please empty your brain below

And as you travel north from London on that line, you are largely following the route of the Grand Union Canal.

(I've written about Smethwick too, sorry, http://www.chertsey130.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/delights-of-smethwick.html)

And yes, New Street Station is horrible. On my current weekly commute from the West Midlands I chose to change twice, at Crewe and Stockport, rather than once at New Street.
I don't know how much LM's dirt cheap offer was, but the ordinary return fare to Birmingham on Chiltern is £25 and the journey time not much more than Virgin's.
And unlike Virgin and LM, Chiltern takes you from to Moor Street (or Snow Hill) from Marylebone (which is almost as nice as Moor Street), not from Useless Euston to Noisome New Street
The reason Birmingham Cathedral looks like a parish church is that it was built as one (like Southwark Cathedral) and though constructed in 1715 didn't become a Cathedral 'til the 1900s!
And as far as I know it still has a parish.

Southwark, though it was a parish church before it became a cathedral, was originally a monastic (Augustinian) church. It's been reconstructed a few times, but bits of the old monastic church are still there.
The canal at Smethwick is part of the Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN) It is connected to the GUC but was always a seperate entity. Just to the west is the shell of Chances Glass Works where most of the glass for the Crystal Palace was produced.
Regarding London Midland not sure it's true to say their trains takes so long to get anywhere. They are fairly quick for some journies (e.g. London to Milton Keynes). The problem is they've essentially strung two more local service together (London to Northampton and Northampton to Birmingham) to create a through train but going via Northampton is the long way round and hence it takes a while. It's much quicker on Virgin Trains or Chiltern (but the former is expensive if you haven't booked in advance).
At last I can say "I've been there recently" I walked along the canals from Galton Bridge through the city centre and down to Bournville - very enjoyable walk.
New Street is indeed a hole. Got on one those horrible Cross Country voyagers for Wolverhampton as per the sign - it went the other way towards Derby!
Moor Street is terminus for those very nice loco pulled Chiltern trains to Marylebone - much better than Virgin's Pendolinos.
All in all I do like Birmingham, mainly it's city centre and canals.
Strangely I was at Galton Bridge just a couple of months ago...on a mini-explore of, well, more of the Black Country than Brum: West Bromwich and it's bright pink new art gallery, Wolverhampton - a potential "English Lille" as regards post-industrial redevelopment, I wondered, being far more attractive than I'd expected.

As for the big city of the West Mids, I've found this website http://www.birminghamitsnotshit.co.uk/ (I agree with the title) helpful in the past - but it appears to have had a major makeover at some point since then, so I don't know how useful it currently is...
Wow, I had the misfortune of living in Smethwick for 6 months a decade ago and had no idea of the delights of Galton Bridge.

As for Birmingham New Street, it's subterranean location means it will always be a rather grim place but I'm not sure it's as bad as it reputation suggests.
Birmingham is a fantastic city and well worth spending time in.
In an unexpected move, my blog has been mentioned in a BBC News article about Birmingham!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-20150580

Courtesy of http://www.birminghamitsnotshit.co.uk
(thanks Jon!)










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