Darlaston Station opened earlier this year, the first time since 1965 which passenger services had called at the station. Credit: TfWM

New stations have given West Midlands ‘huge lift’, says Mayor

30 June 2026 11:54 Mike Sheridan Comments (1)

More than 170,000 journeys have been recorded at five railway stations opened across the West Midlands since March, latest passenger statistics show.

According to figures released by Transport for West Midlands this month, 131,866 passengers have used the Camp Hill line in Birmingham since 7 April, and 41,895 journeys have started or begun at Willenhall and Darlaston since they opened in March.

The stations welcomed their first passengers in the Spring, part of a £185m project backed by the West Midlands Combined Authority.

The return of services to the Camp Hill line in Birmingham had been hit by years of delays, having initially been scheduled to open in time for the Commonwealth Games in 2022.

Similarly, the timeline for reopening stations at Willenhall and Darlaston had also slipped, originally planned for 2024 when the project was first mooted almost a decade ago.

The return of services to the Camp Hill Line in Birmingham marked the first time passenger trains had called at Pineapple Road, Moseley Village and Kings Heath since their closure during the second world war.

Passengers in the Black Country had to wait a little less for the return of services to Darlaston and Willenhall, their reinstatement coming a relatively brief six decades after they were closed during the Beeching cuts of 1965.

The early numbers at Darlaston and Willenhall indicate between 6,000-8,000 passengers per month are using the stations, compared to around 52,000 at the next stop along the line at Tame Bridge Parkway.

Nonetheless, West Midlands Mayor, Richard Parker, said the figures demonstrated the project was a success, having previously described them as a “lifeline” for passengers in those areas.

“These new passenger figures show that if you provide high-quality, reliable public transport, people will use it,” he said.

“These new stations have given local people and businesses a huge lift and generated real excitement.”

According to TfWM, the numbers using individual stations are: