Had a great experience catching a train from here to London. Quick drop off by my Uber at the drop…read moreoff and. A quick walk inside the station and they thought of the ones with suitcases and had a non step entrance! Yay! That's what they call it ! We grabbed a quick coffee and found our platform easily and thankfully they have escalators. The train had just pulled in and we were able to get on and get settled and took off right on time . Found a spot for our suitcases as soon as we get on close to our seats which we had reserved and were easy to find. Smooth ride and very efficient. Would go from here again if I need to. Nice central Birmingham location too.

This is a pretty massive station, though to be honest it can be pretty annoying to make your way…read morearound. Like, there are four zones, no doubt matching the platforms where the trains arrive. The thing is that you have to touch off and touch on to move between the zones. However, they happen to have quite a lot of shops here, and pubs, yeah, they have pubs as well, and a place to dump your bags as well, which is pretty cool.

There are a few stations like Small Heath dotted around Birmingham. Sad to say that they're all as…read moreunloved and fallen into disrepair as each other. Small Heath exists in the same vain as stations such as Duddeston, Kings Norton and Northfield; once quite big stations which now only serve the few local trains that pass through (Kings Norton and Northfield have more regular trains, but Small Heath and Duddeston have a fair share speeding straight through). Of the four platforms Small Heath once had, only two are now in use. These serve trains heading towards Birmingham Moor Street and Snow Hill (roughly 5-10 minutes away) in one direction and Stratford-Upon-Avon or Solihull in the other. As is the case with old stations such as these, the long platforms are completely open aside from a small shelter. I had to commute to Small Heath for a job a few years back. It was little more than a patch of concrete to get a train from then and it's still the same now, only with more weeds.

Why do I always think this is closer to Broad street than it is. I end up rushing for a train…read morepretty much everytime. Id say to be safe leave 30 mins from the middle of Broad street.......don't let this station catch you out too! The train station itself is actually one of the most basic in town....it has stairs....and platforms but what else do you really need. Take your own snickers and diet coke as you are not getting here. The trains come....they go.....how can it not be A-OK....3*

Depending on where you're going in the City Centre, this Station could well be a better bet than…read morethe main New Street Station if, as I do, you travel along the Lichfield line from North to South. The journey from New Street to 5 Ways on the train can be a bit misleading - after spending several minutes in the tunnels under the city and then trundling along the tracks, you'd be forgiven for thinking you'd left the bustle of town, but in actual fact this station is probably an equal walking distance to many of the city's attractions as New Street. If you are visiting Brindley Place, the Ikon Gallery or, Lord help you, Broad Street, then you are probably better off alighting here. Once exiting, look to your left and you'll see 5 Way traffic island a few hundred yards away. Much better than dealing with the insanely busy New Street and environs. The station is pretty tiny - particularly when viewed from the road as only the entrance is visible - and it can get very busy around rush hour as there are several large office buildings nearby, so plan your arrival around that if you don't want to deal with crowds.

If you don't fancy catching the train, then you have the option of getting on a coach. Birmingham…read moreCoach Station is just a five-minute walk from the City Centre and is easily accessible by car and public transport. I have been here whenever I have travelled to Leicester and London. The coaches are regularly on time and I have not had any issues with this place. If you are waiting for your coach, you can always grab a coffee at Starbucks or you can even go to WHS Smith to buy a newspaper/magazine or even some sweets. The one downer is the fact you have to pay to use the toilets. I just find that ridiculous. But there is a toilet on the coach if that is any consolation. From here you can get on coaches that will take you to cities across England, Scotland and Wales. National Express, Ulsterbus and Eurolines are the three operators that operate at this coach station. And I have also found it is a lot cheaper to travel by coach than train. It is not that expensive to travel by coach. The staff here are very friendly and they will answer any questions/queries you have. An excellent station in my view and one I will continue to visit.

The sign that greets you says 'a hundred thousand welcomes'* and on the other side of the coach…read morestation is probably my favourite bit of public art EVER - a big graffiti style mural that reads 'welcome to Digbeth bab'. This is in marked contrast to the welcome you used to receive at Birmingham Coach Station which generally consisted of stumbling around in a dimly lit car-park, narrowly missing being run over by a bus, hassled for money by men who smelt a bit funny and stepping over the pools of vomit outside the Dubliner. I've known loads of people who when they've heard I'm from Birmingham get a funny look in their eye simply because of their experiences of arriving by coach. Anyway it's all changed - the old building was torn down in 2007 and the new building officially reopened in 2009 by (bizarrely) Fabio Capello. It's a different beast all together - the space is light and airy and the signs actually make sense. You can hear the announcements. The toilets are okay. And there's a Starbucks. * In Irish this is "C'ead Mile Failte" so the sign is obviously a nod to the Irish history of the region. Step into any of the pubs round Digbeth and you're likely to see these words over the bar.

