South Staffordshire Line
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The South Staffordshire Line is a railway line opened between Walsall (Staffordshire) and Stourbridge (Worcestershire) in 1850. The route begins near Walsall town centre and finishes near Stourbridge town centre. Just before its termination at Stourbridge, it crosses the massive Stambermill Viaduct which is one of the local area's most significant landmarks. It also crosses Parkhead Viaduct just south of Dudley and for several hundred yards passes through Dudley Railway Tunnel.
[edit] Overview
Passenger stations were opened on the line at locations including Wednesbury, Great Bridge, Dudley Port (Low Level), Dudley, Blower's Green, Round Oak and Brierley Hill. As a result of the Beeching Axe, all passenger stations on the route had closed by 1965 but the line remained open to freight traffic.
Freightliner (UK) opened a terminal at the site of Dudley Station in 1967 and within a decade of opening it was one of the company's most profitable terminals. But Freightliner UK announced in 1981 that it wanted to close the Dudley Freightliner Terminal in a bid to boost the fortunes of the Birmingham Freightliner Terminal, which was one of the least financially viable terminals in the country despite its more credible location. These plans were shelved in 1983, but resurfaced in 1986. The Freightliner Terminal was finally axed in September 1989. The nearby Signal Box was destroyed by arsonists soon afterwards.
Round Oak Steel Terminal opened in 1986 following the success of an earlier terminal which had opened at Wednesbury. The Wednesbury terminal closed in October 1992, but the Round Oak terminal remains open to this day.
On March 19, 1993, the South Staffordshire line between Round Oak and Walsall was closed after 143 years in operation. A year earlier, plans had been unveiled for the line to be included as part of the upcoming Midland Metro network.
There were several movements on the closed section of the line after its official closure, including a cable laying train which covered the route on 2 July 1993.
Railtrack announced plans to re-instate passenger services on the line in 1997, but these are unlikely to proceed.
The closed section South Staffordshire line has now been neglected to the extent that is beyond use, with much of the trackbed heavily overgrown - in some areas almost totally concealed by vegetation - but virtually all of the track remaining. The section of track over Parkhead Viaduct was removed in 1999 on the construction of a road bridge across part of the railway, and a few metres of track just north of the Dudley Freightliner site have been removed. Several fences have been placed on the disused line in a bid to prevent anti-social behaviour including drug-taking and vandalism. These fences are fitted at locations including the canal underbridge near Conygree Road, the northern entrance to Dudley Tunnel and the southern side of the level crossing near Wednesbury town centre.
The closed section of the line between Wednesbury and Brierley Hill has been earmarked as a Midland Metro route since 1992, and in 1999 the company's overheads made these plans public. They initially hoped for work to begin in 2003 and be completed by 2006], but the long procedures of gaining funding have taken their toll on the project and the work is now scheduled to begin in 2007. The route should be completed by 2011. The proposals include provision for a single Midland Metro track, with the second track being reopened to freight traffic. Goods trains will continue along the route past Wednesbury towards Walsall.
