- Dudley Railway Tunnel
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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.
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, 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 143 years in use. A cable laying train passed through the tunnel on 2 July 1993 - nearly four months after the line was officially closed.
As of early 2010, the tunnel is still closed and Steel gates have been placed at both ends. Network Rail hopes to have goods trains passing through the tunnel again in the next decade, although the imminent Midland Metro expansion will not make use of the tunnel. The re-opening of Dudley tunnel and the railway on which it runs would also make an ideal diversion route for passenger trains if the need arose, although the idea of re-introducing passenger trains on the route (as was proposed back in 1997) seems unlikely to proceed.
Coordinates
Point Coordinates
(links to map & photo sources)Northern portal 52°30′42″N 2°04′32″W / 52.511631°N 2.075440°W Mid-point 52°30′30″N 2°04′43″W / 52.508392°N 2.078701°WCoordinates: 52°30′30″N 2°04′43″W / 52.508392°N 2.078701°W Southern portal 52°30′19″N 2°04′58″W / 52.505303°N 2.082759°W Categories:- Buildings and structures in the West Midlands (county)
- Rail transport in Dudley
- Railway tunnels in England
- Tunnels completed in 1850
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