Chase Line

Chase Line
Map of the Chase Line. Not to scale.
Overview
Type Suburban rail, Heavy rail
System National Rail
Status Operational
Locale Staffordshire
West Midlands
West Midlands (region)
Stations 15 (Previously 16)
Operation
Owner Network Rail
Technical
Track gauge 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge

Chase/Walsall Line
Trent Valley line to Stafford
Rugeley Trent Valley
Trent Valley line to Rugby
Rugeley B Power Station
Rugeley Town
Brindley Heath
Hednesford
Cannock Mineral Railway
 Cannock
 M6 Toll 
Wyrley and Cheslyn Hay
Landywood
Limit of TfWM area
Bloxwich North
Bloxwich
Birchills
South Staffordshire line
Sutton Park line
Wolverhampton and
Walsall Railway
Walsall
Walsall–
Wolverhampton line
South Staffordshire line
 M6 
Walsall–Wolverhampton line
to Wolverhampton
Bescot Stadium
Bescot TMD
Tame Bridge Parkway
Tame Valley Canal
 M5 
Newton Road
Hamstead
Perry Barr Junctions
Handsworth Wood
Perry Barr
Soho Road
Witton
Midland Metro
 A38(M) 
Snow Hill Lines
Cross-City Line
Rugby–Birmingham–
Stafford line
Soho Junctions
Cross-City Line
Aston
Birmingham New Street Midland Metro
to Stechford
New Street South Tunnels
Duddeston
Proof House Junction
Rugby–Birmingham–
Stafford line


Centro free parking
Other car parking

The Chase Line is a suburban railway line in the West Midlands region of England. It runs from its southern terminus, Birmingham New Street, to Walsall, and then Rugeley in Staffordshire, where it joins the Trent Valley Line. The name of the line refers to Cannock Chase which it runs through at its northern end.

Part of the line, between Birmingham and Walsall, has been electrified since the 1960s; work is currently underway to electrify the remaining 15 mile stretch of line between Walsall and Rugeley, which is scheduled for completion by December 2018.[1][2]

Overview

The line from Birmingham to Walsall (sometimes referred to as the Walsall Line) has two alternative routes, both electrified at 25 kV AC overhead. One leaves New Street to the east, following the Cross-City Line as far as Aston, where it diverges to the west. The other leaves to the west, and travels via Soho. Beyond Walsall, the line is not electrified, and continues north to Hednesford and Rugeley. This section was freight-only, and reopened to passenger trains in stages between 1989 and 1998.

Places served on the route are listed below. For information on the stations, please refer to the list in the route map.

Chase Line (Walsall-Rugeley)

Walsall Line (Birmingham-Walsall)

Passenger trains are operated by West Midlands Trains on behalf of Transport for West Midlands.

Services

A Class 323 calls at Perry Barr.

Monday to Saturday daytime there are four trains per hour from Birmingham New Street to Walsall. Two per hour run via Aston and call at all stations, the other two per hour run direct via Soho and call at Tame Bridge Parkway and Walsall. Two of these per-hour continue to Rugeley Trent Valley during peak hours, dropping to one per-hour off peak.[3]

Monday to Saturday evenings and all day Sunday there are two trains per hour (one stopping and one semi-fast) between Walsall and Birmingham and an hourly service to Rugeley Trent Valley.

Class 323 EMUs are used for services on the electrified section between Birmingham and Walsall. The services which continue beyond Walsall on the non-electrified stretch to Rugeley use Class 170 DMUs. Some services also use Class 153 units in partnership with the Class 170s.

History

  • The line from Birmingham via Aston, Perry Barr and Bescot was opened in 1837 as part of one of the earliest railway main lines; the Grand Junction Railway (GJR). This line did not serve Walsall directly, but continued from Bescot to Wolverhampton (this is now part of the Walsall to Wolverhampton Line). A station on the GJR called Walsall was opened on the outskirts of the town, this was later renamed Wood Green, and is now closed. The GJR became part of the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) in 1846.[4]
  • The section through Walsall, including the present Walsall station was opened in 1849 by the South Staffordshire Railway, as part of their (now closed) South Staffordshire Line from Dudley to Wychnor Junction, north of Lichfield, a connection was opened from Walsall to the GJR at Bescot, allowing direct Walsall-Birmingham trains.[4]
  • The section between Walsall and Rugeley Trent Valley was constructed by the South Staffordshire Railway, and the Cannock Mineral Railway (CMR): The South Staffordshire Railway built the line from Walsall to Cannock, opening in 1858, and the CMR built the line from Cannock to Rugeley, opening in 1859. The South Staffordshire Railway was absorbed by the LNWR in 1867, as was the CMR two years later.[4]
  • The last part of what is now the Walsall/Chase Line, the Soho Loop Line; a link running from Perry Barr Junction on the original GJR to Soho Junction on the Stour Valley Line, allowing an alternative route into Birmingham from the west which bypassed Aston, was opened by the LNWR in 1889. Two stations were opened on this line; Soho Road and Handsworth Wood, both were closed in 1941.[4]

Walsall-Rugeley: closure and reopening

Passenger services on the line between Walsall and Rugeley Trent Valley were withdrawn in 1965, and the intermediate stations closed as part of the Beeching Axe, the line however remained open to freight, although until the 1980s it was not unknown for diverted Inter-City passenger services from Birmingham to Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, etc. to use the line in the event of the Wolverhampton-Stafford route being shut for Sunday or late evening engineering work.[5][6]

