Willenhall & Darlaston: which services should call at these new stations?

[spp]

Last update in the news locally was more to do with trains running through them not calling at Walsall (a bit of an uproar locally), but it did mention the stations should be finished ‘early 2026’

Services at two new stations for Walsall may not call at town

It costs £80m to build Willenhall and Darlaston but services may miss out Walsall’s main station.

www.bbc.co.uk

Services calling at two new railway stations being built in Walsall may not call at the town's main station.
Council leader Mike Bird said he had heard services stopping at newly built Willenhall and Darlaston, expected to open in early 2026, could miss out Walsall's main station, which is inside the Saddlers Centre.
"We've just spent millions and millions of pounds building two stations in Willenhall and Darlaston and we were told 'by the way, the trains are not coming into Walsall anymore'," Bird told a West Midlands Combined Authority meeting.
A spokesperson for the Department of Transport said a decision had not been made on the timetables and options were currently being worked on.

 

[The Mercian]

Last update in the news locally was more to do with trains running through them not calling at Walsall (a bit of an uproar locally), but it did mention the stations should be finished ‘early 2026’

Yep I had heard the Mayor of Walsall was having a whinge about them not calling at Walsall. And thanks for the info re opening.

 

[Harpo]

Yep I had heard the Mayor of Walsall was having a whinge about them not calling at Walsall.

Walsall is very welcome to them. For one of the Shrewsbury services, it currently means a rambling diversion of up to 31 minutes (vice 20 or less) between Brum and Wolves, arriving at the other end after subsequent services, usually the Birmingham - Liverpools.

As well as compounding Shrewsbury’s journey time issues it also means that the only daytime passenger services over this fully electrified route are DMUs.

 

[The Mercian]

Whilst the new stations are welcome I’d suggest how they fit into the current timetables and wider West Midlands piece hasn’t been thought through as you suggest. However, I’d rather they were there as part of the building blocks for TfWM/WMRE sorting out WM (county and region) heavy rail.

 

[CharlieSpotted]

I'm a little confused why the services wouldn't go to Walsall. Weren't the new stations originally part of the plan to re-instate "more direct" (ie not via Birmingham) services between Wolverhampton and Walsall? Without that, what's the point?

 

[Severnia333]

I'm a little confused why the services wouldn't go to Walsall. Weren't the new stations originally part of the plan to re-instate "more direct" (ie not via Birmingham) services between Wolverhampton and Walsall? Without that, what's the point?

Walsall-Wolves and the occasional alternate Wolves-Brum route seems like it would make sense?

 

[Farigiraf]

The original plan was for 1tph Shrewsbury-Birmingham and 1tph Wolverhampton-Walsall to stop at the two new stations. Then WMT announced that their proposed Birmingham to Manchester Airport service would call at Willenhall and Darlaston, presumably instead of the Wolverhampton to Walsall direct service. Strange, as replacing the Shrewsbury call would make much more sense, since it's a slow diversion for little reason, and Tame Bridge has less than 1000 journeys per year to stations west of Wolverhampton.

Is the major employment/shopping (etc) centre from Willenhall and Darlaston central Birmingham or Walsall? Either way, having just 1tph to each destination means that most people who don't drive will just take the cheaper and more frequent bus. Even if Wolverhampton was the main destination, 2tph for a densely populated district like Willenhall/Darlaston is quite poor, especially when you consider that the nearby tram line has up to 10tph.

 

[weeklycommuter]

The original plan was for 1tph Shrewsbury-Birmingham and 1tph Wolverhampton-Walsall to stop at the two new stations. Then WMT announced that their proposed Birmingham to Manchester Airport service would call at Willenhall and Darlaston, presumably instead of the Wolverhampton to Walsall direct service. Strange, as replacing the Shrewsbury call would make much more sense, since it's a slow diversion for little reason, and Tame Bridge has less than 1000 journeys per year to stations west of Wolverhampton.

Is the major employment/shopping (etc) centre from Willenhall and Darlaston central Birmingham or Walsall? Either way, having just 1tph to each destination means that most people who don't drive will just take the cheaper and more frequent bus. Even if Wolverhampton was the main destination, 2tph for a densely populated district like Willenhall/Darlaston is quite poor, especially when you consider that the nearby tram line has up to 10tph.

West Midlands Trains (WMR/LNR) still have destination Manchester on their website with their latest proposal for a service Birmingham New Street to/from Manchester Airport which they state would call at Willenhall and Darlaston but no application to the Office of Rail and Road for this has so far appeared for this on either the ORR or Network Rail websites.

AIUI the one out of two each hour West Midlands Railway Shrewsbury to/from Wolverhampton to/from Birmingham New Street train services that call at Tame Bridge Parkway will call at Willenhall and Darlaston as they are on route. I would guess that this would be more interesting to potential rail passengers at Willenhall and Darlaston than a train to Walsall.

 

[Farigiraf]

AIUI the one out of two each hour West Midlands Railway Shrewsbury to/from Wolverhampton to/from Birmingham New Street train services that call at Tame Bridge Parkway will call at Willenhall and Darlaston as they are on route. I would guess that this would be more interesting to potential rail passengers at Willenhall and Darlaston than a train to Walsall.

