The majority of local rail services in the West Midlands are operated by London Midland (part of Govia).

London Midland took over the rail franchise from Central Trains in November 2007 and particularly welcome are the planned improvements to passenger facilities at stations, smartcard ticketing, passenger security and 64 new diesel and electric trains.

The Govia London Midland rail branding is being fully integrated with the new Network West Midlands branding that has been rolled out by Centro across the Metropolitan area.

Network Rail has been developing timetable proposals on behalf of the DfT for the new January 2009 West Coast timetable - when the next phase of infrastructure enhancements will be complete.

Centro's objectives for the timetable changes are to protect core service frequencies from local stations into Birmingham, enhance them where possible, improve connections with the Stourbridge line at Smethwick Galton Bridge and improve through linkages between Coventry and Wolverhampton lines.

The new timetable will see a 20-minute frequency service introduced between Birmingham New Street and London Euston. Significant changes to local services will also be required, as they will no longer be able to operate at a regular 30-minute frequency between Birmingham and Coventry.

Although the new timetable may create local issues, Centro has identified potential improvements to service frequencies at some local stations and these are being progressed.