In 1821 the gradient at Holloway Bank was eased. It had been so steep that coach passengers often had to alight at the Fountain inn and walk up the hill, to ease the burden on the horses.

The main road through the town was greatly improved with the building of the Holyhead Road. Thomas Telford, the talented Scottish engineer, surveyed the route and presented his plans to Parliament in April 1811, but it took another four years before the funds were authorised. The new road took 11 years to build at a cost of more than £500,000. The section through Wednesbury was completed in about 1826 and placed under the Bilston Turnpike Trust, who built a toll house at the top of Dangerfield Lane. It provided a much improved route to Birmingham and Wolverhampton.

The roads were also improved as a result of the Enclosures Acts. Between 1700 and 1850, much of the common agricultural land and user’s rights were lost as a result of the five thousand or so, Enclosures Acts. The West Bromwich Enclosures Act of 1802, was passed to enclose much of the 387 acres open land within the area. The Commissioners who were appointed to carry out the provisions of the Enclosures Act were John Chamberlain, Richard Fowler, and Thomas Green. They were required to make public carriage roads, which were to be at least 40 feet wide. The main road (later called Holyhead Road) had to be 60 feet wide.

The main addition to the local road network in recent times was the building of the M5 motorway, that runs along the southern and eastern edges of the town to join the M6 at Bescot. It opened in 1970 and the Expressway to Albion Roundabout at Carter’s Green opened in 1973.

Canals

In the second half of the 18th century, Birmingham's growing industries had an expanding appetite for coal, which was in plentiful supply, nearby in the Black Country, especially in the Wednesbury and Tipton area. Because many of the local roads were totally unsuitable for heavily laden vehicles, supplies were limited, and so the decision was taken to build a canal.

The first canal in the area was the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal, connecting the River Severn at Stourport to the Trent and Mersey Canal at Great Haywood. Building work on the canal, surveyed by James Brindley, began at Stourport in 1768. The canal was navigable as far as Compton in November 1770, and opened in its entirety in 1772. 

In January 1767 a public meeting was held in Birmingham to discuss the building of a canal that would connect Birmingham to the Shropshire and Worcestershire Canal via the Black Country's coal mines, and Wolverhampton. By August, sufficient capital had been raised to fund the project, and a Bill allowing construction was passed in Parliament in February 1768. James Brindley was appointed as engineer, and the Birmingham Canal Navigations, (BCN), was incorporated on 2nd March, 1768.

Work quickly got underway, so much so that the Wednesbury line was completed in 1769 to transport coal from collieries at Hill Top. The first boat load of coal bound for Birmingham left on 6th November, 1769. In 1770 the canal arrived at Tipton, and reached Wolverhampton in August 1771, but the final downhill section to Aldersley Junction took another year to complete, because it required the building of 21 locks. Initially 20 locks were built, but because of the large drop at the bottom lock, an extra lock was added. The Canal opened on the 21st September, 1772, just 8 days before Brindley's death.

The canal followed the natural land contours to avoid the building of locks as far as possible, and followed an extremely circuitous route passing close to many of the coalmines. The finished canal was over 22½ miles long and covered just over 12½ miles as the crow flies. Other branches soon followed, including the Ocker Hill Branch, built in 1774, which was included in the original Act.

The Walsall Canal, on the western side of West Bromwich was built under the terms of an Act passed by Parliament on 24th June, 1783, which included the Toll End Branch. It was surveyed and designed by John Smeaton, the first self-proclaimed civil engineer. The canal had eight locks at Ryders Green and reached Wednesbury in 1786. It finally opened to Walsall in 1799.

In 1826 the Ridgacre branch opened from Swan Village to Ridgacre Road, off Church Lane. Branches were soon built from it. The first, the Dartmouth Branch, which opened in 1828 ran northwards to just past Witton Lane. In the same year the Halford Branch opened to Hall End. In 1831 the Jesson’s Branch opened. It ran southwards a little way from the Halford Branch.

In 1824 Thomas Telford was engaged to survey a canal to bypass much of the old circuitous route, particularly around Coseley. An Act for the building of the canal was passed in June 1835, and work soon got underway. The section from Deepfields to Bloomfield, including the Coseley Tunnel opened on 6th November, 1837. The new mainline was completed in April 1838. It is seven miles shorter than the original route, and very straight. It runs around the south western corner of West Bromwich, just north of the original canal.

There is also a canal on the northern part of West Bromwich, the Tame Valley Canal, which was built under an Act of 1839 and opened on the 14th February, 1844. It runs from Doe Bank Junction on the Walsall Canal to Salford Junction on the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal.

The canals were soon very busy. The large quantities of coal, limestone, raw materials, and finished goods that were transported, made the canal companies very wealthy, much to the delight of their shareholders. Large factories sprung-up alongside the canal, and the population of many local towns rapidly grew thanks to the employment on offer. The cost of some of the items for sale in the shops fell due to large scale manufacturing and ease of transport, and a greater variety of goods could be found in the shops.

