The Stourbridge Town branch line is a

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

branch line A branch line is a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Branch lines may serve one or more industries, or a city or town not located ...

, in

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 England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It is the shortest railway line in Britain. It is widely believed to be the shortest line in Europe to host a daily service, although this is incorrect; it is notably beaten by the branch line to Friedrichshafen Hafen, in Germany. The line, which was originally constructed to provide transshipment with the Stourbridge Town Arm of the Stourbridge Canal, is now solely used for passenger services. The route is operated by Pre Metro Operations on behalf of

West Midlands Trains West Midlands Trains (WMT) is a British train operating company. It operates passenger trains on the West Midlands franchise between London and the English Midlands under two trading names: within the West Midlands region as West Midlands Rai ...

. It is currently branded as part of the West Midlands Railway sub-brand. Under the previous franchise, which ended on 10 December 2017, the service was branded as the London Midland Stourbridge Shuttle. Service is provided using two Class 139 Parry People Movers.

History and usage

Constructed by the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...

, the short and steeply inclined branch originally carried both passenger traffic from nearby to the terminus at and freight to the Amblecote Goods Depot at Stourbridge Basin. The branch opened for passenger traffic on 1 October 1879 and for goods traffic on 1 January 1880. It briefly closed between April 1915 and February 1919 due to the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, but has otherwise remained open since. Although the branch line was originally double-tracked, after 1935 the two tracks were worked as two parallel single lines, with the non-passenger track used for freight workings beyond the station over a bridge across Foster Street (a bridge rebuilt in 1957 then subsequently demolished in 1967 after the goods branch closed) towards the Stourbridge Basin. (Until the redevelopment of the bus station in 2012, the bridge abutment remained visible in Foster Street.) The station and branch were listed for closure 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 were later delisted in 1965. The goods branch closed in 1965. The 1879 Stourbridge Town station survived mostly intact until February 1979 when it was demolished and the branch cut back by , leaving room for a

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 ...

. The line was controlled by traditional semaphore signals until at least 1990, later than the adjacent main line. However, the line is currently worked by the "One Train Working" system with a train staff as authority to occupy the line, and there are no working signals. In 2021 the whole of the branch received new rail, sleepers and ballast, the first upgrade of the track since 1902.

Rail traffic on the line

The line has been used several times as the test route for new types of small rail transport. The

used both autotrains and one of the early railcars on this route, and in December 2005 the route began being used to test the Parry People Mover, a highly energy-efficient railcar, to provide the Sunday service. The experiment has been sufficiently successful to the extent that the Sunday service in June 2006 was included in both the

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and railway infrastructure manager, infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. ...

printed timetables and Internet site, and now runs on a permanent basis. The line has been operated by two Parry People Movers since June 2009. It was previously operated by a single car, and prior to that a , locally known as ''Daisy the DMU''. Although the line has been threatened with closure several times in the past, People Mover had suggested that should their railcar prove a success, their service could be further extended into Stourbridge town centre as a

light rail Light rail (or light rail transit, abbreviated to LRT) is a form of passenger urban rail transit that uses rolling stock derived from tram technology National Conference of the Transportation Research Board while also having some features from ...

system. Press reports in August 2010 marked the milestone of half a million passengers having been passed, and indicated substantial growth rates and reliability levels comparable to the

Docklands Light Railway The Docklands Light Railway (DLR) is an automated medium-capacity rail system, light metro system primarily serving the redeveloped London Docklands, Docklands area of London and providing a direct connection between London's two major financi ...

; a new depot could consolidate this early success. In 2023 the shuttle celebrated seven million passenger journeys since services began 14 years before. The train operates six times per hour over the line, with a journey time of three minutes.

Passenger volume

These are the passenger figures on the line from the year beginning April 2002 to the year beginning April 2022. Comparing 2002–2003 to 2019–2020, Stourbridge Town numbers increased by 138% and Stourbridge Junction by 378%.

Accidents

The branch has become notorious for the steep downhill gradient leading from Junction station, and over the years there have been several incidents: *15 June 1897 – a train of empty cattle trucks and horse boxes was being reversed down the incline when the locomotive's vacuum brake failed. The locomotive and wagons ploughed into a line of stationary wagons, the office of a local

coal merchant A coal merchant is the term used in the UK and other countries for a trader who sells coal and often delivers it to households. Coal merchants were once a major class of local business, but have declined in importance in many parts of the developed ...

, and stables. One man was injured. *24 April 1905 – the driver lost control of a locomotive descending the branch, head-first, at the head of 32 wagons. The train demolished the stop block and smashed into and through the goods office at the end of the branch. Luckily the crew managed to jump clear before impact. *10 February 1948 – a heavily laden freight train slipped away despite brakes being applied, with the result that wagons telescoped into each other. *2 April 1977 – BR single-car diesel unit W55012 suffered a brake failure while descending the branch from Stourbridge Junction and crashed through the buffers and the wall beyond, leaving the front part of the train overhanging the road below. This unit is preserved at the

Weardale Railway The Weardale Railway is an independently owned British Single track (rail), single-track branch line heritage railway between and Stanhope. The railway began services in July 2004. The line was purchased by the Auckland Project in 2020 with a ...

. *21 January 1989 – apparently caused by trespassers on the line distracting the driver, who consequently misjudged his braking, class 121 unit W55033 ran through the buffer stops at the end of the line and crashed through the wall beyond. The train was sent out of operation and required an overhaul. *1 March 1990 – in a very similar incident to the 1977 crash, brake failure caused class 121 unit W55034 to crash through the rebuilt wall at the end of the line. The buffer stop destroyed in the 1989 crash had not been replaced.

References

External links