Random Article Summary #118

The Wolverhampton Steel Terminal is a small intermodal depot in Wolverhampton, England. It is connected to the Rugby–Birmingham–Stafford railway line through a short spur from the main line in the West Midlands. People and businesses can also reach the depot by road, which helps move steel efficiently between truck and rail. This makes the terminal a practical transfer point for steel shipments. The terminal is operated by the rail freight company DBS(I). The depot is located east of Wolverhampton city centre in an industrial area, situated south of Wolverhampton railway station and north of Coseley station. It is mainly reached from the Birmingham side, with trains from the north typically rerouted via Bescot rather than stopping and reversing onto the spur. The terminal was opened in 1966 and built beside the former Birmingham Snow Hill–Wolverhampton Low Level railway line (closed in 1972), on the site of the old Great Western Railway goods depot at Walsall Street. The depot is built around rail lines laid into the tarmac, much like a tramway. Vehicles enter by road and can park alongside rail wagons, while forklifts and a shunting locomotive handle the movement of goods. The yard has many sidings and headshunts, including tracks underneath an overbridge to an old rail-and-barge interchange at Chillington Wharf, though those tracks have not been used for several years. Use of the Wolverhampton Steel Terminal has fallen in recent years because more regular steel train traffic now goes to Round Oak Steel Terminal, which is easier to reach since trains don’t have to pass through very busy Birmingham. Still, some steel trains from Llanwern and Margam arrive there, and class 60 or class 66 locomotives haul them. After that, lorries transport the steel from the depot to customers across the West Midlands.