Wolverhampton train station is just the start of the regeneration journey

The release of new images of a revamped, gleaming and modern rail station for Wolverhampton should give confidence that after many years of waiting and frustrating knock backs, a much needed transport 'interchange' is within grasp.

Wolverhampton needed this building a decade ago. Back then, on its own, it might have been enough to act as the catalyst for renewal.

But the city and the wider Black Country cannot be defined simply by the means by which people arrive and leave.

To truly regenerate Wolverhampton for the 21st century and beyond, it needs radical thinking and something to not just bring businesses and customers, but keep them, too.

It is time to tackle run down shops, bulldoze the derelict buildings and provide the blank canvas that those with the money to invest will need to create the businesses of the future.

It is time to create an attractive walkway leading from the railway station, up Lichfield Street and into Queen Square. Queen Square itself must become the place where visitors flock to open air events and concerts.

This city has proved it can do it.

One only has to remember the enormous crowds that turned out on a bitterly cold night to watch One Direction perform while they were just X-Factor finalists.

It is time to seize the moment.

Times remain hard in the public sector. The mass walkout by thousands of workers today only serves to underline the belief of many that they are already working beyond the call of duty for inadequate reward.

But the pressing need for change transcends politics and industrial relations.

Councillors complaining about funding cuts still have a duty to use all the means at their disposal to create the circumstances that will bring about the good times.

It does not all come down to public money. Much can be achieved by getting out the message that this is a city open to new businessand prepared to cut any red tape.

The rebuilding of the train station is the first step on a long journey towards the renaissance of Wolverhampton and the Black Country.

It starts now.

We need an answer to the obesity crisis

We cannot go on living like this. Almost 70 per cent of adults in Wolverhampton are overweight or obese, according to very worrying figures.

More than half of the city's residents are taking no exercise at all.

This ticking time bomb comes in an age when more of us are living longer.

The result of an ageing population is more people requiring constant care for years. People young enough to work and lead active lives only put further pressure on the health service by such self-destructive ways.

Obesity, for many people, is not caused by illness or genetics.

There will, of course, be cases where it is, as well as cases where obesity is as much a matter of mental health as it is of the body. But many of us could avoid the pain and misery it brings by simply taking better care of ourselves.

Those who can take responsibility for our health must do so out of duty to the most vulnerable people in society who need the National Health Service more.

Wolverhampton's director of public health, Ros Jervis, says that simply telling people to eat less and move more is not the answer.

For many, it is at least a start.