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Railways: West Midlands

Asked by Sir Andrew MitchellConservativeDepartment for TransportTabled Answered 27 May 2025UIN 53477

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she plans to take to improve rail services in the West Midlands.

Answered by Simon Lightwood

West Midlands Trains has recently introduced two brand new fleets of high capacity trains in the West Midlands area, with a third new fleet on its West Coast routes starting service shortly. Five new stations are also under construction. Meanwhile, CrossCountry started operating a bigger fleet last weekend, significantly boosting capacity on its network, and all its trains will be fully refurbished in the next three years. A Pay-As-You-Go scheme is being implemented to help deliver seamless journey integration. Longer term, work continues on developing the Midlands Rail Hub scheme.

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