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Thursday 6 Jul 2023

New Street passenger advice during Ozzy the bull’s concourse creation

Region & Route:

North West & Central

| North West & Central: Central

Something spectacular will be happening over the next few weeks at Birmingham New Street as Ozzy the bull returns to the city.

Passengers travelling through the busiest station outside of London may have noticed some huge hoardings go up recently, behind which the star of last year’s Commonwealth Games opening ceremony will be rebuilt.

A specialist team of designers and engineers will be painstakingly rebuilding newly named Ozzy over the coming days and weeks.

While this takes place a section of the concourse will be out of action with staff in place to help passengers navigate around the station.

Ozzy’s big build won’t impact on the running of trains, it will however mean there will be less space on that part of the concourse.

People are asked to factor this into their journey and leave extra time to get to their platform.

Steven Ireland, Network Rail Central route head of customer service, said: “Exciting times are ahead at New Street as Ozzy arrives on his one-way ticket to Birmingham New Street this week. At over 10 metres tall there’s no door big enough for him to come in one piece – so instead he’s been turned into a giant jigsaw puzzle and will be built behind the hoardings now in place on the concourse.

“We thank people for their patience while we’ve needed to reserve the spot for our VIB (Very Important Bull). While we’re going to try to keep as much of him under wraps as possible – how he takes shape will be quite hard to miss over the coming weeks!”

Ozzy was destined to be scrapped after his one-off performance at last year’s Commonwealth Games opening ceremony.

He’s now been saved for the city in a joint project by Network Rail and the West Midlands Combined Authority.

The massive moving sculpture will be built in time to be officially unveiled to mark the first anniversary of last year’s games and coincide with a cultural festival organised by Birmingham City Council between 28 July and 6 August.

• Read more: Birmingham Festival 2023

The bull has gone through a major redesign by its original creators - special effects company Artem - to make him suitable to be put on permanent indoor display.

Last month the public overwhelmingly voted for the bull to be called Ozzy, after heavy metal legend and Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne, who's originally from Birmingham.

• Read again: Ozzy overwhelmingly tops public poll at New Street bull’s new name

Ozzy will be officially unveiled in the station towards the end of July after all construction and testing of his new mechanisms are complete.

To follow progress updates on how Ozzy is coming together you can follow @NetworkRailBHM on Twitter.