Plans of a massive rail upgrade in the Midlands have been announced costing up to £180 million.

The scheme is one of seven which makes up the £3.5 billion Midlands Engine Rail Programme and will boost connectivity across the Midlands to places as far as York and Newcastle.

The ‘Birmingham Airport Connectivity’ rail improvement scheme is designed to open up new, hourly connections to Birmingham International and Coventry stations for people living in and around Sheffield, Derby, Darlington, Doncaster, York, Durham and Newcastle.

It would also double the number of services to Coventry and Birmingham from Leamington Spa, Banbury, Oxford and Reading to two trains per hour and introduce new direct trains between Birmingham Moor Street, Solihull, Warwick Parkway and Oxford.

The improvements mentioned would be made possible by doubling track between Leamington, Kenilworth and Coventry as well as using the additional network capacity created by HS2.

This work can be expected to happen once phase one has been completed on HS2.

West Midlands Rail Executive and Midlands Connect are also looking at further ways that will allow additional local and freight services to operate.

The new services will allow for 2.2 million more people to access Birmingham International Airport more easily.