Once again, an English city that has multiple railway termini because, well, privatised railways…read more Then again, when it was built the only people investing in railways were private companies. However, this station is pretty massive. In fact it is so big that it is really quite easy to get lost in it. In fact, there are like four areas where you go to catch a train, and two of them don't meet (which means you have to exit, and then enter again). Anyway, this station isn't bad, and it even has a pub in it, which is cool.

Birmingham Moor Street might be one of the smaller stations in the city centre, and it might not be…read moreas big, bold and modern, while also lacking the number of railway services compared to New Street, but Birmingham Moor Street just has something I like. Its minimalistic style is beautiful and rather nice, it feels like a traditional old British railway station done well, even down to the platform numbers. It is right opposite the Bullring, I would recommend heading to a store inside there, or perhaps Subway to get some food for the train, as other than a few small stores, there isn't much on offer here especially if you are making a long journey. The station is managed by Chiltern Railways and is the terminus of their route into London Marleybone. Services are also offered by West Midlands Railway. Many of the services from this station are mainly local services, into the likes of Birmingham Snow Hill and Solihull, sadly there are no connections into Birmingham International (For the Airport and NEC). I found the staff at the station to be a little rude and unhelpful, which was a sad first interaction with Chiltern Railways. 3* - Traditional old station with a good feel to it, obviously the lack of services and unfriendly staff do let it down and I will always prefer travelling via New Street, but this isn't a bad alternative.

Aston Railway Station is on Lichfield Road, it is one of two main railway stations which serves…read moreVilla Park which is home to Aston Villa FC, unlike Witton which is slightly closer to the stadium it does have step-free access and it is only a 10 minute or so walk to the ground which makes it easy to get to from Villa Park as the club have funded their own few tweaks making the station resemble the club it represents - Aston Villa crest added to station signage - A guided walkway to the stadium with large Aston Villa signs It is a pretty small station, it is run by West Midlands Railway who run all the services which go in and out of here. Services from here mainly go into Birmingham New Street and Lichfield Valley, yet some services do go into Walsall and even Wolverhampton. It is a shame Aston doesn't have West Midlands Metro services, which The Hawthornes does but with it only being a short train journey anyway with frequent services around every ten minutes back into Birmingham,t that is okay. The station has a small partially sheltered waiting room. As a category E station which is the lowest category station which is partially staffed (I presume it is only staffed on Aston Villa matchdays?), it is pretty small and only does have two platforms. Communication from the station is pretty poor. There was a lift issue meaning the issue from platform 1 was marked as out of order but for some bizarre reason other than it being posted on the West Midlands Trains railway no one was aware of the issue and they were still sending disabled passengers to the station to get stranded - both Birmingham New Street (major train station nearby) and the rail company staf were unaware which is pretty abysmal which means until further notice it is impossible for disabled customers to get a route via train to a train station near Villa Park, having to go through the difficult process of arranging a taxi. Being unable to use steps, I had to do this and West Midlands Trains made it so much harder compared to Northern Rail and co when there was a similar issue at Manchester Victoria, closer to home. A very basic station, yet with poor facilities and communication it is only good for providing access to Villa Park via railway and that location is the only reason for an extra star. 2*

If you're travelling out of New Street towards Lichfield or Walsall, assuming you've sped through…read morethe sorry state of Duddeston station, the first stop you'll come to is Aston. I've used Aston quite a bit over the years, when either going to Villa Park (a 10-15 minute walk away) or changing trains. Perhaps owing to its proximity to a popular destination, Aston station has been kept neat and tidy and is one of the more modern stations on the line. It even has a warm waiting room on both platforms should you be waiting on a cold day. The ticket office is located in the waiting room on the out-of-town bound platform. As this is where the line splits for Lichfield and Walsall and every local service stops here, the station is very well-served whichever direction you're travelling in.

