Chase Line


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 to electrify the remaining 15 mile stretch of line between Walsall and Rugeley, was completed in December 2018.

History

Passenger services on the line between Walsall and Rugeley Trent Valley were withdrawn in 1965, and the intermediate stations closed as part of the Beeching Axe, the line however remained open to freight, although until the 1980s it was not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.
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 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:
The line from Birmingham to Walsall 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 was electrified in 2019, and continues north to Hednesford and Rugeley. This section was freight-only for some years, reopening 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 Line
Passenger trains are operated by West Midlands Trains on behalf of Transport for West Midlands.

Services

Monday to Saturday daytime there are four trains per hour from Birmingham New Street to Walsall. Two per hour run via 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 the day, dropping to one in the late evenings.
There is also a 6am service from Wolverhampton to Rugeley Trent Valley but this is only one way. It runs the entire Birmingham to Walsall section calling at all stations them onto the Chase Line.
As of May 2019, following the electrification of the line north of Walsall, West Midlands Trains began operating 2tph from Rugeley Trent Valley to Birmingham International with 1tph continuing to Northampton or London Euston. On Sundays, all services from Rugeley terminate at Coventry. Services north of Walsall are formed by Class 350 EMUs.
Class 323 EMUs are used for some of the half hourly services between Walsall and Wolverhampton via Birmingham New Street.

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.
following the completion of electrification.
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. 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.
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. Network Rail closed the line in August 2017 for two weeks. The electrification was finally completed in December 2018, the first electric train services started in May 2019.

Effects of electrification of the line

The electrification of the line was accompanied by a speed increase from to. Bloxwich level crossing closed to motorised traffic in January 2018, and the bridge at Central Drive, north of the crossing, had been strengthened and widened to improve the alternative route. This enabled a speed limit to be lifted to. It also enabled the line to transport W10 freight containers.
For residents of the stations north of Walsall, the changes meant shorter journey times and longer trains, which reduced overcrowding to Birmingham with 2 trains per hour for the whole day, continuing direct to Birmingham International, Coventry, and stations south to London Euston. The electrification itself created over 1,300 jobs in the area and generated a further £113 million of gross value added 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 on the route, requiring station platforms to be extended to accommodate.
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 was to be completed. He wrote to then Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin, to request confirmation that trains travelling through the areas would not exceed a speed of 45 mph. 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.

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