Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to improve rail services in the West Midlands.

Passengers in the West Midlands will see the introduction of two new fleets of electric and diesel trains on local services commencing later this year. Cross Country is also adding carriages to some of its local services into Birmingham in 2021.

The West Midlands network also plans to grow by adding new stations on existing lines to serve communities that lost their rail services during the 20th century. These include three stations on the Camp Hill Line in south Birmingham, and two in the Black Country to serve the towns of Willenhall and Darlaston.

On infrastructure, the Department is working with Network Rail and Midlands Connect to develop an Outline Business Case for the Midlands Rail Hub. This work will further develop infrastructure proposals to enable up to ten additional trains per hour to serve central Birmingham.