Railways around Coventry

Sadly, I was unable to make it out to see the loco today so the best I can offer are these photos taken at Leamington Spa, courtesy of my good friend Mr Clive Hanley

Hi all Viva train news.

I spent a very delightful hour watching Great British Railway Journeys last night on the TV with Mr. Portillo, I have no doubt the series may be dated to you members but after watching him walking round Coventry I became quite melancholy. Even showed some live footage of the blitz. A great programme. I shall be there with my nibbles watching and enjoying the trip next week too.

Hi all Rail franchise news.

Thank you, Philip - this will have an effect on Coventry Arena services, according to this Telegraph report

Hi all Whilst stretching our boundary considerably to Stafford, 1930s technology meets 1960s technology. It happens to be loco 46240, City of Coventry.

I listened to a programme called "Train Tracks" on Radio 4 extra recently. It was about how the sounds of the railway, especially the days of steam, have inspired composers and songwriters. There was a quite moving piece by Flanders and Swann called "The Slow Train". The lyrics are packed with some of the quaintly named stations now sadly lost. Very nostalgic and evocative of the pre-Beeching days. The song can be accessed on YouTube accompanied with photographs of those stations and halts. Worth a look. Edited by Midland Red, 8th Oct 2017 5:23 pm (Link added)

Timings for the new Kenilworth service are now on Real Time Trains The trains are currently listed as "unadvertised passenger service" and run from the timetable change on 10th December. It is an hourly service booked for a "Sprinter" DMU (150/153/155/156). The first train off Leamington is 06:08 M-Sa, 10:08 Su. The last train from Coventry is 22:43 M-F, 21:45 Sa, 22:57 Su. For the bulk of the day the timings are: Leamington d xx:00 Kenilworth d xx:08 Coventry a xx:16 Coventry d xx:36 Kenilworth d xx:44 Leamington a xx:53 These closely precede/follow the Cross Country service. The train will mostly use platform 4 both at Coventry and Leamington. At Coventry it will shunt to the Civil Engineer (Leamington line) sidings while the Cross Country service passes through. It is not possible to book tickets to Kenilworth yet so there is no guarantee that the station will open and the service start on the 10th December. Regards, Peter.

Have they reinstated a railway station in Kenilworth then? That's wonderful news and requested for many years. Where is it exactly?

The new Kenilworth station is on the site of the original station. More details here. Regards, Peter.

Thanks Peter B - it's a miracle the former site hadn't been built on and can still be in Station Road.

I'm not putting any money on it. There's still loads of work to do on that site. It was supposed to be open last December, so it's already at least one year behind schedule. They started work ages ago, and seemed to be just clearing the site for many months, working on/under the ground, i.e. no visible building construction progress. Then they mysteriously abandoned the site for at least 6 months to a year (can't remember), and no work was done at all. I've heard all sorts of reasons, including "they ran out of money, the whole project has been scrapped indefinitely"; "the contractors went bust"; "they hit unexpected snags underground with natural waterways and old sewers"; "they had to abandon work as they found bats in the old buildings, and they're a protected species". The original plans and artist's impression proudly showed two platforms, and the line doubled (the bed is wide enough), but I note that the line is still singled.

Actually, it had been built on, but only single storey/shed type buildings, as it was a builders' merchants for many years. I suspect it was relatively easy to move them out and demolish, but that had it been residential accommodation, that might have been very difficult. At one stage, the site for the new station was going to be in Piper's Lane, by the tip, but there are quite a few new houses and flats there.

From Kenilworth News: The opening of Kenilworth Station will still happen on Sunday December 10, despite rumours it could be delayed once again. Peter.

Hi all Thank you Peter for keeping us ofay with latest info. Just in case I am losing my mind & may need an ambulance, will someone else have a look at this, please? I have discovered that many local rail journeys, that are no change train journeys, appear to be the single fare price which includes the return journey, in other words half price. I have looked on two ticket web sites which confirm. For example, with my senior railcard, £2.50 is the cost of my return from the Ricoh to Nuneaton, then £7.15 on any train to Birmingham return. If I try & buy a combined journey return ticket from the Ricoh to Birmingham via Nuneaton, the total cost is more than double. The conductor on the train told me that. The reason for my journey outside the West Midlands area is because of meeting with friends, so I have not totally lost my mind on that. Besides it makes a change to travel past Old Arley & Shustoke.