I search Birmingham New Street train station for a platform zero. Because Geoff asked me to. Initial chat: / 1183321167756713985 Later discussion: / 1183348156093865990
That part is a really great cliffhanger, actually; he shows _just barely_ enough of that area to kind of give you an idea that it might be a Platform 0 there, but not so many details that it ever becomes clear in any way.
Could be using Railroad North. Railroad cardinal directions are sometimes used in railway management to specify which direction a train is running on the tracks, even if that track is taking it in a completely different GEOGRAPHIC direction than its railroad direction. Or it could just be a Parker Compass.
In Nijmegen (NL) we have platforms 1, 3, 4 and 35. Platform 35 is in the spot you would expect platform 0 to be. So maybe at Birmingham New Street, platform 0 is between 34 and 36.
@@deldarel It's because there a load of tracks next to the station that don't have a platform next to them (used for parking unused trains and for freight trains). They are numbered 5-34. Hence, when a new track was built, they didn't want to renumber all the tracks, so they just numbered it 35.
In Stolberg (Rhld.) there are platforms 1,2, 27, and 43. A little towards Cologne, in Horrem, there are platforms 1, 2, 3, 6, 10, and 19. I've also seen platforms 501 and 502 somewhere, but can't find out where that was.
There is an unused (secret?) platform beyond platform 12. It's less visible since they refurbished the station, but if you go to the far London-bound end of platform 12, you can see it. I assume it was used by the Post Office or simular at one point (as their are tunnels under New Street that used to go to a mail sorting depot).
We call it the east dock and was used to stable rollover units for altered workings/set swaps. The overheads have been removed and the dock has been decommissioned. At the other end of 12 was the West dock and that has been filled in. Neither were in use as platforms
@@bombcaryah yeah that's what I mean... We could put trains there and send them from there but they weren't for passenger use. We could for example shunt one from either dock to a public platform for boarding
@@matmaneyre Ah so can you tell us about the tunnel system that links up to the majority of the city centre? We are currently doing a write up on the subject!
@@bombcaryah also no longer used - we called it the GPO subway. The mail trains would come in and were offloaded onto buggies, then the parcels would be taken down the ramps at the B end of the platforms that linked all platforms to an underground tunnel that led to the mailbox when it was a sorting office. The ramps have been filled in and replaced with service lifts for train caterers etc. The entrance to the mailbox tunnel in the subway has been gated and locked off for years. It may have even been filled in by now. I haven't been down there for a while myself
Before the big white ironwork went in for the new walkway there was a little loco siding at the end of P1. There is a (disused?) parcels siding behind P12, which links to tunnels that go to what is now the mailbox, which used to be the main Brum sorting office.
Under where the elevated wakway now is was the train crew accomodation block, no siding on the platform 1 side,. unless you go back to the 1964 rebuild, The east dock behind 12a was also the motorail terminal, as well as access to the former railway parcels depot, as platform 12 side is level with the service area that opens onto station street, All platforms had access to the GPO subway that linked to the previous sorting office on Royal Mail street, and the sorting office on Victoria Square before that, the subways are currently just used by railway staff, with the demise of mail on the railway.
@@Zahlenteufel1 It appears that just as with airplanes British trains close their doors a bit before they actually depart. In the Netherlands this is 30 seconds before departure, but I believe that British trains want to bet a bit more on the safe side. This causes the train to sit at the platform with locked doors for the departure time (or green light), which can be frustrating for anyone who arrives just as the doors close and now has to watch the train not going anywhere knowing they cannot get on it.
@@arifijan close but its a lot simpler than that. In Birmingham New Street specifically, the phrase "the doors will close 30 seconds before departing " is repeated ad nauseam on the tannoy and on signs. Hence his sarcastic comment in the video.
@@PureZOOKS it is not so simple as you might think thanks to privatisation, intercity and regional services have different times that the doors are locked, depending on the franchise holder BTW the BHM public address is not a Tannoy® system, before the trademark hunters sue for incorrect attribution !
Nah, nothing on Platform 1, which is squeezed in on the end as it is, hence why the footbridge at the far B end has a kink in it with a separate route down to Platform 1. There is some weird looking stuff on Platform 12 though that possibly looks like it might be remnants of a former platform perhaps?
There's actually a secondary platform link at BNS. At the 'north' end you were talking about there is a set of steps in the opposite direction. go up and then there is a bridge linking all the platforms and it is used by emergency services as it is way faster to get to a platform than the cluster of 5 platforms you can reach from at the concourse or even the shopping end you were at. May have been worthwhile searching there.
