The effect of the railways on road coaches in the Birmingham area fluctuated from boom to disaster. Until 1835, six coaches set out daily in each direction to and from Birmingham and Worcester, but when the London & Birmingham Railway opened, the traffic trebled because it was cheaper, quicker, and much more comfortable to get to London by coach to Birmingham, and from there by rail to London. By 1839, this road coach traffic had increased to 29 each day, but at the completion of the Birmingham-Gloucester line in 1841, the coach trade vanished overnight. In 1842, a 'through carriage' service from London to Gloucester did the journey in 7 1/2 hours, which included a 40 minute stop at Curzon Street Station, Birmingham, for transfer from one system to the other.
