Coventry to Nuneaton rail upgrade given go ahead

[wintonian]

Plans to build two new railway stations and increase train services between Coventry and Nuneaton have been given the go-ahead by the government.

The blueprint for the upgraded rail link includes stations at the Ricoh Arena and Bermuda Park in Nuneaton.

The Department for Transport is putting £9.8m towards a total cost of £18.8m.

Warwickshire County Council, which has approved the proposals, said longer platforms would also be built at Bedworth.

Marcus Jones, Conservative MP for Nuneaton, described it as "fantastic news" that would be "so helpful" to the local Coventry and Warwickshire economy.

"In Nuneaton we, as everywhere, have got numbers of young people particularly that are unemployed.

"Those young people often don't have their own transport and this transport link will allow them to access jobs further afield," Mr Jones added.

The Coventry to Nuneaton rail upgrade was one of 21 transport schemes announced by the government on Wednesday

Auntie Beeb

I see most of the money went to road projects More Auntie Beeb

 

[tbtc]

Auntie Beeb

I see most of the money went to road projects More Auntie Beeb

In Sheffield, £19.4m will be spent on the first phase of a bus "rapid transit" scheme along the Don Valley towards Rotherham

A complete waste of time - the council only want this to justify a new road under the M1 at Tinsley...

Good news for Coventry/Nuneaton though - always seemed a strange line not to be electrified.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Watford-Croxley Link approved as well.

 

[Eagle]

And still no money for Kenilworth station... :roll:

I mean the landowner's willing, planning permission exists, Network Rail are on board with it... just give Kenilworth a couple million quid and we'll build a station right away!

 

[BlythPower]

Trouble is, the pro-station campaigners have never said what trains they expect to serve the station. There's only CrossCountry passes through and I can't imagine they'd be too keen. Could always hitch a ride on a FreightLiner...

 

[Eagle]

Trouble is, the pro-station campaigners have never said what trains they expect to serve the station. There's only CrossCountry passes through and I can't imagine they'd be too keen. Could always hitch a ride on a FreightLiner...

Think the plans were either extend the Nuneaton–Coventry shuttle to Leamington (not sure it'd fit in), or divert the XC away from Solihull (possibly as a path swap with Freightliner—not sure how that would actually work) and stop one of the 2tph through Kenilworth.

 

[The Planner]

Was always the idea for a bay platform at Cov if the frequency was to be increased. Would need partial re-doubling of Cov - Leamington if Kenilworth and the extra XC is to come off.

 

[matt]

Some good news for Coventry, Bedworth and Nuneaton. Also is finally ends the ridiculous situation of the Ricoh Arena being right next to the railway but not having a station. Will London Midland have enough units to run an increased service?

 

[Eagle]

Some good news for Coventry, Bedworth and Nuneaton. Also is finally ends the ridiculous situation of the Ricoh Arena being right next to the railway but not having a station. Will London Midland have enough units to run an increased service?

I'm sure they can find one extra 153 somewhere

 

[Ivo]

DfT Announcement (from www.parliament.uk)

So Bath's BRT system is in, which is not a surprise in all honesty (it's not really a BRT system at all which is half the reason I'm not rewally opposed to it; the other half is that something is needed), but Southend is neither in nor out! As with Leeds there is "insufficient evidence to allow us to assess the schemes’ value for money", with the authorities being given until March 31st to come up with further evidence. Which means I will give either an excellent birthday present (they give up) or an unwelcome one (they still push for it)...

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Good news indeed

This has been bounced about for ages; I'm glad to see some proper news on it at last.

 

[GingerSte]

I would an hourly pattern of

• Birmingham-Nuneaton-Coventry
• Nuneaton-Coventry
• Possibly one extra Nuneaton-Coventry to provide a third hourly service

would do the trick.

This is based on a bay platform at Coventry, which I would imagine is the easiest thing to do while avoiding clashes with other existing services.

You've then got a direct Kenilworth-Birmingham service (I imagine most people living in Kenilworth would be working in Coventry or Birmingham, or commuting perhaps to London), and you could move the Water Orton stop from the Birmingham-Leicester route and speed it up (or add another service if you want).

 

[tbtc]

the ridiculous situation of the Ricoh Arena being right next to the railway but not having a station

There are some grounds that have been around a lot longer than the Ricoh which have railways passing outside but no station. Really the money should have been given for a station to be opened when the ground opened there though.

 

[Ivo]

I would an hourly pattern of

• Birmingham-Nuneaton-Coventry
• Nuneaton-Coventry
• Possibly one extra Nuneaton-Coventry to provide a third hourly service

would do the trick.

This is based on a bay platform at Coventry, which I would imagine is the easiest thing to do while avoiding clashes with other existing services.

You've then got a direct Kenilworth-Birmingham service (I imagine most people living in Kenilworth would be working in Coventry or Birmingham, or commuting perhaps to London), and you could move the Water Orton stop from the Birmingham-Leicester route and speed it up (or add another service if you want).

Are you sure you mean Kenilworth and not Bedworth? I'm sure one bird-like character would be most upset, your post implies that his town already has a station...

 

[MidnightFlyer]

There are some grounds that have been around a lot longer than the Ricoh which have railways passing outside but no station. Really the money should have been given for a station to be opened when the ground opened there though.

The Madejski Stadium in Reading and the New Meadow in Shrewsbury spring to mind. The former is alongside the Reading-Basingstoke line and the latter alongside the Shrewsbury-Craven Arms line. There were proposals for a station at Reading Green Park (near the Madejski), but then the recession hit. As for Shrewsbury, I believe there are about 100 car parking spaces near the ground, and anyone else has to walk or get a bus (at £2 each way I think) from car parks either in the town centre or miles the other away!

