Page 8 - RNT-C05

The HISTORY of REDDITCH New Town

The railway station was located at the bottom of Unicorn Hill, south of the Bromsgrove
Road, but the Beeching review had already closed the line south. The line north was
also under threat of closure and without the New Town would also have also been lost.

So with some of the major employers also being lost, necessitating workers needing to
look outside the town for employment, and the rapid growth in private car ownership,
Redditch was heading for a transport nightmare. How much the residents appreciated
this is not known.

Therefore, when designated a New Town, transport was very high on the agenda.
In November 1992 the railway line to Birmingham was finally electrified and at last
commuters & general passengers saw an improved rail service to Birmingham.
On 4th September 2012 an application was made to the Planning Inspectorate for the
necessary powers to upgrade the branch line between Redditch and Birmingham so that
an extra train service can run every hour. This will increase capacity on the line by a
third. On 2nd October 2012 the scheme was accepted for review, and after undergoing
examination, was approved. This work should be completed by the winter of 2014.

The Redditch Development Corporation addressed the impending road crisis with a plan
that 40 years later is still delivering results.
A three-tier approach was adopted. Trunk roads to take through traffic and inter-district
traffic; feeder roads to link communities and industrial areas to the trunk roads and local
roads serving each area without a through capability, ensuring their traffic was purely
local.
In the town centre, pedestrianisation was the approach with a “Ring-way” which delivered
visitors to town centre car parks and commercial traffic to unloading docks at the rear
of shops and offices..

Page: 120