Busiest day since December 2019 for Birmingham New Street railway station

Birmingham’s Frankfurt Christmas markets return has seen the busiest day for Birmingham New Street since the Covid-19 pandemic.

Saturday the 13th of November saw a massive 206,682 people make their way through Britain’s largest interchange station.

These impressive figures are actually 2% higher than the same Saturday in 2019 and are the first time that passenger numbers have risen above 200,000 since the 20th of December 2019.

Steven Ireland, head of stations and security for Network Rail’s Central route, said:

“It’s great to see passenger numbers bouncing back and to see Birmingham New Street thriving once again. We’ve loved welcoming passengers back to the station over the last few months and the fact the Christmas market is back is a huge boost for the city.”

“While this is great news we’re urging passengers to follow our three golden rules to make travelling in and out of Birmingham New Street as easy as possible. There will be extra staff in place across the station to provide advice and information and help keep passengers safe throughout the festive season.”

Preparation work underway at East Linton station before construction starts

1st December 2021

Railway bridge at Wem to be replaced at end of December

1st December 2021

Network Rail’s three golden rules for travel are:

Plan your journey ahead and check before you travel using http://www.nationalrail.co.uk
Take an earlier train home as later services will be extremely busy
Remember Network Rail’s motto ‘Be safe, be patient, be kind’ whilst travelling

Millions of people are expected to visit Birmingham for the popular Frankfurt Christmas market, which will be running until the 23rd of December. Last year the market had to be cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Birmingham Christmas Market — Credit: BFCM

The market is a wonderful attraction and brings huge numbers of people into the city and means that both trains and platforms are much busier than usual.

As with years gone by, queuing systems may be used in order to allow people to board their trains home safely.

Enhanced cleaning remains in place to help stop the spread of Covid-19 and hand sanitiser is also available on the station concourse.

For further information on how Network Rail is helping to stop the spread of Covid-19, please visit:

https://www.networkrail.co.uk/coronavirus/

Passengers are expected to wear a face-covering onboard trains and in busy stations, unless they are exempt. To find out the latest Government advice please visit:

http://www.gov.uk/coronavirus

To find out more about the Frankfurt Christmas market, please visit:

http://www.thebfcm.co.uk