Dudley Railway Tunnel

Dudley Railway Tunnel is a railway tunnel located near to the former Dudley railway station in Dudley, West Midlands, England. It was opened in 1850 to allow the Oxford-Worcester-Wolverhampton Line between Stourbridge and Wolverhampton to pass for several hundred yards beneath a hilly area of Dudley which would have been difficult if not impossible to have constructed a railway through. At Dudley the OWWR and South Staffordshire Line to Walsall met.

Dudley Railway Tunnel
The northern portal in 2011
Overview
LineOxford-Worcester-Wolverhampton
LocationDudley, West Midlands, England
Coordinates52.508392°N 2.078701°W / 52.508392; -2.078701
OS grid referenceSO 94755 90058
StatusDisused
StartDudley railway station
EndBlowers Green railway station
No. of stations2
Operation
Opened1850 (1850)
Closed19 March 1993 (1993-03-19)
Technical
No. of tracks2

The tunnel was regularly used by passenger trains until 1964, when the town's station closed along with the remaining passenger stations on the line,[1] although goods trains were still allowed to use the line. It finally closed to all trains on 19 March 1993, when the section of railway between Walsall and Brierley Hill was closed after some 150 years in use. A cable laying train passed through the tunnel on 1 July 1993 - nearly four months after the line was officially closed.

The railway line through Dudley is scheduled to reopen in 2023 as part of an extension to the West Midlands Metro,[2] although the Metro route would not include the railway tunnel. The reutilised line will also be designed to carry freight trains.

Coordinates
Point Coordinates
(links to map & photo sources)
Northern portal 52.511631°N 2.075440°W / 52.511631; -2.075440
Midpoint 52.508392°N 2.078701°W / 52.508392; -2.078701
Southern portal 52.505303°N 2.082759°W / 52.505303; -2.082759

References
  1. "Dudley Railway Station, Dudley". Black Country History. Retrieved 19 April 2014.
  2. "Tram train-line work could launch in 2014". Express & Star. 21 March 2011. Retrieved 19 April 2014.
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