Birmingham's New Street Station is expected to survive even if the city gets a new rail hub.
Transport Secretary Alistair Darling has pledged that proposals to relieve the West Midlands track capacity crisis would be revealed this year.
He said preliminary studies had shown that while a new city station was 'not straightforward' to construct, it had not been ruled out.
However, it is now thought the Department for Transport's work does not involve the closure of New Street or threaten its rebuild.
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Drug taking is so common on Birmingham buses that one route is known as the marijuana express, a city councillor has claimed.
Paul Tilsley said dwindling bus patronage would never be reversed until drug problems were overcome.
He singled out Travel West Midlands' number 50 service, from Birmingham city centre to the Maypole, which he said had an "appalling" reputation.
Coun Tilsley (Lib Dem Sheldon), the deputy leader of Birmingham City Council, added: "Cannabis is smoked at will. The bus regularly stinks of it."
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Communications king John Caudwell has celebrated a hat-trick after topping The Birmingham Post Rich List for the third consecutive year.
The entrepreneur - who has put his Caudwell Group, including Phones4U, up for sale - has an estimated fortune of #1.6 billion, up #10 million from last year.
His personal wealth accounts for almost a seventh of the combined #11.7 billion tally accumulated by the region's top-50 rich listers.
The only other billionaire is Viscount Portman and family.
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Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt is sending hit squads into three Midland hospital trusts to force them to bring budget deficits under control.
Another three hospitals in the region are to be monitored by the Department of Health to ensure they cut budgets.
Ms Hewitt is appointing a "turnaround director" to take control of finances at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, which runs the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Princess Royal Hospital in Telford, and is heading for a #10 million deficit.
Turnaround directors will also be sent to the University Hospital of North Staffordshire, in Stoke, which has a projected #18 million deficit, and the George Eliot Hospital in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, which is heading for a #5 million deficit.
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An unelected Birmingham City Council official could be given unprecedented powers to decide when major planning applications should be rejected.
Clive Dutton, the director of planning and regeneration, would be allowed to sidestep councillors on the planning committee by refusing applications in special circumstances.
The proposal has been devised to help speed up the time the council takes to deal with planning applications.
Birmingham lags behind the Government's recommended 13-week target for reaching decisions about individual applications. Complex major proposals can be on the table for over a year before being decided.
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The boss of a growing Midlands niche technology firm has fired out a defiant message - manufacturing and automotive in the Midlands is far from dead.
Mr David Keene, managing director of Coventry-based RDM, spoke as his company landed the December Birmingham Post Business Award after clinching a deal which could be worth more than #10 million.
RDM landed The Post accolade after we highlighted its success in supplying a car tracking and security system lineside to Jaguar and Land Rover.
See Thursday's Birmingham Post for more on these stories
