It was opened in 1850 to allow the Oxford-Worcester-Wolverhampton Line between Stourbridge and Wolverhampton to pass for several hundred yards beneath a hilly area of Dudley which would have been difficult if not impossible to have constructed a railway through.

At Dudley the OWWR and South Staffordshire Line to Walsall met.

A cable laying train passed through the tunnel on 1 July 1993 - nearly four months after the line was officially closed.

By 2022, however, it was being used be used for test purposes by the Very Light Rail National Innovation Centre.

[3] The reutilised line will also be designed to carry freight trains for possible use in the future.