page_title: Wolverhampton
section_title: Rail
hierarchical_section_title: Wolverhampton / Transport / Rail
caption_attribution_description: English: Wolverhampton Railway Station Viewed from Railway Drive.
context_page_description: Wolverhampton is a city, administrative centre and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. At the 2011 census, it had a population of 249,470. The demonym for people from the city is 'Wulfrunian.'
  Historically part of Staffordshire, the city grew initially as a market town specialising in the woollen trade. In the Industrial Revolution, it became a major centre for coal mining, steel production, lock making, and the manufacture of cars and motorcycles. The economy of the city is still based on engineering, including a large aerospace industry, as well as the service sector.
context_section_description: In terms of rail, Wolverhampton is well connected to other parts of England and Wales. However, while Priestfield and Bilston are connected by a tram line, the suburbs in the south, west and north of Wolverhampton are no longer served by rail. In particular the Tettenhall, Penn and Compton areas and Dunstall Park for the race course. Wednesfield no longer has any rail connections, with Wolverhampton and Bloxwich being its closest railway stations.
  Wolverhampton's first railway opened in 1837, with the opening of the Grand Junction Railway, the first long-distance line in Great Britain.  The main station for the city was, however, not located in the city centre, but at Wednesfield Heath, now Heath Town on the east side of the city. This station was considered to be a First Class station, though its location was obviously not ideal and it became a goods station after passenger services ceased in 1873.  The station buildings were demolished in 1965, but the main station area is now a nature reserve just off Powell Street, called Station Fields and part of the edge of the northbound platform is still in situ. The track running through the station site is, however, still in use.
  The first station in the city centre was opened by the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway in 1849.  This station was only intended to be temporary, and was located on the north side of Wednesfield Road beside Broad Street Basin.  The station was constructed as the opening of Wolverhampton High Level was delayed.  The station closed in 1852, and was demolished in the mid-1970s. In addition to the temporary station, Wolverhampton railway works were also established in 1849 by the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway and became the Northern Division workshop of the Great Western Railway in 1854.
  The permanent station on the line finally opened on 24 June 1852, and was initially known as Wolverhampton General, before being renamed as Wolverhampton Queen Street in 1853, and finally Wolverhampton High Level in 1855.  The station was initially a joint station between the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway and the London and North Western Railway, though there were problems in the relationships between the two companies, and the station became solely LNWR in 1854 before the Wolverhampton and Walsall Railway (later part of the Midland Railway) gained access to the station in 1867.  The original High Level station was demolished in 1965 as part of the electification of the West Coast Mainline, and was replaced by the buildings on the present site but which are in the process of being demolished.
  Two years after the opening of the High Level station, the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway (OWW) opened their city centre station immediately to the east of High Level.  Initially called Wolverhampton Joint, it was renamed Wolverhampton Low Level in 1856. As well as the OWW, the station also served the Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Dudley Railway and the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway.  As the first two companies were supported by the Great Western Railway, broad gauge track was laid to the station, meaning that Wolverhampton Low Level became the most northerly station on the broad gauge network before being converted to standard gauge in 1869.  Despite being featured in the second Beeching Report, The Development of the Major Railway Trunk Routes in February 1965 as being on a line earmarked for further investment, services were withdrawn progressively from Low Level starting in 1967 soon after it had been transferred administratively from the Western Region of British Railways to the London Midland region.  London services were transferred to the newly electrified High Level station.  Low Level was converted into a Parcels Concentration Depot in 1970, and the final passenger services were withdrawn in 1972. These services (to and from Birmingham Snow Hill) were only suspended and never legally withdrawn by British Rail, and so technically the station is still open.
  There were also a number of suburban stations in Wolverhampton – including Dunstall Park and B
caption: Wolverhampton railway station
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