 

[Eagle]

I imagine most people living in Kenilworth would be working in Coventry or Birmingham, or commuting perhaps to London

This bit's true though :P

 

[Cherry_Picker]

There are some grounds that have been around a lot longer than the Ricoh which have railways passing outside but no station. Really the money should have been given for a station to be opened when the ground opened there though.

It's not just the stadium either. There is a massive retail park on the site, and having a station there will attract shoppers.

 

[swt_passenger]

Was always the idea for a bay platform at Cov if the frequency was to be increased. Would need partial re-doubling of Cov - Leamington if Kenilworth and the extra XC is to come off.

I think we may have discussed this before, but this scheme has always seemed odd to me, coupling together the Nuneaton - Coventry and Kenilworth - Leamington issues.

AIUI, the new bay at Coventry is being built to take the shuttle trains off the main line and remove platform conflicts, but running anything extra through Coventry wouldn't make use of the new bay platform at all.

Even with maximum redoubling Kenilworth can only ever really be dealt with as a XC addon - unless a further bay was built at Coventry on the down side? But through services are highly unlikely, hence my belief that joining the two projects together might have been ill-advised, as it made the whole thing appear too complex...

 

[GingerSte]

Are you sure you mean Kenilworth and not Bedworth? I'm sure one bird-like character would be most upset, your post implies that his town already has a station...

Sorry - confusing my Coventry-Nuneaton line with my Coventry-Leamington line.

 

[The Planner]

AIUI, the new bay at Coventry is being built to take the shuttle trains off the main line and remove platform conflicts, but running anything extra through Coventry wouldn't make use of the new bay platform at all.

Even with maximum redoubling Kenilworth can only ever really be dealt with as a XC addon - unless a further bay was built at Coventry on the down side? But through services are highly unlikely, hence my belief that joining the two projects together might have been ill-advised, as it made the whole thing appear too complex...

It depends on what bright ideas they have about frequency, it was mooted for a 20 minute frequency from Nuneaton to Cov. Depending on what Kenilworth is expecting you could technically extend one of those per hour to go through and still use the bay for the other two services.

 

[4SRKT]

Ooh good. My employer's national hub is at Bermuda Park and this will make getting there by train very easy. I was there on Monday and had to get collected from Nuneaton.

The current crappy hourly service will need augmenting and sending somewhere other than just Nuneaton > Cov though. I like the idea of the a Brum > Nuneaton > Cov service, with the advantage of an additional service each hour to Coleshill Parkway and getting the Water Orton stop out of the XCs to Leicester.

 

[Eagle]

It depends on what bright ideas they have about frequency, it was mooted for a 20 minute frequency from Nuneaton to Cov.

Depends how much extra demand the upgrade brings. Every time I've used it there have been less than 15 people on board the service (although I understand it gets busy in the mornings).

 

[matt]

Depends how much extra demand the upgrade brings. Every time I've used it there have been less than 15 people on board the service (although I understand it gets busy in the mornings).

If there is a better service than its fairly likely more people will use it.

 

[Ivo]

Depends how much extra demand the upgrade brings. Every time I've used it there have been less than 15 people on board the service (although I understand it gets busy in the mornings).

If there is a better service than its fairly likely more people will use it.

You're both local, so go and find out! You can report back to us on what you think would happen with an improved service.

And before anyone suggests I'm suggesting something unreasonable, I did just this for my Uni last week. And it put me off joyriding on buses for a few days. (Shudder...)

 

[Eagle]

Well it'll be competing with the bizarrely-named Stagecoach Matrix, and look at the frequency of that...
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

You're both local, so go and find out!

I'm only local till Saturday afternoon.

 

[Ivo]

Well it'll be competing with the bizarrely-named Stagecoach Matrix, and look at the frequency of that...

That is one of the most incomprehensible bus timetables I have ever seen...!

The Avocet Line seems to do OK against stiff SC bus competition (also numbered 57), so why not the Bedworth route?

 

[Philip Elliott]

The West Midlands RUS suggested a Worcester - Nuneaton service which could easily be extended to Coventry. Centro want stations at Fort Parkway, Castle Bromwich and Arley & Fillongley. Add in Stockingford to serve the western suburbs of Nuneaton (Stockingford, Whittleford, Galley Common, Ansley Common etc) and travel through North Warwickshire will be a lot better.

 

[swt_passenger]

Was always the idea for a bay platform at Cov if the frequency was to be increased. Would need partial re-doubling of Cov - Leamington if Kenilworth and the extra XC is to come off.

The Coventry to Leamington redoubling (for freight and the second XC) has two pages in the CP5 'project definition' document.

I see from the DfT spreadsheet though that they have re-named this project, as per this thread's title:

Coventry-Nuneaton Rail Upgrade
(formerly known as NUCKLE)

so it would seem to have had a reduction in scope to the practical end of the line, as I touched on in an earlier post. If the local councils wait until the proposed CP5 enhancement is complete, the business case for Kenilworth Station will be somewhat different...

 

[giblets]

I note that this is defined as "NUCKLE - Phase 1", are there any documents outlining phase 2, or is that redoubling Cov-Ken?

 

[Class172]

You're both local, so go and find out! You can report back to us on what you think would happen with an improved service.

I go to Cov and Nuneaton a lot so at some point I will use the line.

Great news for the area, north Coventry will now have access to a rail station, without having to wind your way down to J6 of the ring-road (where the station is).