The Grand Junction company laid a branch line from Bescot to a temporary depot in the town at Bridgeman Place a decade later, but it was not until 9 April 1849 that a permanent station was opened on the present site.

[2] The Midland had by this time also purchased the W&WR from the rival London and North Western Railway, though the LNWR still ran occasional services over it until the 1923 Grouping.

[3] The station was rebuilt in 1883, due to increasing traffic levels, with five platforms and separate booking offices for each of the two companies using it.

[1] A fire damaged the main booking hall in 1916, but it was not until after the World War I had ended in 1918 that a full rebuild of the concourse could be effected.

In April 1989, passenger services were reintroduced by British Rail on the previously freight-only line to Hednesford 24 years after they were withdrawn.

[1] The number of trains to Birmingham was gradually increased from one to four trains per hour and the Hednesford service was extended to Rugeley in 1997 (and subsequently through to Stafford) but the service to Stafford was cut back in 2008 to Rugeley Trent Valley under an agreement with London Midland and WCML operators.

has ambitions to reinstate a regular (half-hourly) weekday service on the route and reopen the stations at Willenhall and Darlaston, but funding problems have precluded any action being taken on the proposals.

Services from the station go to Birmingham New Street 10+3⁄4 miles (17.3 km) south on the Walsall Line, (operated on behalf of Transport for West Midlands), and north to Cannock and Rugeley.

Walsall retains close connections to Rugeley Trent Valley for the West Coast Main Line.

The current service pattern is as follows: Mondays to Saturdays: Sundays: The fast trains to Birmingham have occasional calls at Bescot Stadium and are routed via the direct line through Soho and Winson Green.

[14] There were plans to introduce direct services to London Euston operated by Avanti West Coast in 2021, however in the December 2022 timetable changes it was decided this would not go ahead.

There are plans to reopen a terminus single platform at the disused Aldridge station for trains to Birmingham New Street via Walsall but not to Sutton Coldfield and Water Orton.

In a strategy which has been conducted by the West Midlands Combined Authority, the line from Walsall to Lichfield has been identified as a disused rail corridor and this means that it is a long term ambition to reopen the line from Walsall to Lichfield, either a rail/light rail corridor.