Digbeth venues rally against £1.75bn Midlands rail scheme

A £1.75 billion rail scheme puts more than 50 Digbeth businesses, including XOYO Birmingham, Mama Roux’s and Club Colette, at risk. On October 11, venues and campaigners held a block party on the district’s streets to oppose it, Mixmag reported.

The Midlands Rail Hub Alliance published the plan for consultation in summer 2025, covering the network between Moor Street station and Bordesley. The consultation described Digbeth, Birmingham’s oldest district, with its dozens of nightclubs, art studios, galleries and The Custard Factory creative complex, as “low-lying” land.

George Fleming, founder of Save Our Scene, an organization working to protect venues and grassroots nightlife across the UK, says Digbeth’s venues and independent spaces account for around 50% of the city’s grassroots music scene. “Some of these businesses have been around for over 20 years, and they need each other in order to survive and thrive,” he says.

The plan involves widening the existing viaduct, with works planned to begin in 2030 if it gets the green light. Other Digbeth venues named as affected include The Night Owl, Luna Springs and komunal. Komunal’s founder, Matti Barton, says the venue opened last year and a forced move would cost about £100,000. “That’s a major financial hit we may not survive,” he says. He claims the rail plans were not mentioned when he signed his contract for the space on Lower Trinity Street, the main area that would be affected. “They’re basically keeping it all very hush hush, doing everything quietly,” he says.

The Alliance says the project would ease congestion at New Street Station, Birmingham’s busiest, by adding two new platforms and sending more trains into Moor Street. It also says the scheme would bring more out-of-towners into the city to experience its culture. Fleming says Save Our Scene is not against railway improvements. “Why would people travel into Birmingham for its culture if that culture doesn’t exist?” he asks.

The Digbeth Block Party, run by Save Our Scene and the newly formed Digbeth Music Venues Alliance, a group of venues under threat, drew DJs, venue owners and clubbers and raised money for the Save Digbeth campaign. Silva Bumpa and Fleur Shore played. Attendees were encouraged to email Shabana Mahmood, the Birmingham MP and Home Secretary, and Fleming says more than 4,000 emails have been sent so far.

Shore says she started going out in Digbeth at 15, using her sister’s ID to get into The Rainbow, and started playing in the district when she got older. “It just shows you where their heads are at with the arts and creative sector,” she says. Fleming adds that the area is important to Birmingham’s queer community. “They can party or perform without judgement,” he says.

Mahmood wrote a letter in late August saying she “supports the prospect of major investment in the region’s rail network”, but that the disruption to surrounding businesses “cannot be overstated”. She has not commented further. Birmingham City Council says it has “made clear that the scheme must be delivered in a way that safeguards existing businesses and communities” and that it wants to work with Network Rail to get the most from the investment.

The proposals are still under discussion. A consultation on “refined proposals” is planned for summer 2027, followed by a public inquiry the year after.

After the block party, a green heart mural in Digbeth was repainted. It now shows two people in high-vis jackets reading “Network Fail” on either side of the heart.