24/01/2017 Midlands Today

The headlines this lunchtime: Police launch a murder inquiry

after a man is stabbed to death on a bus in Birmingham.

At some point during the journey, there was a verbal altercation at to

a physical fight. One of the wells a physical fight. One of the wells

produced by. -- one of the males. Plans to run former

London Underground trains on Midlands railways

are still on course, And keeping our canals

running smoothly. The divers going deep underground

to carry out vital maintenance. Police have opened a murder inquiry

after a man was stabbed to death The victim, who was in his 30s,

was attacked on the top deck of the bus in the Handsworth

area last night. Roads in the area remain

closed-off this lunchtime Our reporter Ben Sidwell

is there for us now. Within the last half an hour, police

have been carrying out searches here. They have been searching the

road and the guttering in some of these shops. On the bus itself, the

incident happened further down this road in Handsworth in Birmingham.

Police say they were called at about quarter to 11 last night. When they

arrived, they found a man slumped over one of the seats. Paramedics

did their best to save the man, but sadly he was pronounced dead. Police

say there were also a number of other people on the bus at the time

and they are keen to tilt to them. -- keen to talk to them.

We know that there were five people sat

around with the two males on the

top deck, so we've managed to speak to one of the people.

The other four people left the bus shortly after

Now, it might be that they didn't realise

how serious the matter was and they just wanted

to get out the way, which is perfectly understandable.

However, what I would ask is they would come

forward and speak to the

It is a large area as you concede that has been cordoned off. A lot of

locals have been coming out to look. I've spoken to a few of them and

they all have the same feeling. They are all very concerned.

Everybody in this road, they are worried about it.

If you can't feel safe on the bus, where

What happens if I'm on the bus with my children one day and then,

Police say they think this was a completely chance altercation. They

say the suspect they're looking for is a black man in his 20s with Greg

Clark chair and a centre part ten. -- dreadlock hair. And a centre

parting. A man's been jailed for 21 years

for killing his former partner and trying to murder her lover

in West Bromwich. 26-year-old mother of three

Wendy Mann was strangled in her own home by 63-year-old

Leroy Sterling in August 2015. A month earlier he stabbed

Trevor Tyndale who was in A jury at Wolverhampton Crown Court

found Sterling guilty of murder Vulnerable children

in Worcestershire are at risk of "significant harm" according

to a report into social services Services to help children leave care

when they become adults have been It is failing to McCann to counsel

are leaving them in continued risk of is significant harm. -- failing

of the council. It's claimed plans to run former

London Underground trains on the Midlands rail network

are still on course, despite a fire The Warwickshire company Vivarail

is converting Tube trains to help It says the fire on a test train

is still being investigated Our Transport Correspondent Peter

Plisner has been given exclusive access to the firm's

testing facilities. Here we are at Long Marston. The

fire last month caused by a fire in the engine. This is the very fire.

As you can see, it is business as usual. This is one of the London

Underground trains currently being converted. This is the actual test

trainer caught fire. A lot of work going on to it. It should be back on

the tracks in the spring. Here with me is the Chief Executive. Tell me,

the investigation, how is it going? The investigation is almost

complete. We are going to publish a final report next week. We know why

the fire happened, we have a series of actions that we are going to put

in place to make sure it doesn't happen again. How disappointing and

a setback was it for you? Clearly it is disappointing. But the train was

a test trainer and the purpose of them is to find out what happens.

Alexi ran extremely well apart from that one incident -- it actually ran

extremely well. Other things we're very pleased about that the fire

didn't damage the car body much at all. Minor repairs. We put special

plates under the floor to protect passengers in that worked extremely

well. How much difference will this make to the overcrowding we are

seeing on the rail network? They have the potential to move a lot of

people very quickly. Also, shorter station times. Really is what this

whole train designed for. Thank you. There is a national shortage of

diesel trains, so they could be coming to eight station near you

pretty soon. -- a station. Now, a diving team is working deep

under Birmingham this lunchtime to keep the city's

canals workng smoothly. The divers will use an inflatable

pillow to plug and then drain a stretch of pipeline which moves

water around the canal network. Our Environment correspondent David

Gregory-Kumar has been on site. Well, this is something you don't

often see in landlocked Birmingham. This is actually, believe it or not,

a diving operation and it is going to be taking place about 17, 19

metres beneath that entrance hall. And to explain what it is all about,

it is Neil Bedford. Neal, there is a culvert

down there, a pipe. This pipe, it connects to the canal

down at Saltley and it's And what allows us to do

with the pumping station, we can pump water from

down at the bottom. From there, we can

feed the rest of the canal system down through

Knole and further south. So, this diving operation

is right at the We're going to be blocking it

off because they want to drain it so you can check

the pumps themselves. What the diver's going to do

is insert an stopper. That is effectively

an inflatable balloon in The diver is going to push

this stopper under the We're then going to inflate

it from the ground. Once we're happy, I can

then start the pumps up. I can then dewater just that

short section of the culvert, between the

stopper and the pumps. So we're dewatering a short

section and protecting the And that means you can

check the pumps that have The pumps were installed

27 years ago. They pumped nearly

400 litres of water We're looking to actually

replace them later this year, but we need to

inspect the installation. As you can see, the

operation is ongoing. We'll have an update

in tonight's programme. Time for a look at the weather now

with Charlie Slater. Not a bad afternoon

in store for you either. A good deal of dry and fine weather

around over the next few hours, just a little bit of cloud

building into the picture. Particularly the further

west you are. Basically, the further east

is better this afternoon. You will find more blue

sky and sunshine there. Temperatures will climb up to around

six or seven Celsius. You might even get the odd

eight Celsius at fair. That being said, there

is still the occasional area where there is an isolated

patch of fog which will last all day long today and that will of course

limit the growth of temperatures. We will go through

tonight and onto the early hours of Wednesday morning,

the foggy patches unfortunately are going to return, particularly in

further southern and eastern areas Temperatures not falling

as far as last night. Last night was minus four minus five

and a couple of spots. That being said, there

are a couple of warnings that have been issued from the to

Met Office, still cold enough for there to be a little

bit of ice around. Again, we will have

to look out for some fog first thing

on Wednesday morning. Of course, ice and fog

are not a good combination. Can affect visibility

out there on the roads. Going through the daytime,

on Wednesday a good deal of Occasionally, the cloud

will thin and break. The fog patches could linger

a little bit as well. Temperatures will do

all right on Wednesday, getting up to around

six or seven Celsius. But later, we'll be in Worcester

as Paralympic gold medallist Claire Cashmore officially opens

the city's new swimming pool. That's in Midlands Today with

Mary Rhodes at 18:30 on BBC One. Until then, have a very

good afternoon.