F.Y.I. BNS is Barnes, BHM is Birmingham new street , only the a end concourse is split, because of the (late) decision on keeping the smallbrook queensway entrance which otherwise would be on the paid side, the b end (red lounge) concouse is also across all platforms as is as you mentioned the TERTIARY bridge at the extreme WEST (b) end, which was built as a fire escape as a consequence of the subteranean stations fire safety requirements following the Kings Cross fire
Something I was pondering: Which extremity of a platform is the “front”? When it arrives at the station, a through-train sees the front of the platform first. Think of the front door of a house. It’s the entrance to the station. But when the train is standing on the platform, only a madman would walk towards the back of the train if asked to move to the “front” of the platform.
the front of the train is the expression , to avoid confusing passengers as trains can depart in either direction at through stations, and at BHM in either direction to the same destination via different routes in some cases
I want to say that if the platform 0 is beyond platform 12, then the naming system is arbitary. And that they should use a sequence... It's a shame that ( 1, 2 .. 12, 0 ) is a sequence...
There are 2 "Zero" tram lines in Wrocław, Poland. 0L and 0P, which means 0 left and 0 right. 0L goes counterclockwise around the center of the city and 0R goes clockwise.
@@NetAndyCz above is the concouse, below are the subways, sorry to shatter your 3D thoughts, but perchance we think 4D as there was in times past proposals for lower level platforms
The only extra "hidden" platform is near Platform 12. But is not numbered. There is also a bar called Platform 13. And I'm not sure you would count Grand Central Tram Stop platforms 1 and 2 as 13 and 14.
Railway Signalling Technician at Birmingham new street here, there's no platform 0, there are 12 platforms each with an a and b end, plus 4c, and the east dock behind 12a the former motorail terminal now out of use
@@Hunnter2k3 it used to be an engine siding, but a few years ago it was decided a bay platform was needed, it's behind the west (b) end of platform 4, hence 4c
Birmingham New St Station has an unusual way of numbering platforms. Eg: when you head down the stairs platform 1a is the platform on your left 1b would be on your right. That goes all the way up to i think 14a & 14b. So in effect theres 28 platforms so why didn't they just number them 1 to 28? Never seen a platform 0 although i do know theres an old line that runs underground from the Mailbox to New st which was for the Royal Mail use only. Maybe that could be your mysterious platform 0.
Nope, but Brummie wizards go to Redditch, via Five Ways, University, Selly Oak, Kings Norton, Bournville, Northfield, Longbridge, Barnt Green and Alvechurch.
Are there platforms 1a and 1b? One of those could be renamed to Platform 0 if needed? Are people being confused by the level numbers which appears to be in the form of Level -1, 0 and then 1 ect? See openlevelup.net/?t=0&l=0&s=q.CQe+-1.NOP+R6+0.0+0&o=t#19/52.47810/-1.89882 for more information 😀
Wait, so are you telling me..... that you could, ostensibly, start at platform 0 at King's Cross and end at platform 0 in Edinburgh??! (or vice versa) 😃 (because I know there are definitely trains to Edinburgh from King's Cross and it also has a platform 0)
@@EcceJack I have caught many trains from platform 0 in Kings Cross to Edinburgh. They have to be electric so the people in the offices above don't get gassed.
There is a platform 0 - created in 1999 - at Cardiff Central. Trains to Ebbw Vale Town often depart from that platform. See departures at www.gwr.com and station plan at www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations-and-destinations/stations-made-easy/cardiff-central-station-plan
That's here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platform_0 But they show no justification for any of those, and there's no mention on the article itself: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham_New_Street_railway_station
*EDIT* I made a video of what I found: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-BxNDJTvFJv8.html I think there may well be a platform not in public use at New Street, but adjacent to Platform 12, right on the other side of the station. But of course I might be mistaken. Will look tomorrow if I can remember. (And if that is the mysterious Platform 0, shouldn't it really be called Platform 13? Or is that too obvious?)
OpenStreetMap: www.openstreetmap.org/#map=19/52.47788/-1.89997&layers=TN. Looks like there is a short unlabeled platform on the west end of platform 12.
platform /ˈplatfɔːm/ noun 1. a raised level surface on which people or things can stand platform /ˈplatfɔːm/ noun 1. a raised level surface on which people or things can stand That’s what google says a platform is
