Major disruption is expected on West Midlands Trains later this week, as the TSSA says it is going ahead with its strikes over rest day payments. The union said roster clerks will strike from 00.01 on Thursday until Friday at 00.01hrs, while duty train crew managers and control grades will not book on between 12.00 on Friday and 12.00 on Saturday. Services will be reduced on Friday and Saturday, and some sections of the network will have no trains at all. Where they are running, trains will start later than usual and last trains are likely to run before 19.00. Sunday morning services may also be disrupted because some trains will be out of position.

Transport secretary Heidi Alexander says HS2 should be the match of Japan’s Shinkansen network, which started to be developed in the 1960s. The transport secretary has been visiting Japan, where she met her ministerial counterpart Yasushi Kaneko and toured Hitachi’s Tokyo headquarters.