The 6 mile line from Kings Norton to Birmingham New Street via Kings Heath is already included on the Birmingham Cross City route and fully signalled, just with no detailing and stations as the original route is set in 2019. Included Rolling Stock Class 172/0 and /1 in West Midlands Railway livery This small fleet of the 172s comprises of 12 2car units which are capable of 75mph and are part of the Turbostar family, although they have different gearing to the 170/171 and sound slightly different, meaning the sounds can't just be copy and pasted. These units would be drivable on the route between Tyseley and Birmingham Moor Street, as well as covering 1 diagram on the Birmingham - Hereford services during the day. Class 196 in West Midlands Railway livery The Class 196 is a fleet of 26 units capable of 100mph, with 12 2car and 14 4car units. They are used on the Camp Hill line as well as services from Birmingham to Hereford and Shrewsbury and the Nuneaton - Leamington line. The timetable The services in this timetable would be based off the WTT for the first day of operation, the 7th April 2026. Including ECS moves, the 196 would be in charge of 118 services, with the 172s having 245 services. Due to development time limitations, the Class 323s would still be used on Cross City services (roughly 165 services total) and 350s still used on Rugeley / Walsall / Wolverhampton / Birmingham International services (roughly 160 services total). The XC Class 170 and 220 would be used on all CrossCountry services on this route, with the 170 providing 52 playable services, including 1 ECS run from New Street to New Street via the Lifford Curve and an ECS from Bromsgrove to New Street via the Camp Hill. The Class 220 would only have 4 playable services in this timetable, 2 of these being an ECS from New Street to New Street that goes round the Camp Hill line twice for fun and the other two services being an ECS from Barton depot to New Street in the morning, and from New Street to Barton depot in the evening. The DRS Class 66 would appear on 4V44 Daventry to Wentloog (1203 from Landor Street) and there would be a light engine 31 from Burton to Worcester and return (1113 Landor Street to Bromsgrove, 1406 Bromsgrove to Landor Street). A Class 66 from WCMLS would add 2 Cement services using the PCA wagons from the Class 31 DLC, With a northbound departure from Bromsgrove at 0654, and a return southbound journey from Landor Street at 2200. The WCMLS 66 would also haul BBA wagons from the Tees Valley DLC on 2 northbound steel trains (Bromsgrove 0004 & 2116)
I’d love to see this in the game but I feel like for time period reasons I’d prefer seeing the 730 instead of the 323 because it wouldn’t be appropriate seeing a WMT 323 in 2026. seeing XC 170s, WMT 172s, 196s & 730s does seem a lot adding three new trains but it could always be done with loco packs or other routes over time. Hopefully this does eventually get added one day because there is a lot of detail on this section of track already.
