Railways around Coventry

I understand that Coventry Arena and Bermuda Park stations will open on 21 September 2015

Hi all Next stop, Wembley? London Underground tube trains could be used to sort Ricoh Arena station fiasco.

Coventry Arena (CAA) and Bermuda Park (BEP) are now both listed on the National Rail website. You can currently search up to 30th November, but no trains are currently shown as calling at the stations. The BR Fares website now has fares listed from these stations. Coventry Arena to Coventry is £3.00 Anytime return, £2.40 off-peak return (after 09:30) and £2.20 anytime single. Bermuda Park to Coventry is £5.00 Anytime return, £4.20 off-peak return (after 09:30) and £4.00 anytime single. Peter.

Change of operator for Coventry-Nuneaton line?

Hi all Still no sign of the opening of the Ricoh station. Anyone have any news on that, please?

Only that London Midland appear to be blaming Network Rail and/or Coventry City Council

WHY are London Midland blaming Network Rail and/or Coventry City Council? And who says so? It makes NO difference to them whether the stations are open or not.... as I have said previously, London Midland are purely the TOC (Train Operating Company) that currently holds the franchise that covers the branch. When both of the new stations open, London Midland are required to stop their timetabled trains at each of them, as per the published passenger service timetable. Nothing else involves London Midland. As I have mentioned previously, any comments made to the contrary on uninformed Forums should be completely disregarded. As for the important question, even the 'late' date that I was advised the project was working to now looks in jeopardy. One thing is clear is that the DfT are looking for value for money in their investment into the project and so are looking for the stations to open at the first opportunity. This can only happen once all of the work at all three stations has been completed, inspected and signed off for public use. It appears that a number of small issues at Bermuda are preventing completion..

Are you saying it makes NO difference to London Midland? That makes little sense, as the opening of two new station halts should increase their revenue streams (not by a vast sum, of course), something I would have thought they would be keen to see occur sooner rather than later As far as "uninformed Forums" are concerned, I'm sure that amongst the postings thereto there is much "informed" chat as well as some less well informed

London Midland are not involved in any way with the construction of the two new stations, or the platform extensions at Bedworth. Under the terms of their franchise, London Midland provide a 153 unit and a driver and a guard to operate it. The 153 runs ecs from Tyseley to Coventry at the start of each day and then shuttles up and down the branch until its time for it to run empty back to Tyseley for overnight servicing. Other than the operation of the train, that is the extent of London Midland's involvement. The shuttle runs up and down regardless of whether the two new stations are open or not. In doing so, London Midland are fulfilling the terms of their franchise and so qualify for the public service payment that they receive for operating the service. Please don't forget that although today's railway is supposed to be a privatised railway, run by commercial companies all of which want to make as much money as possible for themselves and their shareholders, every single one of the Passenger TOC's receive a payment from the public purse to operate the very same services... Of course London Midland will want to collect revenue from the new stations, but with both Bermuda and Coventry Arena stations being unstaffed as well as Bedworth, the single guard on the train should be very busy at times checking and issuing tickets on the short journey times between each of the stations. Only Coventry has ticket barriers to ensure that everybody who enters or leaves the station has a valid ticket. How many journeys are likely to be made - especially at times of high demand - by passengers without a valid ticket, unless London Midland provide either extra staff member(s) to assist with revenue protection on board the train or on the platforms at the Arena. The main reason for my initial response regarding 'blame' and London Midland is simply this - there is at least one person who posts on the railway Forum which I know that you follow that is neither a 'fan' of London Midland nor understands (very clearly) how the modern railway - with all of its complexities - works.... Therefore many of his (or her) posts constantly snipe at and 'blame' London Midland for just about everything. I find it amusing - no, now downright annoying - that posters STILL say that the works were completed 'a month ago' except for the finishing touches. Well, if they are still applying finishing touches, then the stations are still under construction!! Pure and simple...... As at today, the fences are still in place at Bermuda Park and Coventry Arena to prevent passenger access because the stations are still not completed. Once they have been FULLY completed the fences will be removed along with the ribbons 'preventing' access to the platform extensions at Bedworth. As I have said previously, only when all of the works have been completed can they be inspected and if all is well, can they be signed off. It is all three or none of them - the whole is being managed as a single project. Only when the stations are signed off for public use can London Midland do their bit - until then the delay is nothing to do with London Midland Trains. Nor is it Coventry City Council. If people wish to blame anyone, blame the contractor with overall control for the project. Who will no doubt blame someone else... (quite justifiably, ooops shouldn't have said that....) As I said in a previous posting, one complete PR disaster.... If this project had been properly PR managed from the outset, with REAL updates with REAL information, the nonsense that has blighted this project could have been largely avoided. But it hasn't. In my opinion, the PR as far as the Ricoh/Coventry Arena station project is concerned, now that is Coventry City Council's fault.

