The Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Dudley Railway was an English railway company promoted to connect those places by rail. It was authorised by Parliament in 1846. It became apparent that it would be advantageous to merge with the Great Western Railway. The rival London and North Western Railway went to great lengths to frustrate the amalgamation, but ultimately failed, and the merger took place in 1847.
The line was constructed by the GWR and opened in 1854; the Birmingham station was Snow Hill and the Wolverhampton station was later named Low Level. A branch towards Dudley was not ready until 1866. In combination with other lines the BW&DR main line gave the GWR an important through route between London and Birkenhead. The BW&DR section was constructed on the mixed gauge system, but connecting lines further north were only narrow (standard) gauge, and this contributed to the ultimate demise of the broad gauge.
In the railway modernisation of the later 1960s, preference was given to the alternative route on the Stour Valley Line, and the former BW&DR route declined, and closed in 1972. The route from Snow Hill station to Smethwick and on towards Stourbridge was reopened in 1995, and a tram route between Birmingham and Wolverhampton was inaugurated in 1999, using most of the route. A