The Wolverhampton–Shrewsbury line is the railway line from Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury via Wellington; it was originally built by the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway. The line is double track throughout, with rarely used relief sidings at Cosford and four tracks through Wellington station. Electrification from Stafford Road Junction to Oxley, is provided solely to enable electric stock to access Alstom's Oxley TRSMD, and is therefore constructed as a "trolley wire" suitable for low speeds only. Signalling was centred in the panel box at Madeley Junction until 2012, but following the closure of the box there, the West Midlands Signalling Centre at Saltley has taken control of most of the route via its Oxley/Telford Workstation. Previously, Oxley signal box controlled the depot access and sidings until it closed on 27 November 2010 under the West Midlands Resignalling scheme. Towards Shrewsbury, Abbey Foregate signal box takes over for the last few miles beyond Wellington. The line was also served by a service to Walsall which ran to Wellington via Wolverhampton but the service was cutback to Wolverhampton and then eventually withdrawn.
History
The line was opened by the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway in 1849, which merged with the Great Western Railway in 1854. In GWR days, until the 1960s it formed part of an important main line route from to.
Route
The towns and villages served by the route are listed below, East to West.
, Transport for Wales and West Midlands Trains operate passenger trains on this line. Westbound, some trains go beyond Shrewsbury to, Holyhead, and while eastbound, services continue beyond Wolverhampton to Birmingham New Street and/or Birmingham International. West Midlands Trains operate two service per hour on the line; the first is the traditional one that serves all stations between Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury, the second new service, instituted in the May 2019 timetable, only calls at Codsall, Shifnal, Telford and Wellington, which provides a faster service on the line than the all stations stopping service. The improved service was due to go live in the December 2018 timetable change, but the units could not be cascaded from other lines at that time. There was also two morning and return services a day to Walsall. These operated in the early morning from Monday to Friday only. They were operated as extensions of the Shrewsbury to Birmingham Line. This replaced the former Liverpool Lime Street service. However in December 2019, following problems with services and disruptions. The Walsall service was once again withdrawn. Replaced by a through Rugeley Trent Valley to Wolverhampton service. Since December 2014, Virgin Trains have run two daily services between Shrewsbury and London Euston.
Sundays
As of the May 2019 timetable change, West Midlands Trains operates an hourly service on this line on Sundays. This was previously run as a two-hourly service by Arriva Trains Wales. Virgin Trains services only operate one of their direct trains in each direction on Sundays.
Freight
The Coalbrookdale line, which served Ironbridge Power Station to the south of Telford near Ironbridge, joined the Wolverhampton–Shrewsbury line at Madeley Junction, which is between Telford Central and Shifnal stations. Coal trains ran by EWS up to 2012 and by Fastline up to 2010 used the route, supplying the power station. Between 2012 and 2015, the power station was converted to run on biomass which was supplied mostly via Liverpool Docks by GBRf trains until closure of the plant in November 2015. In 2008 the former Wellington to Stafford line was rebuilt as far as Donnington, for freight use. Telford International Railfreight Park is located at a site just off the Hortonwood Roundabout near Donnington which opened in 2009. The reopened line is single track and runs for from the junction with the Wolverhampton–Shrewsbury line at Wellington. Currently the only rail business to and from the site is Ministry of Defence traffic which runs down from Warrington so only uses a brief portion of the line between Shrewsbury and Wellington.
