Stourbridge Junction railway station


Stourbridge Junction is one of two railway stations serving the town of Stourbridge, in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the West Midlands, England. It lies on the Birmingham to Worcester via Kidderminster Line and is the junction for the Stourbridge Town Branch Line, said to be the shortest operational branch line in Europe. The other station serving Stourbridge is at the end of the branch line.

History

The station was opened in 1852 on the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway line, at a slightly different location to the present station, under the name of Stourbridge. The junction came about when the Stourbridge Railway built their line to Lye and beyond.
Stourbridge became a double junction on 1 October 1879 when the branch to Stourbridge Town and goods was opened.
On 1 October 1901 the new station opened to the south of the original.
In 1962, the OWW was closed to passenger traffic north of Stourbridge by the British Transport Commission, although the route remained open for freight until 1993. Only the section as far as the Round Oak Steel Terminal is still in use.
All through services to Birmingham were diverted from Snow Hill to Birmingham New Street in 1967 in the wake of the Beeching Report, but mostly reverted to their previous route following the reopening of the Smethwick Junction to Snow Hill line in 1995. Certain Birmingham - Worcester/Hereford trains calling here continued to use the connection onto the Stour Valley line at Galton Junction until the May 2004 timetable change, but there are now no timetabled direct services to New Street and passengers wishing to access main line services there must either change at Galton Bridge or make the transfer between Snow Hill & New Street on foot.
The station used to have four platforms, comprising two island platforms. The southern divergence to Platform 1 was removed some years ago and Platform 4, situated opposite to the current Platform 3, now faces the car park - built on the station's old carriage sidings.
The station's signalbox closed on 24 August 2012, as part of a wider network modernisation programme to centralise signalling operations. The signals at the station are now controlled from the West Midlands Signalling Centre in Saltley, Birmingham.

Railway operations

Operations

Signalling
Signals in and around the station are controlled from the West Midlands Signalling Centre, which replaced Stourbridge's older box in 2012. The town branch is accessed from the 'goods loop' line and a manually operated ground frame located to the north of platforms 1 & 2.
Platforms
A disused through-platform face can be seen next to platform 3, which is used as a station entrance and part of the car park.

Services

West Midlands Railway
The majority of services from Stourbridge Junction are operated by West Midlands Railway, using Class 172 diesel multiple units. They usually run to Birmingham Snow Hill via Smethwick Galton Bridge, and to Kidderminster, Worcester Shrub Hill or Great Malvern. Trains to Birmingham usually continue to Whitlocks End or Dorridge, with some via both of these stations continuing to or . Services in the West Midlands county are often subsidised by Network West Midlands.
Trains operating from the Junction to Stourbridge Town are currently being run by Class 139 units. One of two units operates a shuttle service every ten minutes between the stations.
Other operators
Chiltern Railways provide a peak time service to London via Birmingham Snow Hill, most of which commence at Kidderminster.
The station often sees special charter trains or stock movements to the Severn Valley Railway at Kidderminster, and two CrossCountry services - one early morning and one late evening - are timetabled to run through, but not call at, Stourbridge Junction. The line is also used as a diversionary route for the Cross Country Route between Birmingham New Street and Cheltenham Spa.

Freight

In the recent economic downturn freight through Stourbridge Junction has lessened significantly. There are now just three steel trains per day each way to and from Round Oak Steel Terminal. Other 'as required' services include a scrap steel service and a new stone service from Croft to Brierley Hill which operate on Fridays, and a nuclear flask train which operates from to Crewe. There are several other freight trains which use the line through the station on a regular basis.

Future Proposals & West Midland Metro line Extension

Since 2010, plans have existed to reintroduce services on part of the disused Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway from Stourbridge Junction to Brierley Hill. Services would be operated by similar PPM stock that is used to Stourbridge Town, or the branch route may be expanded, these plans were later paused in place of the West Midlands Metro extension.
In 2012 the extension of the West Midlands Metro to from Wednesbury to Brierley hill had been given the go ahead.
Due to funding constraints, it was decided to terminate Line 2 in Brierley Hill, and later Stourbridge, with the first section from Wednesbury to Dudley opening first. In early 2017, work began to clear vegetation and disused track from the former railway line. The line will be completed by 2023. The estimated cost of Line 2 is now £449 million.

Stourbridge depot

On construction, the OWW built a small servicing depot just north of the station on the route to. The GWR intended to improve this, but were delayed by the outbreak of World War I until 1926, when they built a new standard pattern single roundhouse with coaling/watering and light maintenance facilities, situated north of the station, just north of the A458 Birmingham Street. The depot was allocated with mainly local service tank engines, such as Prairies and Panniers, with a small allocation of dedicated freight types. The original OWW shed was later used to house railmotors and diesel railcars. With the Beeching Report implemented, both depots closed in July 1966 and were demolished, with the land used for housing.
Today the yard to the north of the station is home to a Light Maintenance Depot used by Chiltern Railways. This is used to stable stock for the peak services from Kidderminster, and is occasionally used to stable engineering vehicles. The land at the south end of platform 1 has a shed for the two Class 139 units that serve the Stourbridge Town branch.