Stourbridge Town Branch Line | The Shortest Railway Line of Britain & Europe | The Train Guy

The Stourbridge Town branch line is a 0.8 miles (1.3 km) railway branch line, in Stourbridge, West Midlands, England. It is the shortest line in Britain, and can also be defined as the shortest line in Europe.

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The passenger service along the branch is operated by Pre Metro Operations on behalf of West Midlands Trains. It is currently branded as part of the West Midlands Railway sub-brand. Under the previous franchise, which ended on 10 December 2017, the service was branded as the London Midland Stourbridge Shuttle. Service is provided using two Class 139 Parry People Movers.

Constructed by the Great Western Railway, the short and steeply inclined branch originally carried both passenger traffic from nearby Stourbridge Junction to the terminus at Stourbridge Town and freight to the Amblecote Goods Depot at Stourbridge Basin. The branch opened for passenger traffic on 1 October 1879 and for goods traffic on 1 January 1880. It briefly closed between April 1915 and February 1919 due to the First World War, but has otherwise remained open since.

The 1879 Stourbridge Town station survived mostly intact until February 1979 when it was demolished and the branch cut back by 70 yards, leaving room for a bus station.

The line was controlled by traditional semaphore signals until at least 1990, later than the adjacent main line. However, the line is currently worked by the 'One Train Working' system with a train staff as authority to occupy the line, and there are no working signals.

In 2021 the whole of the branch received new rail, sleepers and ballast, the first upgrade of the track since 1902.

British Rail Class 139 is the TOPS classification for PPM60 model lightweight railcars built by Parry People Movers, for use on the British rail network. The class were originally built in 2008 for operation on the Stourbridge Town Branch Line following an extensive trial with a prototype registered as a Class 999 unit.

The first newly constructed Class 139 was shown on 28 June 2008 at the Tyseley Locomotive Works Open Day. The full fleet of two units entered public service on the branch line in June 2009.

The Class 139 units are typical of the Parry People Mover concept, in that they utilise flywheel energy storage to recapture and supply the motive force for moving the vehicle. The flywheel captures the vehicle's kinetic energy when the brakes are used, and re-uses the energy for acceleration. This eliminates the need for a large diesel engine. The small onboard engine (fuelled by LPG) is used to initially bring the flywheel up to speed, to add speed to the flywheel after the vehicle is started in motion, and to provide power for the onboard systems.

The branch has become notorious for the steep downhill gradient leading from Junction station, and over the years there have been several incidents.

Stourbridge Town is a railway station near the centre of Stourbridge, West Midlands, England. It is situated at the end of a short branch line linking the station with Stourbridge Junction, 0.8 miles away, where passengers can change for mainline train services. It is said to be the shortest operational branch railway line in Europe.