20/05/2014 Midlands Today

degrees. A bit of cloud and the risk of a few showers. That's

Fare dodging on the increase ` unions claim up to 20%

of rail passengers are travelling without a ticket.

pioneering cancer research at a Birmingham Laboratory.

The key role of a Birmingham University professor

at the world famous CERN research centre in Geneva.

By Royal Approval ` it's gold once again for Birmingham

And, there were showers today but at least it was warm,

so the build`up to a break down in the weather may be gradual this

Fare dodging on the railways is on the rise.

Rail unions claim that, on some routes in the West Midlands,

a fifth of passengers could be travelling without tickets.

Rail operators insist the true figure is lower.

It comes as London Midland, one of the worst performing

in the country, is cutting the number of ticket inspectors

Here's our Transport Correspondent, Peter Plisner.

The daily commmute a costly experience, Caroline

Hornburger pays ?1,200 a year for her season ticket from Droitwich.

But she's concerned that some of her fellow passengers might not

There certainly is a lack of visibility of people checking

Here's one possible reason ` at Birmingham's New Street station

tickets are both on trains and at stations, and that way you will miss

people. I've also heard

about one train guard who collected more than ?500 in fares in just one

day from passengers who'd boarded Rail unions warn that

it could get worse. London Midland is reducing

the number of ticket inspectors We think it is madness to get rid of

so many revenue staff. What is crucial for London Midland and for

the railway in this area is to collect as many fares as possible.

But London Midland maintains that even with fewer staff it'll still

If we can work more flexibly, we can cover more stations, more stations

and more hours, and give more benefits than have ever been able to

before to our passengers. It could mean that decisions about investment

art scaled down because these revenues are not recorded.

Satisfaction levels are still below where they should be. Satisfaction

scores are at 73%, which is not good enough. Passengers want punctual,

reliable services, and we feel that these could be better. Despite that,

London Midland still increased fares on some routes yesterday with

minimal publicity, something that has further angered passengers.

With us now is London Midland's Head of Communications

Can we start with that point ` fares went up yesterday and not

The only says that went up were the super discounted fares, and the

advertise those at the stations where it applied. Regular first did

not change. But some passengers will resent this, won't they? We don't

like putting up our fares, but we tend to do so and those heavily

discounted fares where we think we are getting too many people on some

trains. If you travel the route from Stoke to London comedy will seen

just how busy some of those off`peak trains are. The unions are selling

up to 20% of passengers are going on trains without paying for tickets.

That is an astonishing figure. It is an open system, and clearly we need

to get better at checking fares, collecting fares, and that is why we

are talking to our staff and our trade unions about working more

flexibly silly can cover more trains, more stations, more hours.

You can understand why some passengers would be angry that some

people are getting away without paying. Absolutely. But you are

cutting back on numbers, on staff, so surely you will find it more

difficult? What we have found is we work in flexible, so the number of

people we have got, it is not about having more people. If we could get

more revenue back by having more people, we would do it. But we need

to be more flexible to cover more stations and more hours. If you are

a cheat, you know when we don't check on trains and you can work

around that. We penalty fare 1600 people every month at the moment.

Let's go to some viewers who got in touch with us. One man says, how can

you justify increase on fares when you throw so much money away? The

need to make it harder for people to dodge fares, and that is what this

discussion with the unions is about. Richard says, "why are you not

installing barriers and oyster style cards? ". Barriers are expensive to

put in place, so you put them in places where a lot of people pass

through. It is about the economic of it. He would not spend ?1.01 to get

?1 back in revenue. A small station that doesn't get many passengers,

which is also open, you would have to look at the whole structure of

the building, it would be expensive to cover and close it. Mike says,

why should we pay for a service with similar cancellations and delays

when you are cutting staff? On some routes, we have had some of our best

performances for over two years. We have been working hard to improve

our performance, and that is our main focus. Passengers expect a

reliable service and that is what we focus on everyday. Thank you for

joining us. Thanks for joining us here

on Midlands Today this evening. With two days to the Euro elections,

our guide to how your vote counts in picking the

West Midlands seven MEPs. The fight

against advanced lung cancer is being led here in the Midlands,

with a new national clinical trial. It's been launched by

Cancer Research UK and the Regional Scientists there say there's been

a huge increase in the number of people being tested for family

cancer genes following recent high In March 2011, Lyn Barrington,

a former nurse from Stafford, I was only in my 40s, I am fit and

healthy and have never smoked. I could not believe it was happening

to me. She's alive,

thanks to medical advances I think we are heading in the

direction that you even if you are in an advanced stage like myself, it

can become less of a death sentence. And there could be further hope

for patients like Lyn, with a new clinical trial targetting

advanced lung cancer. Rather than a

"one drug fits all" approach, researchers at the regional genetics

lab in Birmingham will take genes from lung tumours and select drug

treatment programmes accordingly. If we can put in place this sort of

screening and choose more appropriate drugs, people will get

better responses and there will be better patient outcomes.

Genetic medicine is expanding rapidly, making treatments available

now that even a couple of years would have seemed impossible.

And the genetics lab, the largest in the country, is under increasing

When the actress Angelina Jolie revealed she'd undergone

a double mastectomy to reduce her chances of getting cancer,

We had more than a doubling in referrals, particularly for breast

cancer referrals, from about 200 a month to a peak of 500 in one

month. This is part of a DNA sequence

from one patient. There are 10,000 letters

in just one gene and it's just one of them, that mutation there,

that means the patient is She's shopping

for her daughter's wedding. I am shopping for a hat or

accessories. I never thought I would see this day, so it will be very,

very emotional. A 74`year`old man has been arrested

on suspicion of murder after an elderly woman was found

dead at a house in Market Drayton. A body was found in Millfield Drive

this morning. It's believed to be

75`year`old Beatrice Bennett. Police say they're not looking

for anyone else. The airline Flybe has announced a

new routes from Birmingham Airport. It carries 1.5 million passengers

every year. It will offer new destinations including Oslo and

hamburg, and will introduce year`round flights to a number of

destinations currently only available in the summer.

The Commonwealth Games baton relay will pass through Birmingham

The announcement was celebrated by baton bearers Mimi Cesar,

Pritesh Pattni and Adam Ruckwood earlier today.

It's now just 64 days to the start of the games in Glasgow.

Local elections take place this Thursday and also elections

for our European Members of Parliament, MEPs.

But there are important differences from the system used in council or

Here's BBC WM's Political Reporter Kathryn Stanczyszyn.

These are the West Midlands MEPs. We conservatives, one Labour, one Lib

Dem and two who were UKIP, but now have their own parties. Unlike your

local MP, all of these represent the whole region. In this Birmingham pub

there are more than 350 European BS on offer, and a big choice means a

big menu, as there will be at the polling booths this Thursday. But do

we understand how the Euro voting system works? No. No, I don't know.

Not very well. I'm not even going to try actually. It is whoever gets the

most votes percentage`wise. Well, the answer is not simple. It doesn't

only rely on who gets the most votes. It is a formula devised by a

Belgian mathematician. Basically, the system is weighted to give

smaller parties a chance, instead of the big hitters like Labour and

Conservatives getting all the seats. The most important difference from

our other elections is that you vote for a party and not a person. So,

why do we have this different system for the Europeans? It is a long

established system which is widely used in, including in some domestic

elections in Europe. It is complicated and gives a lot of power

to the parties. There are 11 party standing in the West Midlands, so a

pretty long ballot paper. It might seem congregated, for voters it is

one cross in one box. Dash`macro it might seem complicated.

Fare dodging on the increase ` unions say up to 20%

of rail passengers are travelling without a ticket.

Another warm day today ` the forecast for tomorrow to come

The glory days of cinema and plans to bring them back

And, find out how our teams from the West Midlands have done at the

Chelsea Flower Show. I will have the results.

I'm sure many of you will have heard of the CERN

laboratory in Switzerland, a crucial ingredient in the Dan

It's nearly two years since the large hadron collider

there discovered the elusive "Higgs Boson", much smaller than an

atom ` it's basically the glue which holds everything together.

But what's happened since and what will CERN do in the future?

Well, that's largely down to a scientist from Birmingham.

We can cross live to CERN now in Geneva and our science

This sounds like a huge honour for the Midlands, David ` one of our

It is indeed. Let me explain about where we are. This is the control

room. Atlas is the largest experiment here and it is one of the

ones that led to the Higgs Boson, as you mention are the first programme

to ever broadcast live from this control room. But we have got

friends in high places. First of all, we have some computer graphics

to show you to explain how things work here. CERN accelerate particles

around it and smash them together at certain points. One of those points

is here at Atlas. The experiment is deep underground, and Atlas's job is

to use it laboratory to understand what happens after its collision.

That is what they set out to do. Now they have done it, what are they

going to do next? Well, that will be down to the University of Birmingham

scientist who has been elected by the 3000 scientists here to decide

the future direction of the science that they do here. It will all start

right under my feet. 90 metres below the ground. Welcome

to the Atlas detector. Professor David Charlton is from the

University of Birmingham. He is in charge of the largest experiment at

CERN, Atlas. In July 2012 we announced the discovery of the Higgs

Boson. They were discovered in the centre of the detector. The whole

exam and weighs 7000 tonnes, which means Atlas is slowly sinking over

the course of time. They have special jacks to lift it back up.

Professor Charlton was elected by his fellow scientists to be the

person in charge of Atlas. He is the first British person to head up the

expanded, which involves 3000 different researchers. He spends his

time down with the experiment, but also in lots of meetings. Having

discovered the Higgs Boson, why are they carrying on? What do they still

want to discover? We want to understand how the universe is made,

what the fundamental components of the universe are. It is read to try

to understand what everything is made of and how things work and fit

together. It is almost a cultural thing. To continue the search, CERN

is being made much more powerful. It is looking for new things, and also

to learn more about the Higgs Boson. With such a large experiment, we

want to cover the huge range of the physics am so when we come back of

the energies of the collisions will be much higher and we will have the

capability to see if there are new things starting to show up. We will

also look in great detail the Higgs particle that we have discovered. We

want to make sure we understand it. Next year, all eyes will be on Atlas

and Professor Charlton to see what they find next.

As you said, everyone here is focused on getting things back up

and running for next. Because everything is not switched on at the

moment, it means we can get inside and show you bits of CERN you would

not normally see, including the pieces that were made in the

Midlands. They turned out to be really vital to the future of this

experiment. More on that tomorrow. In the meantime, if you would like

to visit CERN you can do so, and it is free to get in. They have

thousands of visitors every year. Tomorrow, the King of Belgium will

be visiting! I have put all the details on my Facebook page. There

is even a local airline with direct flights to Geneva. To have a look at

my blog. Over the last seven years,

the UK has seen 330 new cinema screens opening and the industry

seems in pretty good health. It's a change from the days

when cinemas were shutting or being Satnam Rana reports from Shropshire

now on plans to revive a former 1930s art deco picture palace and

make it the heart of the community. Come here and you can buy shares

in the proposed Each person expressing an interest

can pledge a minimum of ?10. This is what the initial ?500,000

will buy back into the community. The former Clifton cinema and

adjoining shop. There is nothing beyond further full`time education.

There is no for arts people to gather, to meet, to interact and

enjoy each other's work, and there is nowhere for the public to get

into the wider arts that they may not experience through the more

popular shows that go on in many of the auditoria around here. The

Clifton cinema first opened in 1937. The evacuation of the troops from

Dunkirk was completed... During World War II, local people watched

newsreels here. It finally closed in 1987. Local students could come down

to Wellington, instead of travelling far. Dewsbury brought theirs back

will stop yes, it would be nice to have the old cinema back.

Campaigners are hoping memories rekindled will encourage people to

pledge their money. Save far, ?23,000 has been raised, and the

community share offer is open until the end of the year. This is an

ambitious project, and the Clifton campaigners have a long way to go.

But this is a project rooted in community spirit, with a belief that

arts and culture needs to be made accessible to the people here and

the surrounding areas. For the third successive year,

Birmingham City Council has won Its exhibit, developed in

partnership with the Royal British Legion, pays tribute to the city's

involvement in World War One. The Queen was among those who

admired the winning display. And it's not our only garden

to get a medal this year. Our reporter Amy Cole is in

Kings Heath Park in Birmingham with Our teams have done

very well indeed. Now Birmingham City Council is

in charge of a number of open spaces so it has a lot

of horticultural expertise ` just what you need when you're putting

together an exhibit for Chelsea. And they've done it again, another

gold for the third year running for their exhibit which is based on

the city's links to World War One. Yesterday, it had

a very famous visitor, the Queen. She was seen walking through

the trenches and Now after Chelsea, the City Council,

who's worked with a number of sponsors, says the exhibit will

be coming back to Birmingham. We are very lucky to have people who

are able to sponsor the city. Every feature that we will use will be

used again in Birmingham throughout the summer and the next four years.

I've been told that the trench and the planes the Queen saw will be

The Council wasn't the only team from our region to triumph.

There was a gold for David Austin Roses,

What was really lovely is that yesterday there were three

generations of the Austin family at Chelsea ` the first time that's

They were launching a new variety of rose,

which has been named after David Austin junior's daughter, Olivia.

The company now has 18 gold medals that its won

Stoke on Trent City Council got a silver gilt, which I'm told is

Its display cost a staggering ?450,000 and took 18

And the team from Leamington Spa, which has featured quite heavily

on Midlands Today, got a silver for their garden display.

Sarah Horne was one of the designers, and she told me it

was her first time working on such a large exhibit.

So, really good results from some of our teams.

Just to let you know that Birmingham City Council's exhibit

will feature will as part of the Gardeners World road show at the NEC

from 12th June before it's broken up and exhibited around the city.

I guess it won't be too long before they start planning for next year.

Thank you, Amy. I am glad it has stopped raining. It has been another

warm day today, but can it go on? We will see more heavy showers

through this evening, but there we could have done with those holding

off until tonight, it does look as though tonight is going to be drier

and Sarah. If you thought that the showers today were ferocious, we

have got more heavy rain to come through Thursday. This will affect

parts of Hereford, central parts and the south`east of the region. There

is an early warning for that. Tomorrow we will be in between

systems, and that means it will be fresher and cooler, and also drier,

before this monster moves in from the south`east for Thursday. Right

now, for this evening, we see, conditions across southern counties,

but these heavier showers are gravitating towards the North. It

will be much drier across the region during tomorrow. For towns and

cities, temperatures will be a bit lower than last night. The coolest

spot of the region is in Herefordshire and Worcestershire

with lows of five Celsius. Even cooler than that in the countryside.

There could be some pockets of missed developing into the morning.

That will disperse very quickly as the sun gets to work. 20 of it

around tomorrow. It is a much drier day with the odd isolated shower in

places. If you are caught by those showers, they could be on the sharp

side. Temperatures will still reach 18 or 19 Celsius. Through tomorrow

night we see that area of very heavy rain come a torrential in places,

starting to spill up from the south`east. Ahead of that, the cloud

will thicken up, and it is going to be warmer tomorrow night, and then

very wet for Thursday. The US coastguard agrees to resume

its search for four missing British Average houses prices rise by 8%

over the last year ` could they be Fare dodging on the increase `

unions claim up to 20% of rail passengers are travelling

without a ticket. And, the pioneering lung cancer

research taking place Just before we go, congratulations

to Worcestershire, who have now gone to the top of the tale in the

championship. Talking about cricket, Schurrle and care are just of 12.

Dash`macro Schuler and cut. Have a great evening. Bye`bye.

Some people don't think real change in Europe is possible.

Some people don't think real change is necessary.

Some people don't think it's worth fighting for.

But we want to make Europe work for Britain,

and give you the final say with an in-out referendum in 2017.

have made Britain's economy stronger and more competitive.

a record number of people in work. And we're predicted to be

the fastest-growing economy in the G7 this year.