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Locale ShropshireWolverhamptonStaffordshireShrewsbury and AtchamWest Midlands (region)Telford and Wrekin Track gauge 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ⁄2 in) standard gauge | ||
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 4 tracks through Wellington station.
Contents
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 is centred at Madeley Junction. Towards Wolverhampton, the West Midlands Signalling Centre, Oxley Workstation, takes over (previously Oxley signal box until it closed on Saturday 27 November 2010 under the West Midlands Resignalling scheme) and towards Shrewsbury, Abbey Foregate signal box.
Route
The towns and villages served by the route are listed below, East to West.
Monday-Saturday
Arriva Trains Wales, London Midland and Virgin Trains operate passenger trains on this line. Westbound, some trains go beyond Shrewsbury to Chester, Holyhead, Aberystwyth and Wrexham General while eastbound, services continue beyond Wolverhampton to Birmingham New Street and/or Birmingham International.
As of December 2014, Virgin Trains run two daily services between Shrewsbury and London Euston.
Sundays
There are no London Midland services in operation on this line on Sundays. Virgin Trains services only operate one of their direct trains in each direction on Sundays. Arriva Trains Wales services operate as normal with infrequent additional stopping services in lieu of the London Midland services.
Freight
The Coalbrookdale line, which serves Ironbridge Power Station to the south of Telford near Ironbridge, joins the Wolverhampton–Shrewsbury line at Madeley Junction, which is between Telford Central and Shifnal stations. Coal trains run 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 48 acres (0.19 km2) site just off the Hortonwood Roundabout near Donnington which opened in 2009. The reopened line is single track and runs for 2 miles 68 chains (4.6 km) from the junction with the Wolverhampton–Shrewsbury line at Wellington ( 0.25 miles (0.40 km) east of Wellington station). 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.