Railways around Coventry

Philip, Welcome to the wonderful world of railway ticketing. All the fares from the Ricoh (Coventry Arena) to Birmingham are routed "Via Coventry". Therefore, as you found, you need to buy two tickets. The national rail ticketing software only seems able to sell combinations of single tickets in these circumstances. National Rail is showing the single fare, with railcard, as £9.45 (£2.40 Arena-Nuneaton + £7.05 Nuneaton-Birmingham) so the official return fare is £18.90, slightly less than twice what you paid. When cheap off-peak fares were introduced, there were initially only on return tickets. On several journeys the off-peak discount was more than 50% so the off peak return was less than the (anytime) single fare. This resulted in people making off peak single journeys being sold return tickets. While saving money, they thought they were being conned, as they were only using half the ticket. This lead to the introduction of Off-Peak single tickets at 10p less than the return fare. There is a route "Any Permitted" fare from Coventry Arena to Coleshill Parkway of £12.90 (£8.50 with Railcard) which would allow you to travel out via Nuneaton and back via Birmingham/Coventry. There is also a cheaper "via Nuneaton" ticket which won't be valid via Birmingham. The train has to stop at Coleshill Parkway, but they all do. For some mad reason there is a Coventry Arena to Nuneaton via Birmingham fare! Regards, Peter. (if you think you understand railway ticketing, you've misunderstood the question).

Hi Peter & thank you Pam was going to ring for an ambulance for me, but I am comfortable following on from a bowl of porridge. A party of ladies from Bedworth & Nuneaton are travelling to Birmingham for a shopping treat on Monday & are delighted with their, in effect, half-fare cost travelling, even after a decade of complaining that they do not get free bus-pass local rail travel like those of us who are resident in the West Midlands conurbation. Obviously, the West Midlands bus-pass rail freebee is just a perk & could be withdrawn at anytime, but I have at least enjoyed a decade of free local rail travel. For anyone outside the West Midlands the bus-rail-tram daytripper does the same as the bus pass. If I am freewheeling, in other words just out for a pleasant day, a scenario might be for the just past ten stopper to New St from Coventry, coffee 'n' muffin break, tram to either Jewellery Quarter or The Hawthorns, so as to exchange on to the Snow Hill/Moor St. line, then, it's anyone's guess whether I travel west towards Stourbridge or east towards Dorridge. Then a choice of either train or bus routes back home. Whilst all of that is free travel, it's not unknown for me to buy a bolt-on ticket on a train & continue out of the West Midlands in any direction. I have my own what I call good or bad weather routes, but as I sometimes reply to passengers, if the roof doesn't leak we will be ok. I am well overdue a trip with one of my forum friends who does now live further afield, so I am mindful of that, but you know how to contact me if you do fancy a trip time. The problem for me is I am over hooked with my volunteering work at present, but that maybe coming to an end or at least slimming down substantially very soon. My friend & I have enjoyed some really good trip times, we went to Crewe once, not for trainspotting I might add, we went for fish & chips where I was introduced to it served with curry sauce. I don't have it any other way now!! We have had high tea here & there, & solved a few Agatha Christie crimes in passing. ps. Even during wintertime, if the weather is fair, sat in a sun trap out of the way of anyone else, this for me is a feast. This was from a chippy just fifty yards from Dorridge station.

(near Daimler Road) The Rail Adhesion ("Sandite") Train has been operating every day this month between Nuneaton and Coventry. It sprays an adhesive sand mixture onto the rails to improve grip during the leaf fall season. It arrives Coventry Yard at 09:15 and departs back for Nuneaton at 10:04. Despite this: "Passengers terrified as Coventry train 'overshoots station' - because of wrong kind of leaves" (Coventry Telegraph). The incident was yesterday (23rd October) and the train left Bedworth 18 minutes late. Peter.

I went to have a look at Kenilworth station today as the line was closed for engineering work. The main work being done was relaying the single track adjacent to the new platform. There is also a new "loop entry" signal just visible under the new footbridge. This will working tomorrow as the track has been relayed across the site of its predecessor. The station building is a windowless shell, there are temporary doors on the lifts on the new footbridge and the whole site is still waiting for tarmac to be applied. With only six weeks until 10th December, the opening date is looking very optimistic. Peter.

