Wednesday 17 Sep 2025
Tunnel tours celebrate Railway 200 and Birmingham Heritage Week
- Region & Route:
- North West & Central
- | North West & Central: Central
Thirty people have been behind the scenes at Birmingham New Street to celebrate the city's heritage and the 200th anniversary of the birth of the modern railway.
The lucky visitors, who won tickets as part of a Birmingham Heritage Week ballot, were able to walk the 400-metre-long tunnel, connecting the Mailbox to the station.
The tunnel holds significant value to Birmingham’s heritage as it was used to move post between the former Royal Mail sorting office and station platforms before being transported by rail across Britain.
Due to its fascinating history, more than 1,500 people applied for the tours, over five times the amount received when the tour was last offered in 2021.
Adam Turner, leading the tours for Network Rail, said: “We’re proud to be working with Birmingham Heritage week and Mailbox on these tunnel tours. It’s been wonderful to share the history of mail by rail in Birmingham with the thirty lucky participants in this special year of Railway 200, celebrating 200 years of railway heritage across the nation."
Jeffrey Hughes, a visitor on the tour, said: "It's my 65th Birthday today and I've been fortunate enough to join Network Rail for their hidden tunnels tour. It's been fascinating and the structures beneath New Street are a credit to our railway ancestors. I'd recommend the tour to anyone who gets the opportunity in the future. Thank you Network Rail."
A spokesperson for Mailbox, said: "We are delighted to open our historic tunnels to the public as part of Birmingham Heritage Week. As a landmark destination that bridges the city's rich past with its future, we're proud to offer visitors this unique opportunity to explore hidden spaces that have remained largely unseen for decades. This collaboration with Network Rail allows us to share an important piece of Birmingham's railway history while celebrating the heritage that makes our city so special."
Irene De Boo, co-ordinator, Birmingham Heritage Week, said: “The response to this year’s underground tunnel tours has been incredible. With over 1,500 people applying for just 30 spaces, it shows the huge appetite people have for discovering Birmingham’s hidden heritage.
“We’re delighted that, as part of Birmingham Heritage Week and Railway 200, visitors have been given this rare chance to step into a forgotten piece of the city’s history, one that lies right beneath our feet.”
When it opened in 1970, the sorting office was the largest building in Birmingham, boasting a vast floor area of 81,000m². It also housed the largest mechanised letters and parcels sorting machinery in the country.
Special electric vehicles known as ‘Brutes’ transported mail sacks through underground tunnels, linking directly to mail trains at Birmingham New Street station.
You can find out more about Railway 200 at www.railway200.co.uk and Birmingham Heritage Week at www.birminghamheritageweek.co.uk.
Notes to Editors
Between 1889-91 Birmingham General Post Office was built facing Victoria Square by Sir Henry Tanner (Grade II) - the sorting office was built behind (the sorting office part of the building was demolished and redeveloped in the 1990s as offices)
There was an existing tunnel under platform 1 for the safe movement of oil lamps and known to this day as the Lamp Tunnel, linking with the western subway (that serves each platform originally for baggage and parcels etc).
In 1894 the London North Western Railway Company and HM Postmaster General entered into an agreement to allow the PMG to construct a link from the sorting office to the Lamp Tunnel
Birmingham was the largest provincial sorting office but prior to WW2 it was struggling to sort the huge volumes of post and parcels but WW2 delayed a modern replacement until the late sixties
The tunnel connection to the railway via the Lamp Tunnel helped the Victoria Square sorting office limp on until in the sixties a new sorting office had to be built (this is the site of the Mailbox complex today).
In 1966 the Postmaster General obtained an Act of Parliament to construct a new tunnel to its new Birmingham sorting office (under the Post Office (Subway) Act 1966).
The new sorting office would be Europe’s largest built on former railway land (part of the former Birmingham Central Goods station site). The new sorting office cost approx. £8m (sixties prices) and was constructed 1966-1968.
The tunnel is approx. 570 ft long, 14ft in diameter and 20ft depth and cost £200k to build (sixties prices). The contractor was Balfour Beatty & Co and the consulting engineer was Sir William Halcrow and Partners.
The tunnel break through at New Street station was on 23 May 1967.
The battery trolleys used to move the mail and parcels were known as BRUTES - British Rail Universal Trolley Equipment. Signs giving a speed limit for BRUTES survive in place today.
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