An announcement about your future services between London - Coventry - Birmingham - Wolverhampton from 2 November 1959 : British Railways, London MIdland Region : leaflet : 1959 : timetable

            By 1959 work on the electrification of the southern sections of the West Coast Mian Line, at 25kvAC, as part of the British Railways Modernisation Programme, was underway. Initially work was focussed on the sections between Manchester and Crewe that opened to electric traction in September 1960 and onwards to Liverpool in January 1962. The works were extensive as they involved major civil engineering to infrastructure such as bridges for OHLE clearance, and resignalling in places. Works proceeded south and this included not only the direct Trent Valley section towards Rugby but also the important Stafford - Wolverhampton - Birmingham - Coventry - Rugby section and this leaflet gives information as to the decision to effectively close this to allow for works and so temporarily suspend direct services from Wolverhampton south to London Euston.

This was enabled by strengthening the Western Region's services to and from London Paddington and that served Birmingham's Snow Hill station and Wolverhampton Low Level. The use of this as a diversionary route echoes the use of the old "Midland" main line through the Peak District and towards London St. Pancras that was also strengthened to enable the works on the West Coast Main Line to proceed. Passengers for Coventry had to cope with an effecive shuttle service to and from Rugby. Electrification to London Euston was completed by 1965 and 1966 but the two diversionary routes did not fare well. The old Western Region route seen here was closed abandoned between Birmingham Snow Hill and Wolverhamton Low Level and both stations demolished. In recent decades the route to London has been rekindled and the track bed through the Black Country has been reused as the formation for large sections of the West Midlands Metro.

The services shown here were current from 2 November 1959; oddly I can find no precise date for the reintroduction of 'through' services as I don't think the "Au Revoir" mentioned here lasted the full six years until the full electrification came on stream?

The leaflet uses British Railways 'standard' Gill Sans for the timetable but the text is, unusually, not set in Gill.

Taken on: March 18, 2025

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2 November 1959

1959

West Coast Main Line

West Coast Main Line electrification

British Railways Modernisation Programme

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Sets appears in: • British Railways and British Rail ephemera • Railway publicity

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