Passenger services were restored to the line and most of the stations reopened between 1989 and 1998, as part of a joint initiative between the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive (WMPTE) and Staffordshire County Council. The name Chase Line was invented as a marketing name for the restored line, and came into use at this time. The restoration took place in stages, as follows:[6][7]

  • 10 April 1989 — Walsall to Hednesford
  • 2 June 1997 — Hednesford to Rugeley Town
  • 25 May 1998 — Rugeley Town to Rugeley Trent Valley and Stafford
  • 12 December 2008 — Chase Line trains are cut back from Stafford to Rugeley Trent Valley.
  • 22 May 2018 — Chase Line trains increased to a 30-minute frequency Monday to Saturday, with a 60-minute frequency on Sunday

Electrification

The lines between New Street and Walsall were electrified in 1966 as an offshoot of the West Coast Main Line electrification, along with the Walsall to Wolverhampton Line.[8]

In July 2012, the coalition government announced the overhead electrification of the Chase Line between Rugeley Trent Valley and Walsall, with work scheduled to take place from 2014. It was estimated to cost around £36 million, as part of a £9.4 billion package of investment in the railways in England and Wales, including £4.2 billion of new schemes, unveiled by the government.[9]

The electrification of the line will be accompanied by a speed increase from the current 45 miles per hour (72 km/h) to 60 miles per hour (97 km/h). Bloxwich level crossing closed to motorised traffic in January 2018, the bridge at Central Drive north of the crossing having been strengthened and widened to improve the alternative route. This will enable the current 25 mph speed limit to be lifted to 50 mph. It will also enable the line to transport W10 freight containers. Preliminary work to re-signal the route ahead of electrification was completed in August 2013, with the closure of the three remaining manual signal boxes at Bloxwich, Hednesford & Brereton Sidings and the panel boxes at Walsall & Bescot. Control of the area passed to the West Midlands SCC at Saltley.

For residents of the stations north of Walsall, the changes will mean shorter journey times[10] and longer trains, meaning reduced overcrowding to Birmingham with 2 trains per hour (tph) for the whole day, some of which will continue direct to Birmingham International (2tph), Coventry (1tph), and stations south to London Euston. The electrification itself will create over 1,300 jobs in the area and generate a further £113 million of gross value added (GVA) benefit per annum, as well as reducing the operating costs of the line. In May 2014, London Midland announced that it was intending to run longer trains[11] on the route, requiring station platforms to be extended to accommodate.

The work originally had an estimated completion date of December 2017, but previously unknown mine shafts underneath the track meant that many bases for the overhead infrastructure had to be redesigned.[12] In April 2017, Network Rail said that they would need to close the line for two weeks in August 2017.[13] The electrification is due for completion by December 2018.[2]

Train speed after electrification

Gavin Williamson, Conservative MP for South Staffordshire, campaigned to limit the speed of trains through Great Wyrley and Cheslyn Hay when the upgrade work of the line is complete. He wrote to then Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin, to request confirmation that trains travelling through these areas would not exceed a speed of 45 mph.[14] He also requested that "environmental mitigation measures" be put in place to reduce the potential impact of the electrification on residents in South Staffordshire. Network Rail had previously said that electric trains are quieter, greener and cleaner, reducing carbon emissions.[15]

References

  1. ↑ "Chase Line Electrification on target for completion". Cannock Chase Council. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  2. 1 2 "Walsall to Rugeley Trent Valley Electrification" (PDF). p. 68.
  3. ↑ GB National Rail Timetable 2015-16 Edition, Table 70R (Network Rail)
  4. 1 2 3 4 Boynton, John (1996). Rails Around Walsall. Mid England Books. ISBN 0-9522248-3-6.
  5. ↑ J. Glover, West Midlands Rails in the 1980s, Ian Allan, 1984
  6. 1 2 Boynton, John. A Century of Railways around Birmingham and the West Midlands, Volume Three 1973-1999. Mid England Books. ISBN 0-9522248-6-0.
  7. ↑ "Walsall-Wolverhampton TRAINS". South Staffs Railway. Retrieved 12 September 2017.
  8. ↑ British Railways Engineering 1948-80" by John Johnson and Robert A. Long (Mechanical Engineering Publications Ltd, 1981
  9. ↑ "Chase Line Electrification on target for completion". Cannock Chase Council. 1 December 2015. Retrieved 16 June 2016.
  10. ↑ High speed rail and supporting investments in the West Midlands Archived 12 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine.
  11. ↑ More seats on trains after £30m Chase Line work
  12. ↑ https://www.expressandstar.com/news/transport-news/2016/12/10/delays-due-on-chase-line-electrification-work/
  13. ↑ https://www.expressandstar.com/news/transport/2017/04/27/chase-line-to-shut-for-a-fortnight-in-move-to-hit-commuters-between-rugeley-and-walsall/
  14. ↑ Gavin Williamson MP meets with the under secretary of state over speed of trains through Great Wyrley and Cheslyn Hay
  15. ↑ Network rail announcement for the Chase Line upgrade
  • A Century of Railways Around Birmingham and the West Midlands, Volume 3 1973-1999, John Boynton.
  • Quail Railway Track Diagrams, Volume 4: Midlands & North West ( ISBN 0-9549866-0-1)
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