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With a late afternoon business meeting not far away, I intended to have a look at some of the works for the Midland Metro extension from Wednesbury to Brierley Hill, which is due to open in 2023. The section between Wednesbury and Dudley will use the formation of the former South Staffordshire Railway (SSR). Unfortunately the weather was rather rainy so I only visited the former site of Dudley Port Low Level station, where track removal is taking place.
The SSR opened on 01/05/1850 from Dudley (a joint station with the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway, later the Great Western Railway) to Walsall, Walsall to Wichnor (on the Birmingham & Derby Junction Railway, later the Midland Railway) having opened the year before. Dudley Port station opened at the same time as the line, and became a two-level station when the Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Stour Valley Railway (later shortened to the Stour Valley Railway, though it never reached the Stour Valley) opened in 1852.
Passenger services over this section of the SSR ceased from 06/07/1964 - I travelled over it from Walsall to Dudley to visit the zoo there on a number of occasions as a small child. Freight traffic ceased in 1993 but the track had been left intact, though this is now being removed as part of the work for the Metro.