The proposed:
Birmingham to Quinton
Birmingham to BHX
Walsall to Wednesbury to Stourbridge
Wolverhampton Loop
Wolverhampton to Wednesfield to Willenhall to Walsall to Wednesbury (5Ws)
The original plans had some 20 odd routes, according to Wikipedia. No idea what they are.
Perhaps the South Staffordshire line that runs through Pensnett, Wombourne, Himley etc,
A popular walking/cycling route, and also too far out from any reasonable places, apart from Wombourne. I think a good alternative would be to essentially replace the 1 (558) bus with a metro line - follows the A459 Wolverhampton to Sedgley, Gornal, Dudley.
Wombourne is out of the centro area and only has a 10,000 population. It doesn't even have proper bus stops. I personally feel it should be annexed into the West Midlands county along with Codsall and Bilbrook. The narrow stretch of "South Staffordshire" is a bit pointless. Now if
that happened, then Wombourne could be accessed by a line along the A449, which would serve a few more places rather than just Wombourne and a golf club.
Wolverhampton to Oxley along the A449, with a parkway station at Fox's Lane providing park and ride for the city (free?
) - turning West at The Vine to head towards Pendeford, calling at the i54, serving Pendeford Business Park, Marston Business Park, Brammer, Lupus Park (empty enterprise zone plot), i54, and Wobaston.
I thought they were campaigning to re-open that stretch of line to general rail trafic again?
Heavy freight with tram-trains ("Metro").
Something that hasn't been considered is orbital metros. Perhaps a Wolverhampton, Birmingham, or Coventry outer "ring rail", with radial routes joining it..? I imagine it would make more sense in Birmingham.
I had this musing earlier about an elevated quadding of the Stour Valley line. I think it would take the form of a monorail... All stops Wolverhampton to Birmingham removed, allowing full speed trains along that stretch, no stopping. The elevated train would serve ten or so intermediate stations... Not sure!