Trains at Wolverhampton, WCML, 15/08/25

Описание: Wolverhampton station is a railway station in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England on the Birmingham Loop of the West Coast Main Line. It is served by Avanti West Coast, CrossCountry, Transport for Wales and West Midlands Trains services, and was historically known as Wolverhampton High Level.

It is also a West Midlands Metro tram stop.

The first station named Wolverhampton had opened on the edge of the town centre in 1837 on the Grand Junction Railway, this station was renamed Wednesfield Heath in 1855, shortly after the present station was opened, and then was closed in 1873.

On 12 November 1849, the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway opened a temporary terminus to its line, at a location very close to the present station.

The present station site was opened on 1 July 1852 by the Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Stour Valley Railway, a subsidiary of the London and North Western Railway (LNWR); it was named Wolverhampton Queen Street.

The only visible remnant of the original station is the Queen's Building, the gateway to Railway Drive which was the approach road to the station. The building was originally the carriage entrance to the station and was completed three years before the main station building.

Today, it forms part of Wolverhampton bus station.

Two years later, on 1 July 1854, the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway (OWWR) opened a second station, located behind the older station on lower ground, which became known as the Wolverhampton Low Level station from April 1856, the other becoming known as Wolverhampton High Level from 1 June 1885.

From 1923, the LNWR was amalgamated into the London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS), and in 1948 it became part of the London Midland Region of British Railways.

Services over the former Grand Junction Railway line to Walsall (and thence to Lichfield City and Burton-on-Trent) ended in January 1965, this route being the only one from here to fall victim to the Beeching Axe.

The since replaced Wolverhampton station dated from 1964 when the High Level station was completely rebuilt by the architect Ray Moorcroft as part of the modernisation programme which saw the West Coast Main Line electrified.

It consisted of three through platforms (the present platforms 1, 2 and 3). As part of this scheme, most services on the OW&WR route from Shrewsbury were diverted here from Low Level (though a few peak-hour trains continued to serve the latter until March 1968); these then continued to Birmingham New Street via the Stour Valley line rather than via the ex-GWR line to Birmingham Snow Hill as before. In the 1980s, a parcels siding was converted into a south-facing bay platform (the present platform 5), and a new north-facing bay was constructed (the present platform 6).

In 1987 twelve different horse sculptures by Kevin Atherton, titled Iron Horse, were erected between New Street station and Wolverhampton, including one at the southern end of platforms 2 and 3.

More recently (in 2004), a new through platform (platform 4) was constructed on the site of infrequently-used sidings.

This has greatly enhanced the capacity of the station. A new footbridge was also constructed, to allow access to the new platform but also to improve access to the existing ones. A proposal for a more comprehensive redevelopment of the station and surrounding area was announced on 18 October 2006.

Work on the £150 million redevelopment of the station finally began in 2018, and was expected to be completed in 2020, it will eventually include an extension of the West Midland Metro. However, COVID-19 requirements caused the work to be delayed. Demolition of the 1960s buildings began in May 2020 with the first part of the new station opening the same month.

Duration of the video: 14:19 - 16:09

We’ll be seeing services by Avanti West Coast, London Northwestern Railway, Transport for Wales, West Midlands Trains & Cross Country.

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It’s been quite a long time since I last visited Wolverhampton but is always a nice station to come to though however I did encounter some ongoing disruption on the day I did train spotting but at least I got to see some West Midlands Trains 730’s on the Walsall to Wolverhampton shuttle runs , London Northwestern Railway 730’s and some Ex Former Avanti West Coast voyagers that are currently with Cross Country roaming around on the network.

My next station will be Birmingham International which is situated on West Coast Mainline I haven’t done any train spotting there before but I’m sure it’ll be a great station to come and visit so until then thanks for watching and I’ll see you in the next video.