Wolverhampton railway station

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

History
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 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 present Wolverhampton station dates from 1964-67 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.

Management of the station transferred from Virgin Trains, the current franchise holder of InterCity West Coast, to the West Midlands Trains franchise in April 2018, under the West Midlands Railway brand.

Services
Typical weekday operations are as follows:

Virgin Trains:


 * 1tph to London Euston via Birmingham New Street (more in the morning peak)
 * 1tph to Scotland, alternating every two hours between Glasgow Central and Edinburgh. These start or terminate at Carlisle or Preston or Lancaster or Crewe during peak hours.
 * 2 trains per day to Shrewsbury.

London Northwestern Railway:


 * 2tph to Liverpool Lime Street, start/terminating at Crewe or Stafford in the peak hours
 * 2tph to Birmingham New Street

West Midlands Railway:


 * 4tph to Birmingham New Street, of which two continue to Walsall
 * 2tph to Shrewsbury, one calling all stations, and the other as a limited stop semi-fast express. Sundays are operated as an hourly service stopping at all stations.

CrossCountry:


 * 2tph to Manchester Piccadilly, via Stoke-on-Trent & Macclesfield (a limited service also runs via Crewe)
 * 2tph to Birkenhead Central, via Crewe and Chester
 * 2tph to Birmingham New Street, extending to various parts of eastern and southern England, such as Bristol Temple Meads, Exeter St Davids, Leicester, Peterborough, Norwich, Reading, Southampton Central and Bournemouth.

Transport for Wales:


 * 1tp2h to Pwllheli & Aberystwyth, dividing at Machynlleth
 * 1tp2h to Holyhead via Chester
 * 1tph to Birmingham International

West Midlands Railway also run a single Saturdays-only parliamentary train on the line to Walsall via Pleck (the former Grand Junction Railway route that continues to New Street via Aston). This replaced the regular direct service that ran between 1998 and 2008 (when it was withdrawn due to low usage). Centro hope to reintroduce a regular service over the line in the future (ideally when the West Midlands area franchise comes up for renewal in 2016/7) and reopen the old station at Willenhall, though it would require some infrastructure improvements here to accommodate it (i.e. a new bay platform & associated signalling).

Platforms
Wolverhampton station has six platforms: platforms 1 to 4 are through platforms, while platforms 5 and 6 are bay platforms at the south and north ends respectively. Although all four platforms are reversible, in practice platform 1 is used for northbound services, platform 2 is used for northbound and southbound services, platforms 3 and 4 are used for southbound services. Platform 3 is also used for northbound services at busy times. Platform 5 is used by local services to Walsall via Birmingham New Street. Platform 6 was designed for local services on the Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury Line (and was formerly numbered Platform 4 but was renumbered upon the construction of the present Platform 4 in 2004) but is now rarely used, as the majority of services on that route travel through to Birmingham (or occasionally to Walsall). It is generally used for the first service of the day to Shrewsbury and for holding trains when they are not in use.

Platform 1 is mostly used for northbound services, however in the late evenings and on Sundays, there are still a few Virgin trains shuttle services that either terminate in platforms 1 or 2. These shuttle trains, usually travel to London Euston, via Birmingham New Street. The shuttle trains are usually of a 9 car formation.

Platform 2 is now used for all Virgin Trains services from Edinburgh/Glasgow to London Euston. The timetable change on 8 December 2013 saw Virgin Trains running an hourly timetable from Scotland to Euston via the West Midlands and vice versa, replacing the Wolverhampton - Euston service.

All platforms at the station are electrified to 25 kV AC overhead power.