The opening date for Birmingham’s new £15 million gateway coach station has been fixed for Monday, December 7.

The National Express depot in the Digbeth area is now complete and staff are finishing odd jobs, spokeswoman Carly O’Donnell said.

The final brick was put into place at the new coach station in High Street, Digbeth, in April after work began on the building last November.

The National Express coach station is one of the largest gateways into Birmingham with nearly two million people from all over the country passing through it last year.

The new station has a distinctive appearance, being wrapped in copper cladding with a sweeping canopy above the customer entrance.

It will feature an open plan concourse for customers, three shops including a Starbucks coffee outlet, and a mixture of customer service desks and self-service ticket kiosks.

The revamp hit a stumbling block after the collapse of Ashford Construction in July. But the work was re-started by Lincolnshire developer Spencer in August and National Express stuck to the December 7 date originally scheduled.

The perimeter fence has been billed as public art. It has been designed by Midland artists Rob Colbourne and Stuart Mugridge and was inspired by elements of Digbeth’s industrial past including Midland Red and Avery Weights and Scales.

More than 300 individual red steel haunches will surround the coach station and create the illusion of a solid wall which separates to reveal the copper clad building as visitors walk in.

National Express director of property Stuart Parker said: “We have kept the project on track and this is testament to the quality and commitment of our team, the design consultants.”

Among the features included in the new building will be a number of as-it-happens information screens.

National Express also operates eight out of ten buses in the West Midlands.