beautifully photogenic station at night.

If the drizzle and greyness could finish up soon, that’d be great, thanks…

June 14th – Lichfield Trent Valley is an awful railway station. Jammed into the chord junction formed where the Cross City Line intersects the West Coast Main Line, it’s a collection of huts, cabins and rambling, exposed platforms. It’s very busy with commuters and has still yet to get a functioning public information system. One of the worst aspects is accessibility; both the Cross City and southbound mainline platforms are utterly unaccessible to anything with wheels. I’m lucky, I can pick my bike up and carry it. Wheelchair users are stuffed.

May 24th – Waiting for a train. I like Shenstone Station, and for long commutes, it’s a nice place to pick up the train to Birmingham, often overlooked by those in Brownhills and the surrounding area. Trains stop here every half hour, generally, and although the facilities aren’t great, it’s a lovely spot, and only 15 minutes away by bike, with a 30 minute journey to Brum.

May 7th – I don’t know much about Knowle Hill, near Lichfield. Perhaps this is one for the Lichfield Lore blog, but I suspect it to be some kind of tumulus. Standing on the ridge at the side of the railway, the farm at it’s foot overlooks flat plains to the southeast.

This odd outcrop is a familiar sight to anyone who regularly catches trains on the Cross City Line to or from Lichfield, which passes nearby.