It opened in 1876 on the Midland Railway's Birmingham West Suburban Railway branch to serve the burgeoning suburbs of Selly Oak and Bournbrook. The station area has changed considerably since the Midland Railway days and lost virtually all its original features as the station was completely rebuilt in 1978 along with the others on this line when the Cross-City route was re-opened. Selly Oak Station is equipped with real-time information departure boards which were previously installed in 2006 by Central Trains. There are two automated ticket machines and two windowed ticket booths.