‘Real’ commuting time to BHX from London
‘Real’ commuting time to BHX from London pre and post HS2 (2026)
From 2026, assuming HS2 is on time, one should be able to get from Euston station to the proposed Birmingham Interchange station to the east of the National Exhibition Centre in 38 minutes. A proposed new extension to the current SkyRail (AirRail) people-mover train link to the Airport terminal will go via the current Birmingham International Rail station. That link today runs at around every two minutes and takes around 2 minutes from the terminal to the current train station.
However, the extension to the new HS2 Birmingham Interchange Station will make that whole run about 1.4 miles, so the trip from the HS2 station (Birmingham Interchange) to the terminal could take 8-10 minutes with the drop-off/stop at the Birmingham International Station and/or outside the NEC, if there was another stop there. Accordingly, allowing for walking off the HS2 platform to the people-mover/SkyRail platform, waiting up to 2-3 minutes, then getting to the terminal’s SkyRail platform, the London Euston station to BHX terminal journey will take at least 50 minutes – not the ‘40 minutes’ that has been quoted by BHX directors (Paul Kehoe & others).
Today, trains take 1hr10mins from Euston to Birmingham International rail station, so perhaps 1hr 15 mins from London Euston to the BHX terminal if you are lucky.
The question therefore is whether shaving 25 minutes off a commute from London to an International Airport most likely in the opposite direction to where most travellers are going (south or east) will change the habits of those travellers? Living/staying in central London, you’ll need to give yourself arguably three hours perhaps from leaving your front door to take-off time to catch that BHX flight, even post HS2. Why would anyone do that, especially if the plane they are about to take is likely to be flying back over the top of London in 3.5 hours time?
Sorry, not going to happen, even post HS2