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Electric canal at Kidderminster
A branch line from [[Stourport|Stourport Station]] was opened in 1940; thereafter coal could be brought in by rail from [[Collieries_served_by_the_Severn_Valley_Railway#Alveley_Colliery | Alveley]] and other local collieries. This route also replaced the ‘Light Run’ as the method of bringing coal from the Cannock area; by 1949 only 5% of the coal used arrived by water.<ref>Langford (1974) p. 66.</ref> Instructions for working the sidings at the canal basins remained in the sectional appendix to the working timetable as late as 1960, although by then there can have been little or no traffic using them.<ref name=Marshall89/>
In 1924 it carried out experiments with an electrically powered canal boat on a short stretch of the canal in Kidderminster using a 250v DC overhead supply.<ref>Towpath guide No1, Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal by J. Ian Langford ISBN 0-900404-22-1 via [https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Shropshire,_Worcestershire_and_Staffordshire_Electric_Power_Co Shropshire, Worcestershire and Staffordshire Electric Power Co., Grace's Guide]</ref><ref>[https://www.britishpathe.com/video/electric-canals/query/kidderminster Electric Canals on British Pathé]</ref>
Unlike many other canals, the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal was never sold or leased to a railway company, staying independent until nationalisation in 1948 under the British Transport Commission, the Docks and Inland Waterways Executive and later the British Waterways Board. In July 2012, along with the rest of British Waterways' assets in England and Wales, it transferred to the newly formed charitable Canal & River Trust.