A mixture of intercity, regional, cross-country and local services operate over all or parts of the route. Avanti West Coast, CrossCountry, Transport for Wales and West Midlands Trains all operate services.
Avanti West Coasts use the route as part of their intercity service between London Euston and Birmingham New Street, some services are also extended to/from Wolverhampton, Holyhead or Scotland.
West Midlands Trains also operate London-Birmingham regional trains over the route, all operating via. They also operate a Birmingham- service over the route, and local services between Northampton and Birmingham, they also operate local services between Birmingham, Wolverhampton and.
Transport for Wales operate regional services between Birmingham International and various destinations in Wales via Shrewsbury.
CrossCountry use part of the route for their service from to destinations in the south of England. Many trains on this route run via Wolverhampton, Birmingham and Coventry, turning off towards Leamington Spa.
Finally, on 1 July 1852, the Stour Valley Line from Wolverhampton to Birmingham via Smethwick opened, from Bushbury, just north of Wolverhampton to Birmingham New Street. It was promoted by the Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Stour Valley Railway, which was soon absorbed by the LNWR.
The LNWR itself became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in 1923, and part of British Railways at Nationalisation in 1948. The line was electrified along with the rest of the WCML during the late 1960s in the wake of the BR 1955 Modernisation Plan. In 1987, British Rail commissioned artist Kevin Atherton to produce a series of sculptures to be erected along the line between Birmingham New Street station and Wolverhampton. The finished piece was titled Iron Horse, and consists of twelve different horse silhouettes, fashioned from steel. The construction material was chosen for its historic associations with the Black Country. Many of the smaller stations on the line, were closed in the 1950s and 60s, especially between Birmingham and Wolverhampton. However, some new stations were opened in the late 20th century: station was opened in 1976 to serve Birmingham Airport and the National Exhibition Centre, and in 1995 another new station; was opened, serving as a two-level interchange with trains on the Birmingham Snow Hill to Worcester Line. There was also three services a day to Walsall until May 2019 timetable changes saw it removed and replaced by two morning services a day to Shrewsbury
Despite the heavy traffic carried by the line, it is only double track throughout, and heavily congested, especially on the stretch between Coventry and Birmingham. In the 1930s, the London, Midland and Scottish Railway started work on quadrupling the line between Coventry and Birmingham, however only preparatory work was carried out before the scheme was cancelled due to the outbreak of World War II. Periodic calls have been made since to quadruple the line between Coventry and Birmingham to ease congestion. The line is electrified with overhead wires at 25 kv AC.
