The new north-west corner entrance will allow people walking from Victoria Square, New Street and Colmore Row to access the redeveloped station direct from Stephenson Street. It will open at the end of 2012 when the first half of the new station concourse will open to passengers.

To allow construction work to progress safely, Network Rail has secured agreement with Birmingham City Council for a road closure of Navigation Street on weekdays (Monday to Friday) with the road reopening at weekends.

Chris Montgomery, project director for Network Rail said: “The north west side of New Street station will change beyond recognition over the next 18 months as we build the new entrance and continue work to clad the station in its stainless steel façade. With easy access to the city centre, we anticipate the north-west entrance will become one of the most popular ways to access the station.

“The road closures are essential to allow us to complete this work safely and we will continue to work with Birmingham City Council and our other partners to minimise disruption while we build.”

Behind the hoardings, large parts of the old concrete clad station building will be demolished to allow construction of the steelwork frame which will form the new station entrance. Next door on Stephenson Street, preparatory work is already underway to install the first section of stainless steel façade.

The new entrance will open at the end of December 2012 as part of the completion of Phase 1 of the station redevelopment. Once the new entrance and concourse is open, work will switch to redeveloping the existing station with the project set to complete in 2015.

City.Mobi

Also in Europe today, City.Mobi is celebrating the success of its new guide to London.

City.Mobi offers the most comprehensive mobile travel guides available, with over 800 cities in 200 countries listed. Each is developed by the City.Mobi team to combine into a single global travel directory.

However, each city retains its own mobile identity via a dedicated domain. Already on offer are Brussels.Mobi, Paris.Mobi, Sanfrancisco.Mobi and Sydney.Mobi.

London.mobi is the latest in this illustrious line up, offering click to call functionality – which means no scribbling down telephone numbers.

Most entries are also linked to websites where users can quickly access more detailed information if needed.

Other key features include information on accommodation, restaurants, attractions, entertainment, nightlife, shopping, and transport.

City.Mobi guides include user reviews and traveller utilities such as a translation guide, currency converter, news and local weather guide.