Wolverhampton's New £85m Railway Project: A Look At The Wolverhampton to Walsall Line

Ever wondered why it takes so long to get between Walsall and Wolverhampton on a train? Chances are - it's because the service will travel through Birmingham, turning what could be a 15 minute or so journey by rail into one an hour long going around the long way. This has prompted many community organisations, local authorities, MPs and transport enthusiasts to encourage reopening the Wolverhampton to Walsall Line for decades, as a way of reducing journey times between Wolverhampton and Walsall and to decongest the local road network.

I’ll not go into too much detail here as I would love you all to get stuck into the video…and so if you like this video, make sure to give this video a like, subscribe to my channel and share this video. By doing this, you massively help me out and I appreciate it.

Seriously check this place out - it’s an immensely interesting website about the history of the Black Country more generally and if you enjoyed the historical discussions in this video, you’ll enjoy this.

IMPORTANT: There are images in this video that aren’t my own and so all copyright goes to those who own them!

Copyright SomeNorthLondoner 2025

[somenorthlondoner]

BTW sorry if my pronunciation of “Darlaston” sounds a bit flat. A lot of this was recorded in the aftermath of a cold 😅

[ricktownend]

Great video - I really like your detail on local industries and bus routes.

[nathanw]

I've noticed that all recent station and line openings have bern given a frequency of only once an hour or 2 hours, and this will be the case for the next stage of the East West railway too. While it's great that these areas are now getting some kind of railway service, if they want to compete with buses they need to begin these services with competition and convenience in mind in the first place.

[Macc]

Let's hope that "Rachel from Accounts" has already factored in the cost for this marvellous rail upgrade.

[JohnCarter-cc]

For a period in the 1990s a one an hour passenger service ran from Wellington (Shropshire) to Walsall, I used it several times.

[DavidAitcheson]

The addition of Willenhall and Darlaston should make this reopening a success!

[Ryanchannel]

I live in Walsall & looking forward to using the new service as it could make going to places like Shrewsbury & Manchester easier then go to Rugeley via Stafford Crewe to Manchester & change at Tame Bridge for Shrewsbury.

I would like to see a new station between Aldridge or Bloxwich & Walsall. Ether Ryecroft on Rutland Street or Forest Line on the existing chase line.

The other site would be Mill Lane & the reintroduction of the South Staffordshire line to Lichfield. Having 2 platforms on the Sutton Park line & 2 for the South Staffordshire line. The areas of Rushall, Coalpool, Ryecroft & Harden would benefit from have a new station. Give new housing estates recently being built in these areas . having a new service from Aldridge to Wolverhampton via Mill Line, Walsall Darlaston & Willinhall more profitable & could serve 4 to 6 trains per hour at Mill line from Wolverhampton to Lichfield via Willenhall, Darlaston, Walsall, Mill Lane, Pelsall & Brownhills.

[stevieinselby]

It's interesting when you look at the settings for Willenhall and Darlaston – Willenhall being very conveniently located for the town centre and surrounding residential areas – Darlaston being on the edge of an out-of-town retail and industrial zone but with a big car park that is likely to attract people from further afield. The main thing I would change would be that each service needs to be every 30 minutes, giving a ~15-minute frequency on the combined section to Wolverhampton – an hourly train on a local service in an urban area is just not good enough.

[nickchomyk]

The station at Darlaston is too far outside of the town centre to be of use for Darlaston. It will be more of a park and ride, like Tamebridge Parkway. Depends if parking is free.

[Mikekay]

I live in willenhall with this line running back of mine and near noose lane where portobello station used to be located and it has been long time coming, had so many plans popping up ever since the introduction of walsall to wolverhampton via portobello junction in 1998 and same service ending in 2008, plus with bus services getting worse in willenhall especially the 529 where every 7 mins is what nx claims but can be up three buses together or busy at times too, so it's a good alternative to the bus.

Also there used to be another walsall to wolverhampton line via Willenhall stafford st line closed in beeching cuts.

[OT-VG]

i live in Wolverhampton thanks for the news😁

[sr]

Work began on this and the Camp Hill lines few years ago. Both are progressing extremely slowly. Since the West Midlands Mayor changed, it seems to be on hold. I don’t think there is any chance of trains going from Aldridge to Birmingham via Castle. Bromwich in the near future. The south east lines out of New Street are at capacity. The only way for it to work is to send the trains into Moor Street by a New Chord at Bordesley. There is a proposal for that.

[Cheeseatingjunlista]

Nice vid, very good detail, look forward to seeing them open

[atomicfalloutminis]

Hopefully this line opens because I hate taking the bus from Walsall to Wolverhampton

[DavidAitcheson]

The direct Wolverhampton to Walsall line reopened on 24 May 1998. Even discounted fares did not prevent it from closing🤥 soon after!

[Midlandtransportation]

I will say fun fact the Walsall-Wolverhampton line is technically still in service as it sees a weekly service from Walsall to wolves via the old line. Also I have heard of some 196’s weirdly skipping out wolves and going on that exact line.
Edit: darlaston is going for a Worcestershire pway type of thing

[richardallsop]

Hello, great information on the Wolverhampton/Walsall Line, however there is another West Midland Authority railway project which has had its funding removed by the new WMA Mayor, the station at Aldridge had £30million funding in place supported by Andy Street, where has the money gone. Regards.

[SWRural-fkub]

Good video, thanks, . May I suggest you leave the maps on the screen for a few seconds longer when describing the routes and history, as, for non-locals, it was a 'now you see it, now you don't' experience! Edit: The last 5 minutes definitely needed maps on the screen when discussing possible routes and stations rather than just shots of buses and trains.

[IDeltic]

Not 24 hours ago I was wondering why no trains used this line to connect two pretty major places, leaving the 1 hour 9 minute train via New Street as the only direct link. Funnily enough it is actually faster to go the other way and change at Stafford and come back down via Rugely. I wonder how often a journey is faster changing trains than taking a direct one...

Anyway it's nice to see I'm not alone in thinking running passenger services along this line would be beneficial haha

[quinnpaddock]

I used it in 2012 when I went to university