Except that it likely wouldn't be. Walsall is the nearest major urban centre so would have lots of commuter/school/shopping traffic from Willenhall and Darlaston, while there's little reason why anybody from Willenhall or Darlaston would wish to regularly travel to Telford or Shrewsbury.

In 2023/4, Tame Bridge Parkway had less than 600 journeys made to Telford Central, and even less to Wellington and Shrewsbury. Even counting split ticketing, which distorts the figures, this is not enough to justify a direct service. Willenhall and Darlaston, which won't be parkway stations, would receive far more patronage from a frequent Walsall train service, or even the Manchester Airport service instead of a call on the Shrewsbury stopper.

 

[weeklycommuter]

Walsall is the nearest major urban centre so would have lots of commuter/school/shopping traffic from Willenhall and Darlaston

Possibly and AIUI a Walsall-Wolverhampton train service calling at Darlaston and Willenhall has been proposed but would people be interested in taking a train from Darlaston and Willenhall to Walsall rather than a bus?
Rail passengers at Walsall may be interested in this as it would provide a much quicker direct train journey to Wolverhampton than the current train journey via Birmingham New Street.

there's little reason why anybody from Willenhall or Darlaston would wish to regularly travel to Telford or Shrewsbury.

Possibly not but I assume they would be interested in taking the train to Wolverhampton and to Birmingham New Street including for onward train journeys.

 

[Pumbaa]

The market for these stations to Walsall is virtually non-existent. As much as local politics is loud, the reality is very few journeys paying not a lot is a very expensive and very limited social benefit.

The destination of trains north of the stations is largely irrelevant, but providing 2tph to Birmingham rather than 1 to each of Birmingham and Walsall is what can be afforded. If local authorities feel that a direct service to Walsall is of greater benefit than adult social care (for instance) then it will get funded.

But until that point, the cheaper/requiring less subsidy option of 2x Birmingham will be provided.

 

[Broseley man]

If only Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury were electrified.

 

[lachlan]

although not familiar with the area, I reckon a half-hourly service to a single destination is more useful than an hourly service to two destinations, given there is a frequent bus to Walsall but trips to Birmingham city centre require a change

 

[Kite159]

Possibly and AIUI a Walsall-Wolverhampton train service calling at Darlaston and Willenhall has been proposed but would people be interested in taking a train from Darlaston and Willenhall to Walsall rather than a bus?
Rail passengers at Walsall may be interested in this as it would provide a much quicker direct train journey to Wolverhampton than the current train journey via Birmingham New Street.

Possibly not but I assume they would be interested in taking the train to Wolverhampton and to Birmingham New Street including for onward train journeys.

Train be free (Walsall must be high in the list of fare evasion owing to (sadly) the majority of guards being stuck in the back cab, even on those Rugeley trains which have a good 10 minutes of nonstop running between New Street & Tame Bridge where guards can probably catch out those with tickets to somewhere like Duddeston)
Bus you need to pay

Logically those new stations will be served by the new LNR Birmingham - Manchester Airport via the world service, as well as a new Wolverhampton - Walsall shuttle (maybe interworked with the stopper via Birmingham to make use of platform 5 at Wolverhampton) allowing the Shrewsbury stopper to go back to running via Smethwick.

 

[The Planner]

Train be free (Walsall must be high in the list of fare evasion owing to (sadly) the majority of guards being stuck in the back cab, even on those Rugeley trains which have a good 10 minutes of nonstop running between New Street & Tame Bridge where guards can probably catch out those with tickets to somewhere like Duddeston)
Bus you need to pay

Logically those new stations will be served by the new LNR Birmingham - Manchester Airport via the world service, as well as a new Wolverhampton - Walsall shuttle (maybe interworked with the stopper via Birmingham to make use of platform 5 at Wolverhampton) allowing the Shrewsbury stopper to go back to running via Smethwick.

They can't get on ticketless at New St though unless its on the rare occasion the barriers are open. Wolves is barriered as well.

 

[Kite159]

They can't get on ticketless at New St though unless its on the rare occasion the barriers are open. Wolves is barriered as well.

A ticket to somewhere like Duddeston or Five Ways will happily open the barriers at New Street

 

[spp]

From a local point of view (live almost half way between both).

Darlaston station isn’t really in Darlaston itself it’s on the very outskirts towards Walsall. Very few from there would use it to Walsall for any reason (to get to it from Darlaston town centre you’d likely take the same bus thst just 10 minutes later would see you in Walsall anyway). It would be used quiet frequently to Birmingham (as closest Midland Metro stations are Wednesbury/Bradley Lane both a good 2 miles away), possibly would be used frequently by the people who live that side of Darlaston town centre you’d get to Wolverhampton (for work leisure and to change trains), although I’d suspect many who live nearer Darlaston town centre itself wpuld stick to the pretty regular 79 bus service.

Willenhall similar can’t see many using it for Walsall or Wolverhampton (both bus options would 9 times out of 10 be quicker), Birmingham it would get used for quite a lot.

I think the point of the Walsall Mayor wasn’t as much that they wanted these two stations to serve Walsall (it may have been hidden behind that) more that they don’t want Walsall to miss out on any new services that are almost passing through.

A Wolverhampton-Walsall direct service is interesting (nobody with any local knowledge gets the one going via brum if travelling between the two towns).