Stourbridge Town is a railway station in the town of

Stourbridge Stourbridge () is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Situated on the River Stour, Worcestershire, River Stour, the town lies around west of Birmingham, at the southwester ...

, West Midlands, England. It is situated at the end of a short branch line linking the station with , 0.8 miles away, where passengers can change for mainline train services. It is said to be the shortest operational branch railway line in Europe.

History

It opened to passenger traffic on Wednesday 1 October 1879, Stourbridge Town was built because it was considered that the existing station at was situated too far from Stourbridge town centre. The original station, built of white brick with courses of stone, and red and blue brick, situated upon the site now occupied by Stourbridge

bus station A bus station, bus depot, or bus interchange is a structure where city buses or intercity buses stop to pick up and drop off passengers. A bus station is larger than a bus stop, which is usually simply a place on the roadside, where buses can st ...

, was a surprisingly grand affair, with one 298 ft (91 m) platform paved with ornamental blue bricks and substantial brick buildings covered by a full-length awning of wood and glass on an iron framework. The building comprised a first and second-class ladies’ waiting room, third-class ladies’ waiting room, first and second-class general waiting room, third-class general waiting room, a parcels and clock room, lamp room and offices. The booking office was in the centre of the block of rooms between the two general waiting rooms, in each of which was a ticket portal. The station was closed as a wartime economy measure between 1 April 1915 and 3 March 1919, with passenger services being replaced by

Midland Red Midland Red was a bus company that operated in the Midlands of England from 1905 until 1981. It was one of the largest English bus companies, operating over a large area between Gloucester in the south and Derbyshire in the north, and from Nort ...

buses. During the

General Strike A general strike is a strike action in which participants cease all economic activity, such as working, to strengthen the bargaining position of a trade union or achieve a common social or political goal. They are organised by large coalitions ...

in 1926, the bus service between Junction and Town stations was re-introduced from 7 May to 10 July to cover for the withdrawn train services. The station and branch were listed for closure in 1964 under the

Beeching axe The Beeching cuts, also colloquially referred to as the Beeching Axe, were a major series of route closures and service changes made as part of the restructuring of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain in the 1960s. They are named ...

, but won a stay of execution in 1965, although the station lost its parcels service and became unstaffed from July 1967. The 1879 station survived mostly intact until February 1979 when it was demolished. In 1979, the branch was cut back by 70 yards (64 m) towards Junction station, leaving room for a bus station. The new station was a low-cost portable building built by

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...

and artifacts from the old station were acquired by the Birmingham Railway Museum for their depot at Tyseley. Despite threats and rumours of closure in the 1980s and 1990s, the station building was replaced in early 1994, with a new station opening to passengers on 25 April 1994. The current station is a small modern facility directly linked to the

allowing easy interchange with bus services at this urban

railhead {{Short pages monitor