Major update on the opening of new rail stations in the Birmingham and Black Country issued - here's when passengers should be able to use train services

Passengers services on long awaited trains in Birmingham and the Black Country will finally run in the ‘next couple of months’.

Construction of three stations on the Camp Hill line – Moseley, Kings Heath and Pineapple Road – as well as new facilities in Darlaston and Willenhall has been completed.

Members of the Transport Delivery Overview and Scrutiny Committee were told testing of trains was under way.

Jo Shore, Director of Delivery, Transport for West Midlands, said there wasn’t a date ‘set in stone’ for when services will be up and running at the stations but an announcement was imminent.

All five stations were scheduled to be completed and open in 2024 but were hit with delays and soaring costs.

Once open to the public, it will mean passenger services returning to the Camp Hill line for the first time since the early 1940s.

The reopening of Willenhall and Darlaston will end a 60 year wait for services to return after they ended in 1965.

The stations have been delivered in partnership with the Department for Transport, West Midlands Railway and Network Rail, as well as Walsall and Birmingham City councils.

Mrs Shore said: “At the moment we don’t have a date set in stone but what I’m pleased to say is construction is complete and that we are going into the process of entering into service with Network Rail and West Midlands Railway.

“We’ve got test trains on site, we’re training the conductors, public realm works are all done as well.

“I think we will be imminently announcing a date. I think it will be in the next couple of months.”

In July 2024, Transport for West Midlands announced the Camp Hill scheme, alongside a raft of other major projects in the region, was to be delayed by a year in the wake of £121 million budget pressures as a result of soaring costs.

This was the second delay to hit the project after it was originally due to be scheduled for completion in 2023.

The news prompted West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker to call for a review of all current and planned projects, saying he had concerns over the funding, delivery and delay while also accusing his predecessor Andy Street of making “grand promises” which weren’t being delivered.

In turn, Mr Street said he was saddened to see party politics being played over the issue, adding he had “bequeathed to the new Mayor billions in devolved transport funding” for the projects.