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Birmingham City Centre is served by three major railway stations; New Street, Moor Street and Snow Hill. Birmingham New Street is at the heart of the UK rail network and is the city's major railway hub with direct links to all other major cities in Great Britain. Birmingham Moor Street and Birmingham Snow Hill serve local destinations in Warwickshire, Worcestershire and the West Midlands and also have a link with London. Birmingham New Street is managed and operated by Network Rail, Birmingham Moor Street is managed and operated by Chiltern Railways and Birmingham Snow Hill is managed and operated by London Midland. These three stations form the Birmingham Stations station group, a notional common station for ticketing purposes.
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There are two other railway stations in central Birmingham, namely Five Ways in the south west of the city centre with connections on the New Street to Redditch line, and Jewellery Quarter in the north west of the city centre with connections on the Snow Hill to Worcester line and the Midland Metro.
Birmingham International railway station is not located in the city centre, but approximately 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) east by the airport and National Exhibition Centre.
Connections
Birmingham Snow Hill and Birmingham Moor Street are connected by a tunnel which is located beneath Birmingham city centre. There are frequent train services between the two stations. Birmingham New Street is not connected to Snow Hill or Moor Street by rail, but is approximately a half mile walk from Snow Hill and a quarter mile walk from Moor Street. Rail passengers connecting between New Street and services on the Snow Hill/Moor Street route are generally advised to make their connection via Moor Street.
There are currently no direct bus connections between the three stations, but expansion plans for Midland Metro City Centre line will see the Metro extended from its current terminus at Snow Hill to a new terminus at New Street, meaning a regular tram connection will exist between the two stations.
Birmingham New street and Moor Street are close to the major shopping centres in the city including Grand Central (formerly known as The Pallasades), Birmingham Bullring and The Pavilions.
All three stations have a good interchange with bus services mostly operated by Travel West Midlands.
Train
Virgin Trains
CrossCountry
Some services continue towards Aberdeen, Guildford and Penzance.
London Midland
Arriva Trains Wales
Birmingham Moor Street
Moor Street is currently served by local trains the lines through Shirley and Henley-in-Arden to Stratford-upon-Avon and to Leamington via Solihull, and Chiltern Clubman services to London Marylebone. Chiltern also operate a limited number of weekday services from Marylebone terminating at Moor Street formed of class 67 locomotives and hauled coaching stock. On summer Sundays it is used by steam locomotives running tourist specials between Snow Hill and Stratford upon Avon and trains between Snow Hill and Tyseley for Vintage Trains.
Long distance services
Snow Hill is the principal destination of the Chiltern Main Line, which links Birmingham with London Marylebone, operated by Chiltern Railways, with some Chiltern services continuing to Kidderminster.
Local services
Local services from Snow Hill, as with most other local services in the West Midlands, are supported by Centro. They are operated by London Midland and mostly by Class 150 diesel multiple unit (DMU) trains, with some Class 153 DMUs. The Class 150 units are due to be replaced with new Class 172 DMUs during the next year. Until 2005 there was an hourly local train to Leamington Spa; this was cut back to peak times only and the rest of the services are now run by Chiltern Railways. There is also an irregular service to Stratford upon Avon via Dorridge and irregular services to Great Malvern and Hereford.