Wolverhampton to Birmingham 4 tracking

[Matt P]

4 tracking of the Wolverhampton to Birmingham New Street line has, if I recall correctly, been mooted on occasion as a solution to rail capacity constraints on the West Midlands, in tandam with Birmingham to Coventry. Both would appear to present significant challenges due to the amount of development close to the existing railway formation, but the former looks like it would be extremely challenging, requiring compulsory purchase and a lot of demolition for a significant proportion of the route. As such, it would be a very expensive project.

Ive travelled over both both the above routes, but never the former GWR Low Level-Snow Hill route. Although no longer available a heavy rail route, a combination of Google Earth and photographs would suggest this route could have been 4 tracked with some challenges but not as significant as the former LMS High Level - New Street route. Would those more familiar with the area agree?

In additional, had the former GWR route been retained, would having two Wolverhampton-Birmingham routes and therefore effectively 4 tracks along this corridor by different means have eased, if not entirely some of the existing capacity constraints? For example, might Snow Hill have been a good hub for Cross Country and possibly some regional services from North Wales and Shropshire, as indeed the route did until the 1960s.

 

[Dr Hoo]

Are you suggesting getting rid of the Midlands Metro tram line and replacing it with heavy rail? The GWR route was only four-track as far as The Hawthorns.

There are, of course, two distinct electrified double-track routes between New Street and Wolverhampton (via Tipton and Bescot) already, barring a few shared last yards at the Wolverhampton end.

 

[Topological]

It does appear like if you got a huge pot of money you could double track between West of Tipton and East of Dudley Port. There is a section of 4 track there because of some loops anyway. Whether that buys you much in allowing the locals to be overtaken, I do not know. It is how they handled the Chat Moss to let TransPennine out of Liverpool quicker.

 

[The Planner]

It does appear like if you got a huge pot of money you could double track between West of Tipton and East of Dudley Port. There is a section of 4 track there because of some loops anyway. Whether that buys you much in allowing the locals to be overtaken, I do not know. It is how they handled the Chat Moss to let TransPennine out of Liverpool quicker.

Watery Lane loops are pretty much useless, they are goods loops for a start and only 15mph entry and exit. You would need loops covering two stations really to be of any use, so you can be overtaken without delaying the stopper.

 

[Bald Rick]

4 tracking of the Wolverhampton to Birmingham New Street line has, if I recall correctly, been mooted on occasion as a solution to rail capacity constraints on the West Midlands

Wolves to New St has never been proposed by ‘the railway’ to my knowledge in the last 35 years at least.

 

[Topological]

Watery Lane loops are pretty much useless, they are goods loops for a start and only 15mph entry and exit. You would need loops covering two stations really to be of any use, so you can be overtaken without delaying the stopper.

I was including the loops purely because they prove the land is wide enough. My post was to suggest including both stations so that there was a similar looping process to the one used on the Chat Moss out of Liverpool.

 

[Matt P]

Wolves to New St has never been proposed by ‘the railway’ to my knowledge in the last 35 years at least.

I thought it was floated as an idea by Railtrack in the 1990s?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 31 Jan 2026 ==

Are you suggesting getting rid of the Midlands Metro tram line and replacing it with heavy rail? The GWR route was only four-track as far as The Hawthorns.

There are, of course, two distinct electrified double-track routes between New Street and Wolverhampton (via Tipton and Bescot) already, barring a few shared last yards at the Wolverhampton end.

Nope. This is a 'what if' the formation wasn't in use for light rail, and also whether 4 tracking it would be a more viable proposition that the former LMS route.

 

[SuspectUsual]

Are you suggesting getting rid of the Midlands Metro tram line and replacing it with heavy rail? The GWR route was only four-track as far as The Hawthorns.

There are, of course, two distinct electrified double-track routes between New Street and Wolverhampton (via Tipton and Bescot) already, barring a few shared last yards at the Wolverhampton end.

Do you mean from Soho? Or departing in the opposite direction where it’s really, really congested?

 

[Bald Rick]

I thought it was floated as an idea by Railtrack in the 1990s?

Not Wolves - New St.

Stechford - Berkswell was considered, as part of West Coast Route Mod. Didn’t get very far though.

 

[brad465]

Had HS2 to Manchester not been canned this would have helped somewhat, as Birmingham-Manchester demand could have gone across to HS2 and reduced demand through the Wolverhampton corridor.

 

[Bald Rick]

Had HS2 to Manchester not been canned this would have helped somewhat, as Birmingham-Manchester demand could have gone across to HS2 and reduced demand through the Wolverhampton corridor.

It would have reduced passenger demand, but I doubt there would have been any change to the train service specification.