16/03/2017 Midlands Today

A multi-million pound plan to prevent overcrowding on trains

in the West Midlands has gained Government backing.

The Midlands Rail Hub will provide much needed additional

capacity on the rail network over the next decade.

The scheme should mean more trains and thousands

Here's our transport correspondent, Peter Plisner.

The region's rail network is busy and getting busier -

rail's share of the travel market has doubled over the last 15 years,

and some expect similar growth going forward.

Yes, I think it's definitely something that is needed.

More trains, more often, would probably be a better solution

And that's why the Midlands Rail Hub scheme is seen as so important.

Designed by the Government backed Midlands Connect

transport partnership - it's proposing several measures

designed at delivering big capacity improvements.

And some of the extra space for trains will be created

by re-opening this platform at Snow Hill station.

Until last year it was used by the Metro.

Another of the big ideas involves opening up these disused platforms

at Birmingham's Moor Street station, and using them for Cross Country

services that currently stop at nearby New Street Station.

Bringing the trains out of there and into here could add

more capacity at New Street, that could be used for

And to allow that to happen, a special flyover is needed

here at Bordesley to connect that line, which runs into

New Street to this line, which runs into Moor Street.

And in addition to the changes at Birmingham stations and the flyover,

the Midlands Rail Hub would also see major

engineering work at Water Orton in North Warwickshire

and Kings Norton, in south Birmingham.

Midlands Connect is also hoping new signalling technolgy

At its peak, it will take an additional ten trains per hour

We calculate that about 85,000 seats a day.

Platform and train lengthening is already planned to

help overcrowding now - if it's funded, the Midlands

Rail Hub will be phased in over the next decade.

Our reporter Bob Hockenhull is at New Street Station in Birmingham.

This sounds like much needed good news for commuters.

If it all goes to plan, it'll become easier and more comfortable

to travel around this region by train.

Earlier, we asked for viewers to get in touch with their thoughts about

Glenn Raybone says, "A better plan would be

Stuart Winsor wrote, "More station capacity is fine,

but we need the line capacity to go with it."

"If the trains were on time there wouldn't be overcrowding."

And Shaukat Abbas says, "Open up the line between Stourbridge

and Walsall, this would stop commuters changing in Birmingham

Well, there was a stark reminder of how badly improvements are needed

in Parliament today with one Stoke on Trent MP raising his concerns

I had an e-mail very recently from a constituent who was concerned about

a journey from Birmingham to Wolverhampton where she and others

were standing and somebody fainted. She went to provide assistance. It

will be present to lie down as would be required providing first aid. The

train group said this is what happens regularly, because the train

is so regularly crowded, there used to people passing out. My honourable

friend draws attention to the situation that is all too common. If

there is overcrowding sporadically and that something that can be

caught with, but when it is regular, that requires attention and is a

situation that isn't being addressed.

The engineers and politicians behind the Midlands Rail Hub say

they understand building a good transport network is crucial

for building an economy that works for all.

A father of three from Hereford, who set up a group targeting

online paedophiles, says he's had sleepless nights

after men sent explicit pictures to his fake profile.

David Poole poses as a 14-year-old girl, on an online dating site.

He's met several alleged offenders in sting operations,

before calling the police and giving evidence of their conversations.

He's been speaking to our reporter Sarah Bishop.

An under age 16-year-old cannot consent to sex, right?

David Poole confronts a man he claims has been chatting to a

Jason is saying to him, "Keep your hands on the wheel."

A man's allegedly sent indecent photos of

himself and is expecting to have sex, when all the time he has

been messaging David, a father of three

You know, they are all choking to say it, literally,

They all want to talk about sex straightaway.

"Do you want to lose your virginity, babe?"

It was the death of his own son, Brandon, he says which sparked

The 16-year-old choked on his own vomit at a party

He was gay and had been harassed online.

He used to show me, like, "Oh, Dad, look at this."

And there would be married men, straight married men,

sending him wanting to have sex with a 14-year-old boy.

If a child has access to the Internet, the

West Midlands police say whilst they realise paedophilia is a

very emotive subject, they do not encourage members

of the public to take the law into their own hands.

It could compromise their own investigations.

Saying that, Mr Poole tells us he's had many letters

In fact, some people are so impressed with what he's doing,

they've offered him tens of thousands of pounds so he can

Mr Poole uses an old photo of his partner for

Another sting Mr Poole has done has resulted in a

He says he's now contact online with at least 40

different men, aged between 20 and 50.

