The Birmingham to Worcester via Kidderminster line is a railway line which runs from Birmingham Snow Hill to Worcester via Stourbridge and Kidderminster in the West Midlands, England. It is one of the Snow Hill Lines, with trains operated by West Midlands Trains and Chiltern Railways using a variety of rolling stock including and diesel units. It is a future aspiration of Network Rail to electrify the entire line, as well as the Chiltern Main Line to London Marylebone.
The line is one of two railway routes between Birmingham and Worcester, the other route runs via Bromsgrove.
History
The line between Worcester and Stourbridge Junction was opened as part of the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway (OWWR), in 1852. Opening in 1867, the line between Stourbridge Junction and Smethwick was built by an independent company; the Stourbridge Railway; at Smethwick this line joined the Stour Valley Line at Galton Junction. A short link was opened at the same time by the Great Western Railway (GWR) which connected the Stourbridge Railway at Smethwick to the Birmingham Snow Hill to Wolverhampton Line at Handsworth, allowing trains to run into Snow Hill station. By 1870, the OWWR and Stourbridge Railway had been absorbed by the GWR, later passing to British Railways in 1948.
The line was used mostly by GWR trains from Snow Hill, but some London and North Western Railway and Midland Railway trains from to Worcester and Hereford via Galton Junction also used the line, until 1917, when all trains on the line ran into Snow Hill.
In the late 1960s, services to Snow Hill were run down. In 1967 most services on the line were diverted to Birmingham New Street. However a skeleton service of four trains per day, was retained between Snow Hill and until March 1972, when Snow Hill station, along with the line to was closed to passengers. A single line as far as Handsworth was kept open for freight traffic (cement & scrap metals).
Jewellery Line project
Snow Hill station was reopened to services from the south in October 1987. In 1993, as part of the project to restore services through Snow Hill, work began on reopening the 4 miles (6 km) of line between Smethwick and Snow Hill as the "Jewellery Line"; the line was reopened on 24 September 1995.
Three new stations were opened on the restored route: , The Hawthorns and Jewellery Quarter. Smethwick Galton Bridge station was built as a two-level interchange with trains on the Birmingham New Street-Wolverhampton Line, and it replaced the nearby station which closed soon after.
The reopening cost £28.5 million in 1995 prices, with the majority of the funding coming from Centro. It allowed cross-city rail services to operate through Snow Hill, and freed up much needed capacity at New Street station. According to Centro, it created "a third cross city line linking the lines to Worcester and Hereford with those to Stratford-upon-Avon and Leamington Spa".
Services
Places served
The line serves the following places:
Birmingham Snow Hill – Colmore Row, City Centre and a short walk to New Street and a direct rail link to Moor Street Jewellery Quarter – Hockley, Birmingham The Hawthorns – Halfords Lane, Smethwick for the West Bromwich Albion Football Club & Midland Metro Galton Bridge – Higher Level Station. Local services to Birmingham New Street Langley Green – Langley Green, Oldbury Rowley Regis – Blackheath Town Centre and Park & Ride Old Hill Cradley Heath – bus link to the Merry Hill Shopping Centre Lye Stourbridge – Junction station for the Town Branch Hagley Blakedown Kidderminster – for Severn Valley Steam Railway Hartlebury Droitwich Spa Worcester – Foregate Street/Shrub Hill
Service information
Passenger services are provided by West Midlands Trains between Birmingham and Worcester and beyond, and by Chiltern Railways between Birmingham and Kidderminster only.
The local service provided by West Midland Trains comprises:
Six trains per hour from Birmingham Snow Hill to Stourbridge Junction; of which four continue to Kidderminster of which two continue to Worcester