Thanks for the information, Peter I do wonder why this project was actually conceived and what use the station will be

Coventry Station masterplan

Rowleys Green c.2001

City of Coventry in full cry.

I had a butcher's at Kenilworth station earlier today. The track has been slewed so that it now meets the one and only platform which is on the side of the line by the new station building. Tons of ballast have been dropped in preparation for the second track which has yet to appear. And there's no sign yet of the second platform. I can't see the station being ready for the winter solstice, let alone the 10th December 2017. The project is already at least a year late. But then Kenilworth is only a one-horse town!

The draft post HS2 timetable has a half-hourly Birmingham-Coventry-Leamington (electric?) service and the Manchester-Reading Cross Country service that currently runs (non-stop) via Solihull diverted to run via Coventry and Birmingham International. There is also a desire to increase the number of freight trains. This is not currently possible with the single line sections either side of Kenilworth Loop. Even the Coventry-Leamington shuttle to be introduced in December (ish) could impact on timekeeping. Doubling the whole line gives the most capacity, but loses the ability for passenger trains to overtake slower freight trains at Kenilworth Loop. The loops at Leamington station are too short for most freight trains. The £2 million is only for a study to look at the options and see which one gives the "best value". This may not accommodate all the desired dervices. Peter.

Kenilworth News: Opening of Kenilworth Station with full service 'severely in doubt' The Track Access Agreement (London & Birmingham Railway) has not been approved yet. Monday 19th February is suggested as a possible start date. Originally planned for a class 153 (like the Coventry-Nuneaton service) it is now planned to use a 2/3 car class 172 unit (either London Overground or Snow Hill lines). Peter.

Amazing. I've heard all sorts of reason/excuses about why the project is taking so long, work was abandoned for 12 months etc., and now they're trying to say that the different railway companies cannot agree on track access or timetabling; and so late in the day. This would never have happened when the railways were nationalised. The government is now talking of investing billions in a "reverse-Beeching" operation, to restore some of the lines and stations that were axed under Beeching in the sixties, in a typical balance-sheet-mentality short-term exercise that one would expect from MPs bless their cotton socks. Rail travel is now at an all time high. The network is strained. We went to Brum and back last Saturday and had to stand on both journeys. The London Midland train was like the Central line during rush hour.

The Office of Rail and Road has published the 2016-17 station usage estimates (2015-16 figures in brackets) Bedworth 85,310 (83,086) Bermuda Park 20,106 (2,384)* Berkswell 317,164 (294,946) Birmingham New Street 42,366,776 (39,077,018) Birmingham International 6,468,034 (5,772,848) Canley 378,844 (327,550) Coventry 7,377,584 (6,921,432) Coventry Arena 86,706 (11,964)* Hampton-in-Arden 160,636 (144,692) Leamington Spa 2,553,868 (2,433,782) London Euston 44,059,402 (41,677,870) Nuneaton 1,286,020 (1,236,492) Rugby 2,447,026 (2,281,588) Tile Hill 664,282 (629,248) Wolverhampton 4,920,356 (4,746,338) *Station not open for full year All stations show an increase in usage. Coventry saw a 5% increase in passengers, continuing the trend for a number of years, and remains the second busiest station in the West Midlands. Canley had the largest increase at 15%, but I can't think of any reason to explain this. Coventry Arena is now busier than Bedworth and so should probably be considered a succcess. Bermuda Park seems to be doing quite well given its location. Birmingham New Street (+8%) remains the busiest station outside London and the 6th business nationally. Peter.

Kenilworth News: Kenilworth Station's opening delayed until February next year The delay to the opening of Kenilworth Station has finally been confirmed. The press release has much that could be questioned in it. I would be amazed if the station was "complete" given the state it was in 4 weeks ago, but I haven't been to look recently. Peter.

Here we go again. More blame, excuses and passing the buck from councillors and government. Haven't they heard of planning ahead? It's not as if they haven't had bags of time to get it sorted. Par for the course. There were still workmen working people on site at 2000 hrs last night.