The canal network was connected to sea ports so that manufacturers could easily export their products, and many imported goods were readily available for the first time. The falling cost of coal encouraged new industries to develop, and reduced people’s heating bills.

The Ridgacre Branch was extended with addition of the Halford Branch, named after a local mine owner. It ran to Hall End Colliery and served Shrubbery Brick Works, Hall End Brick Works and Hall End Iron Works. The Jesson Branch was soon added to serve an iron Works and several coal mines. It was also named after one of the mine owners.

By 1904, Ridgacre Oil Works had become Hall End Chemical Works and the Cyclops Iron Works was processing soap and tallow. Ridgacre Iron Works had become a rolling mill and Ridgacre Tube Works had become Acme Iron Foundry. Around this time, Blacklake Colliery closed, the tramway was removed, Hall End Colliery closed and the canal terminated at Church Hall Lane.

In 1947, parts of the Dartmouth and Halford Branches closed, followed by the Jesson's Branch in 1954. More closed in 1960, including parts of the Wednesbury Canal to the north of its junction with the Ridgacre Branch.

By 1966, the Jesson's Branch had gone and with the building of the Black Country New Road in 1992, the canal was culverted under the road on the northern side of Swan Roundabout, so the Ridgacre Branch was cut off from the canal network.

In the 1820s, Thomas Monk, who had at a small boatyard at Tipton, introduced a two-hour passenger service to Birmingham, calling at Dudley Port, Oldbury, Spon Lane, and Smethwick. The service was later extended to Wolverhampton, via Coseley.

The most recent canal, which runs across the northern end of the town, is the Tame Valley Canal, authorised under the terms of an Act of Parliament in 1839. It was built by the BCN and designed by its engineers, James Walker and Alfred Burges. Construction began in 1841 and the canal officially opened on Wednesday the 14th February, 1844. It runs from Salford Junction on the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal to a junction on the Walsall Canal at Toll End.

Railways

The country’s first railway of reasonable length, the Liverpool & Manchester Railway, was a great success, following its opening on the 15th September, 1830. Plans were soon made for an extension to Birmingham, where people were already planning a link to London. In 1831 the Warrington & Newton Railway opened and was seen as an ideal starting point for a railway to Birmingham.

A Bill for the building of the new railway was Passed in Parliament on May 6th 1833, on the same day as the Passing of the Bill for the London & Birmingham Railway. The Grand Junction Railway, as it was called, was named after the Newton Le Willows junction and would have 18 intermediate stations.

Three engineers were employed to share the engineering duties. They were George Stephenson, who was in overall control, Joseph Locke, who looked after the construction of the northern half, and John Rastrick who looked after the construction of the southern half. Rastrick resigned in September 1833 and Stephenson resigned in 1835, leaving Locke to finish the job.

This was the first long-distance railway line in the world. It opened on the 4th July, 1837, with a train pulling 3 coaches and a mail coach, setting off from Liverpool, and a similar one setting off from Manchester. They met at Newton Junction where both trains were combined and hauled southwards to Birmingham by the locomotive Wildfire. In the first six months of operation, the railway carried 232,202 passengers, and continued to prosper during its nine-year life.

It continued as a separate railway until an Act of Parliament was passed on the 16th July, 1846, which allowed the amalgamation of the Grand Junction Railway with the London & Birmingham Railway and the Liverpool & Manchester Railway. The new company was called the London & North Western Railway Company and became the countries largest railway.

The Grand Junction Railway crossed the north-eastern part of West Bromwich. There was a station on the north side of Newton Road, which in 1863 was followed by a new station that was initially called West Bromwich. A few months later it was renamed Newton Road.

In 1854 the Great Western Railway opened two railway stations in West Bromwich, one in the centre, off Paradise Street, called West Bromwich Railway Station and another at Swan Village. The line became the main route from Birkenhead to Paddington and the section from Wolverhampton Low Level Station to Birmingham Snow Hill, was extremely popular.

West Bromwich Railway Station.

Things went well until the 1960s, when investment was concentrated on the electrification scheme for the West Coast Mainline. Local passenger services along the line were much reduced and West Bromwich and Swan Village stations became unstaffed halts. The last Paddington to Birkenhead express ran in March 1967, and a year later all services were diverted to Wolverhampton High Level Station.

The branch line from Swan Village to the gas-works closed in 1967 and the passenger buildings at West Bromwich station were demolished in 1971. The line officially closed on the 4th March, 1972, but sections stayed in use for freight until the mid 1980's. Work on lifting the last section of track between Wednesbury and Swan Village was finished by the 27th July, 1985.

The railway then became a public footpath until the building of the Midland Metro, which officially opened on the 30th May, 1999. Trams now stop at Black Lake, Guns Village, Dartmouth Street, Lodge Road, West Bromwich Central, Trinity Way, Kenrick Park and The Hawthorns.