This wonderful railway station feels like home to me. It links this suburb with Solihull, Warwick,…read moreLeamington and London Marlybone in one direction and Moor Street, Snow Hill, Jewellery Quarter and the Black Country in the other. For now the station and ticket office are usually staffed by very polite and helpful employees. There are trains in both directions every 20 minutes during the day but less so in the evenings. The Sunday service is extremely limited. I often joke to people who ask where I live that the best things about Acocks Green is the train line out of there. Obviously, there are many other wonderful reasons to live in this area (hey I'm there for a start!) but I do love that I can be in the city centre in 6-10 minutes. Often I call people that I am meeting in town to say I'm just leaving the house and they worry that I'll be late but I never am.

I have got off the train at this station a few times as a friend of mine lives in Acocks Green. I…read morewas actually quite surprised by how nice the station is. It is very nice and hard to imagine it is in the city as there are a few trees surrounding it and you can imagine that this is somewhere completely different - that is until you leave the station! Every time I have walked through here it has also been very clean and tidy, which is refreshing for a train station. The train from the centre of Birmingham to here does not take too long at all and in my experience it usually takes around ten minutes tops. There have never been many staff around when I have passed through, but I have always been here during off-peak times. Overall, it is a nice little station.

One of my local stations…read more No where to purchase a proper ticket except on "Match" day. I avoid Witton like the plague when Aston Villa are playing home so I will never see this ticket office open. There's a permit to travel machine working on the Walsall platform, it's set to GMT all year round but I suppose it's better than the broken one the Birmingham platform. Waiting rooms are also only open on match day! I presume that customers were the rarest thing when this station had staff but now there's just the live update board to keep you company. Bonus however is 20p for a single to Walsall using permit to travel since no one checked my ticket on the train. I got the bus back to Birmingham..

Situated five minutes walk away from the North Stand end of Villa Park (making it closer than Aston…read morestation but one stop further away from New Street and no good if travelling towards Erdington or Sutton Coldfield), Witton Station is essentially little more than a functional shell of a station. Apart from waiting rooms on both platforms (and some extra covered benches on the Walsall-bound platform), Witton is just a place to wait for a train home if you've been down the Villa. At least, unlike a lot of other stations of roughly this age, the platforms have a fair bit of cover so that if it's raining, as it was when I was there yesterday, you're kept dry if not warm. Those needing a connection take note that the notorious 11 bus runs past the station entrance (well, it runs everywhere doesn't it?), as does the number 7.

I don't really like small train stations much, and Stechford's is one of those really solitary…read moreplaces. From my experiences, waiting for a train here sometimes feels eerily quiet, daytime or night (night time, of course being much worse). The station itself is very old, rickety and prone to spooky noises (or so I've felt anyway!) and I really don't suggest waiting here alone; It's a relief to find the worker behind the ticket desk! Especially when there's nobody else around! Other than this, Stechford is a great little connection service between Birmingham International and New Street. If I lived closer, I'd probably use it more often, because trains are much faster/regular compared to the buses in the area. Stechford literally takes you to New Street in five minutes, and you can get to International in three! So it's definitely worth using if you were in the area. As previously mentioned, just keep your eyes peeled for strange sounds/shadows at the station and its surroundings.

Jewellery Quarter Railway Station is mainly used by West Midlands Trains, yet also provides…read moreChiltern services occasionally, it is a really small station being used by under a million people annually. More importantly, it also has West Midlands Metro services providing trams into Wolverhampton and Birmingham, if you're heading into the city centre of Birmingham this is the LAST STOP in the city zone meaning you can go all the way from here to Central Library for just £1.50. The station is a little confusing to navigate, I personally struggled to find the trams platform as the signposting stopped and then the tram platform is basically located in the middle of Platform 2, and with it being an unstaffed station most of the time, that made it a little trickier. I ended up missing one of my trams and came close to boarding the wrong one (Wolverhampton bound rather than Birmingham), it just wasn't clear enough. It does have lifts for both platforms making the station step-free, if you're planning to travel on the train and require disabled access this means you have to prebook and try to signal for the conductor as all trains passing through here have conductors to help assist customers when required to get on and off the train. Pretty basic station, yet still providing railway and tram services from the Jewellery Quarter into the city centre for those who don't fancy the mile or so walk (like me) is pretty handy even if the station is pretty crappy. 2*

Choo choo! Trains come here, sometimes on time, sometimes not. Ticket office seems forever closed,…read morethe ticket machine is usually out of order, and the permit machine switched off. Station needs a good clean, the stairs are filthy. There are lots of stairs, a good workout.