The Birmingham Cross City Line is a commuter rail line in the West Midlands Region of England. It runs between Redditch and Bromsgrove in Worcestershire via Birmingham New Street to Lichfield Trent Valley in Staffordshire on the West Coast Mainline, so if a West Coast Mainline route is ever created for TSW2, we could see AI Class 390 Pendolinos, Class 221 Super Voyagers and Class 350 Desiros at Lichfield Trent Valley & Birmingham New Street. This route is operated by West Midlands Trains. The line has 25 stations and over 32 miles of track. Cross-City Line services began in 1978, as a project of the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive (WMPTE) to improve local rail services. It made use of pre-existing railways lines, which previously did not have any through services. Services were extended to Redditch in 1980, and to Lichfield Trent Valley in 1988. The route was electrified in 1993. In 2018 services were extended to Bromsgrove, which was added as a second southern terminus. Route map: The Birmingham Cross City Line uses only one type of rolling stock, which the Class 323, these entered service in 1994. The Class 323 could be dressed in the West Midlands Railway livery, which is in the West Midlands Trains franchise. The Class 323s will be replaced by the Class 730 Aventra, so we could have the Class 730 as a DLC for this route, if this route is set in 2022, although don't quote me on that. Class 323: Class 730 Services: During Monday to Saturday daytimes, on the core section of the line between Four Oaks and Longbridge, six trains per-hour operate each way, giving a ten-minute frequency of service. Of these, four northbound trains per hour continue from Four Oaks to Lichfield City, and two of these continue to Lichfield Trent Valley. Southbound three trains per hour continue from Longbridge to Redditch In detail the service consists of: 2tph from Lichfield Trent Valley to either Bromsgrove (1tph) or Redditch (1tph) – This service also calls at Shenstone which other services pass through 2tph from Lichfield City to Bromsgrove (1tph) or Redditch (1tph) 2tph from Four Oaks to Bromsgrove (1tph) or Redditch (1tph) – This service also calls at Duddeston which other services pass through This would be a great commuter route in TSW after the Cathcart Circle
TSW represents metro-style commuter routes the best in my opinion, and the Cross City Line fits perfectly into that category. The only real downside would be the lack of service layers at the moment, but would still be ok with just the Class 323.
There is scope for historical layers as you could have the period when Class 304s were operating the service straight after electrification or go back to the DMU era when it was primarily Tyseley Class 116’s but I believe at one point some of the displaced Chiltern 115s ended up on the route.