Dudley Freightliner Terminal

Dudley Freightliner Terminal
The former Dudley Freightliner Terminal signal box's remnants in 2003.
Location
Place	Dudley
Area	Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council
Operations
Post-grouping	British rail, then Freightliner
History
1967	Opened as Dudley Freightliner Terminal
1989	Closed
Disused railway stations in the United Kingdom
Closed railway stations in Britain A B C D–F G H–J K–L M–O P–R S T–V W–Z

Dudley Freightliner Terminal was opened on the site of Dudley railway station in October 1967, as one of Freightliner's first rail terminals. It was an instant financial success and by 1981 was one of the most profitable Freightliner terminals in Britain, but Freightliner UK announced plans to close it and transfer the staff to the less successful Birmingham terminal. These plans were shelved in 1983 but resurfaced in 1986, with the terminal finally closing in September 1989. Trains passed through the site of the Freightliner terminal until the Wednesbury to Round Oak section of the South Staffordshire Line closed in 1993.

The station platform became the depot platform, but with no buildings save for the odd shed. A concrete strip was built over one of the Tipton Five Way lines to act as a footing for a large gantry crane that had its other footing on the old platform. The old signal box was at the Blower's Green end of the station and was demolished in 1967 and replaced by a modernized one besides the main road's embankment. The sidings near the castle's side embankment were replaced by the manager's office, a staff room and some sheds.

The Freightliner equipment was removed in about 1990 and the site of the former terminal is now little more than an overgrown field, though the some of concrete surface remains in place near the tracks - most of it was ripped up and removed in the late 1990s. The adjacent signal box was closed on 5 June 1988 and damaged in an arson attack the following year, being dismantled in the early 1990s.

People regularly use it for walking, bird watching and walking their dogs.

There were plans for a waste reception centre to be developed on the site in 1997, but these were quickly shelved. There have also been plans for housing and even a new football stadium to be built on the site. In 2014, part of the land was developed for a road link between Dudley Zoo and the Black Country Museum, as well as parking facilities for visitors to these attractions.