Thank you, Ron, for that detailed explanation that it is not London Midland's fault that the opening of the station halts has been delayed I am very glad that I didn't suggest that it was! Not quite sure how Coventry City Council can be responsible for anything pertaining to Bermuda Park, but I doubt there are many on here who wouldn't be surprised to find them responsible for some part of the overall PR disaster

Apologies, I've been working on a number of issues this morning and unfortunately a number of my emails and your posting have all run into each other. Consequently some of my responses on here and elsewhere may not make total sense... Ooops! My fault... sorry for any confusion caused. Couple of quick points - you did not suggest that the delayed station openings were London Midlands fault. Quite the contrary - you said London Midland were blaming Network Rail and/or Coventry City Council. As I asked, who said they are blaming one or the other, or both?? Have they said so in public? If so, you would know which party they were blaming, or indeed that they were blaming both.... However, the reality is London Midland cannot blame Network Rail or Coventry City Council, or even both. The stations are still under construction and therefore the blame - if people must point blame - lies with the managing contractor. Likewise, if I read you correctly, I did not suggest that Coventry City Council were responsible for anything pertaining to Bermuda Park. They're not - Bermuda Park is clearly outside of the City boundary. The delays there are also the responsibility of the managing contractor. What I said was that the PR - the Public Relations and media handling - relating to the construction of the Coventry Arena / Ricoh railway station (which to all intents and purposes is owned by Coventry City Council) has been badly handled by Coventry City Council, right from the very outset. 'Good for a quote' Ann Lucas was quick enough to be photographed when the construction work on the station started - well, she wasn't actually, the photographs were taken some weeks AFTER the work had actually started. That was a good start. It was known at the time construction was started that the current track layout and signalling could not be altered for some time to allow shuttles to operate from and to Coventry. CCC chose to say nothing which ultimately resulted in them having to defend the project as a whole some weeks back after the news finally 'broke', inferring that trains would not be stopping at the Arena at all on certain days, a situation that is far from correct.... Their silence over target date for the completion of the construction work and ultimate opening date of the Coventry Arena railway station is deafening......

Thanks for that, Ron - please do keep us up to speed with progress over the coming weeks/months/. . . .

Hi all New life for tube trains Hope you can access this. Please let me know if you cannot access. The recording is off Facebook so this is new for me to try & share what has just been posted by our local radio. It shows the trains that are being considered for the Ricoh line.

The problem with Coventry Council is that they occupy a fantasy world and seem not be able to see the reality that the government has no interest in improving train links to Coventry and this 'knuckle' thing has been virtually ignored for a decade and had no resources put into it - Coventry is destined to be a 'spoke' around the hub of Birmingham. With that goes any real chance of the economic improvements, just more draining of resources and jobs towards Birmingham and the total loss of business links between Coventry and anywhere else. Coventry will be like Bolton or Bury in a few years time. A forgotten city with 75 people an hour going between Coventry city centre and Nuneaton or to a shopping centre that's really only usable by drivers. Even the electrification of this line is being done mainly for cargo purposes. The government doesn't care at all about this city, and when it's bundled into Birmingham it'll be about as important as Selly Oak.

Hi all An interlude.