He says he's doing a public service, trying to make Hereford a

Sarah Bishop, BBC Midlands Today, in Hereford.

Two of the region's biggest road bottlenecks have been

officially re-opened today, after long-term works.

The ?191 million improvement scheme at Tollbar Island,

just south of Coventry, around the A45 and A46,

The Catthorpe Interchange, where the M1, M6 and A14 meet,

Two former BBC WM radio presenters have pleaded not guilty to a string

Married couple Tony and Julie Wadsworth,

have denied five charges of outraging public decency.

They also pleaded not guilty to ten and 12 charges respectively

of indecent assault relating to seven boys.

More than 180,000 racegoers have attended the first three days

of the Cheltenham Festival and that means a lot

It's a big challenge for the course, which is aiming to stop sending

waste to landfill by 2020 and recycle as much as possible.

Here's our Gloucestershire reporter, Steve Knibbs.

With the population of a small town descending

on Prestbury Park every day, one thing is guaranteed -

We have to pull out all the here as the recycling angels,

We have to pull out all the cardboard from here.

They work front and back of house making sure that waste isn't wasted.

This is all no easy task - the jockey club has set itself

a target of sending nothing to landfill in just

Is a team of individuals who are trying to make sure that that

education Michael is that the point where we can make sure everything is

segregated correctly and recycling rates coming out of this event are

as high as possible. This is the most exclusive

restaurant the festival. In the kitchen, under the watchful

eye of chef Albert Roux, There is, by it's nature,

plenty of food waste. Add to that leftovers

from across the site and 25 tonnes of rotting food each day ends up

a couple of miles away at this. This is an anaerobic digestion plant

where the festivals scrapings, as well as Gloucestershire's

household food waste, When the magic happens, some of the

methane gas is used to provide heat and electricity to run this site.

The rest of it is cleaned up and pumped directly into the National

And this isn't the usual black stuff seen at Cheltenham -

it's the other by-product the fertiliser for local farmers.

And think about it, this just might be used to help grow

some of the food being served at next year's festival.

It's been revealed that a hoard of gold discovered hidden

in a piano in Shropshire is a collection of sovereign coins.

The money pouch was found just before Christmas,

when the piano was taken to be renovated.

But before the find is declared treasure,

there's a final attempt to find the original owner

In 1915, the piano would have been 11-years-old, so it's already been

in someone's house for a number of years.

And whether it's suddenly changed hands at that point, and

therefore a new owner has thought, "Ah, that's a great place to hide

my loot," or whether it's actually something more, sort

I'll leave you with the weather from Shefali.

A much cloudier day, starting off with a lot

of mist across the south of the region too and that impacted

temperatures as well - a lot and cooler as a result.

But there has been some sunshine - we saw some here in Birmingham

an hour or so ago and in the north as well, where we saw today's

At Newport in shropshire 12.3 Celsius - the mildest place

But the south-east is going to benefit from the best

of the brightness through the day tomorrow and that's great news

Day four of the festival and apart from the odd shower during the gold

cup, mainly dry, but hold on to your hat -

This is what is bringing the changes in. An area of rain, most of that

will arrive tomorrow evening and overnight. Even when it does, it

will be largely late and patchy, stronger winds. That is the main

feature. This is how it's looking in summery for the end of the week and

we can. Outbreaks of rain for tomorrow, but the weak and largely

dry and cloudy. Breezy, but still only mild side. Let's take a look at

tonight, clearer skies across the region. Because of that, it's going

to be cooler. Temperatures dropping to three or four Celsius. The breeze

picking up into tomorrow. Starting of bright and sunny in the 30s, go

to the clouding over. Top temperatures of eight, 11 Celsius.

The there will be rain around, most

occurring overnight. Good evening, quite a range of

whether an offer earlier today in the north and north-west of the UK

quite a lot of showers around, lively ones, little bit of sunshine

in between. The best of the sunshine to be found at the other end of the

country towards the south-east in Kent, lovely picture here from one

of our weather watchers. A range of temperatures, too. 17 degrees for a

few, on the other side of the weather front, only seven or 8

degrees. Showers in the north and west. The fresh air will win out

over tonight coming in behind the cold front, which isn't bringing

much rain but it will bring some, clearing away towards the continent,

cold air following behind, as do the showers. Wintry weather over the

hills in northern Scotland. A much colder night than it has been

recently. Into single figures, touch of frost in raw