The station was built at the junction of the
Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway (S&BR) with the
Shropshire Union Railways and Canal Company's line from , via . It was opened on 1 June 1849. The S&BR reached later that year, but was frustrated in their attempts to reach
Birmingham by the
London and North Western Railway (LNWR); it was not until both they and the neighbouring
Shrewsbury and Chester Railway became part the Great Western Railway (GWR) in November 1854 that trains could run to . Wellington thereafter was run jointly by the LNWR and GWR until the
1923 Grouping. It subsequently became a busy junction interchange station, serving the following lines: • the
Wellington and Drayton Railway northbound to , which opened in 1867) • the
Wellington and Severn Junction Railway southbound to , which opened in 1857 • the Shropshire Union Railways and Canal Company line north-eastbound to Stafford. All three branches closed to passengers in the early 1960s; the Coalbrookdale line was the first to go in July 1962, that to Market Drayton and followed in September 1963 and the Stafford line almost exactly a year later under the
Beeching cuts in 1964. Services to Birmingham Snow Hill, via Wolverhampton Low Level, finally ended in March 1968; a year after the ending of through trains to London Paddington via this route, with trains henceforth diverted to the ex-LNWR and onwards to over the
Stour Valley Line. The station was formerly home to a small three-road
engine shed and a
coaling plant, which was originally designated
WLN under the GWR from 1939-1949; then, under
British Railways, it received the
shed code 84H between 1950 and 1963. It became shed
2M for one year and was closed on 10 August 1964. A car park now occupies the site. Two of the locomotives which were allocated to the shed over its lifetime are preserved; those being
LMS Ivatt 2MT no. 41241 and
GWR 5700 no. 7754, at the
Keighley & Worth Valley Railway and the
Llangollen Railway respectively. The town of Wellington was designated as part of the
new town of
Telford in the 1960s. As Telford did not have initially have its own railway station at first, the station was renamed
Wellington – Telford West to indicate that it now served the new town. After opened in 1986, Wellington eventually reverted to its original name, although this did not happen for a number of years. At its peak, the station had six platforms in operation; , it has only three: two
through platforms and one
bay platform. Platform 3, the remaining bay platform, is now out of regular use following the withdrawal of the Wellington to local service. It is only semi-regularly visited by
track maintenance or cleaning units, but sees very rare use by regular services in emergencies. A disused bay platform can be seen directly adjacent to platform 3, which has been transformed into a small garden by volunteers. Traces of another former platform face can be seen from the car park behind platform 1; this is the outer side of an
up island platform. In late 2009-early 2010, the station was refurbished by
London Midland.
Former services Until March 1967, Wellington was served by the GWR, latterly
British Rail Western Region, express services between London Paddington and Birkenhead Woodside; these were withdrawn upon the commissioning of the electrification of the West Coast Main Line. Between 28 April 2008 and 28 January 2011, Wellington was a stop on
Wrexham & Shropshire's service between and .
Avanti West Coast formerly ran one daily service to and from on the
West Coast Main Line, via Birmingham and , using
Class 221 Super Voyager units. These began at the December 2014 timetable change with
Virgin Trains. This was withdrawn in June 2024. Through trains to were withdrawn in December 2008. These recommenced in May 2019, following an introduction of two early morning services a week starting at Walsall and continuing to . They were operated as extensions of the
Shrewsbury to Birmingham Line. This replaced the former service. However, in December 2019, following problems with services and disruptions, the service was withdrawn once again. ==Facilities==