By Anonymous GERMAN Rail (DB) is buying British passenger train operator Laing Rail for an undisclosed sum. This is DB's first passenger rail acquisition in Britain, although it recently acquired railfreight operator EWS from Canadian National.

RAIL passengers on a key route through the Midlands were today facing delays to their journeys after a major upgrade on the line began.

By Les Reid THOUSANDS of train passengers in Warwickshire face serious delays from major engineering works on a busy main line. A pounds 75 million scheme to improve the line, junctions and signals between Stratford and Birmingham Snow Hill began on Thursday.

An MP has hit out after rail passengers were warned they could face major disruption from yesterday on a key line which runs through Solihull. Improvement work until next Friday will hit Chiltern Railways' services from Birmingham Snow Hill to London Marylebone.

A year or so ago I found myself, for the first time in ages, driving on the M45 - once the main route from Birmingham to London via the M1, now doubly bypassed by the M6 and the M40.