£20m bid over Wolverhampton rail station plan

A bid is in for £20.2 million of public money to try and revive long awaited plans to rebuild Wolverhampton's rail station.

The Express & Star can reveal the estimated cost of the project has dropped to £96 million from £154m, with developers set to revise their designs to make it more attractive to investors.

Wolverhampton City Council regeneration chief Councillor Peter Bilson said the "world had changed" since the ambitious project for the station to be accompanied by a hotel and canalside bars had been drawn up in 2006 and 2007.

Bosses still want all those things but accept they will need to find £64 million of private sector investment, even if they get £20.2m from the Government's regional growth fund and another £10m from other funds.