Nuneaton, Bedworth and Hinckley RUG hit the local headlines with the story about improvements to the Nuneaton to Coventry line. Local politicians appear to be have been caught ‘on the hop’, with some defending the decision to spend millions on a single station in Stratford while the key transport artery between Nuneaton and Coventry withers under a barrage of road traffic. We urge all local people to keep up the pressure on local councillors.
The huge gap between rail services in the south of Warwickshire and the north widened even further recently with the announcement that Leamington will gain 4 additional fast trains to and from London now that Chiltern have taken over the open access operator - Wrexham and Shropshire. This will allow 4 trains a day to stop at Leamington when previously they were not allowed to. Journey times are expected to be about 1hr 25m. Chiltern have also launched their Evergreen 4 project to reduce all journey times between London and Birmingham which will further increase the gap between north and south Warwickshire. There are no firm plans for any improvements to rail services to Nuneaton, Bedworth or Hinckley in the foreseeable future.
A RUG spokesman said ‘Improving the Nuneaton to Coventry line is much better value for money than the Stratford Parkway station. We could have seen major improvements to one of the most important and under-invested transport arteries in Warwickshire and West Midlands, instead our county council ploughs millions into rail projects in the south of the county while services in the north continue to stagnate or decline and roads get busier and busier. £11m must be considered excellent value for money considering the massive benefits that this report has highlighted. We urge all of our local county councillors to make sure this scheme is brought to the top the agenda and given the backing it needs, which could result in a much better service in less than a year. It appears to us that Coventry council are more interested in this scheme than Warwickshire, which says a lot about transport priorities in Warwickshire’.
The Rail User Group is intending to step up the pressure on local politicians to come out an actively support our campaign to improve the Nuneaton to Bedworth service which will also benefit rail users in Hinckley through better connections to the Leicester line.
I have obtained a copy of the secret report about upgrading the Nuneaton to coventry service including the cost of new stations and track works.
I am very keen that this gets started as soon as possible and would hope we could have a bay platform at Coventry quickly.
http://www.greennuneaton.org.uk/nbrug_web/CovNunreport.pdf
I am also keen that they do not “gold plate” the plans so they come out too costly. Talk of six car trains seems excessive. Even a two car train, twice an hour would give 300% more capacity.
After submitting a complaint to to London Midland, we have received assurances from London Midland that many more low density 350/1 Desiros will be used from January 2010.
London Midland have confirmed that the catering ‘trial’ which has already been in place for a year will continue for another year until the end of 2010. Once again, the people of Nuneaton have been stitched up by the Department for Transport! How can a trial of something as basic as catering last TWO YEARS! From London to Crewe without even a chance of a cup of tea!
We are also disappointed that London Midland have decided to withdraw seat reservations and we see this as a clear indication that the trains and the service are not fit for long distance operations. London Midland have also confirmed that the availability of cheaper fares should become better, which we welcome and that car parking provision is going to be looked at again.
The people using London Midland cannot now even expect a ’standard’ class of service, it appears we are only worthy of a ‘third class service’. Please protest to your councillor and MP about the appalling treatment of passengers from Nuneaton.
PLEASE NOTE THIS IS A CORRECTION TO THE PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED POST.
Nuneaton, Bedworth and Hinckley Rail User Group, on behalf of our members, wish to register the following complaint regarding the London Midland service from Nuneaton along the Trent Valley route. Our complaint centres on the following points.
Nuneaton, Bedworth and Hinckley Rail User Group welcomes Open Access Aspirations which could bring more services to Nuneaton and Tamworth.
Please read the full story below.
Filed 25/09/09
Open access rail promoter Ian Yeowart has announced plans to resurrect the GNER brand name and operate new train services along the West and East Coast main lines.
Yeowart, who led development of the Grand Central venture, has submitted proposals to the Office of Rail Regulation to run a GNER service between London King’s Cross and Sheffield/Huddersfield and a GNWR service between London Euston and Yorkshire and north west England. Alliance Rail Holdings, which owns GNER and GNWR subsidiary firms, is aiming to have trains running by 2014.
As part of the plans, the two companies would provide cash to improve facilities at stations situated near motorways which Alliance believes have the potential to be designated as parkway stations.
Applications by GNER and GNWR to run trains are being made at an early stage to allow industry consultation to take place, and to ensure that the extra services can be delivered towards the end of Control Period 4, during which time capacity issues on both the West Coast and East Coast main lines are expected to have been resolved.
GNER is proposing the introduction of four new services each day between London King’s Cross and Sheffield/Huddersfield and four daily services between King’s Cross and Grimsby/Cleethorpes. In addition, it wants to introduce an inter-city service between Hull and Liverpool via the Calder Valley.
Sister company GNWR has submitted plans to the ORR for a trio of services on the West Coast Main Line which would provide direct links between London Euston and Huddersfield/Leeds; Euston and Halifax/Bradford; and Euston and Carlisle via Barrow and the Cumbrian Coast.
The proposed services are designed to bring new direct rail links to areas that have been either without such a link for many years, or have recently seen their services downgraded. They will also introduce an element of on-track competition, which Yeowart says has been seen to work on the East Coast Main Line with open access services provided by Hull Trains and Grand Central competing against the franchised operator. However, on the West Coast passengers have been unable to benefit in the same way due to protection from competition which the current franchise holder, Virgin Trains, enjoys until 2011.
Given the minimum lead time of three years for the delivery of new rolling stock, GNER and GNWR are starting to develop plans now. The West Coast franchise is due to be re-let in 2012, providing an opportunity to allow open access services to supplement trains run by the new franchise holder.
Ian Yeowart, founder of Grand Central Railway Company and now a director of Alliance Rail Holdings, said: “It is clear that where new services have been created, the spin-off benefits for existing consumers and passengers have been massive and well received. With both GNER and GNWR looking to introduce new high-quality rolling stock, the lessons of comfort, affordability and simplicity of purchase are well understood and the many stakeholders we have will help in ensuring the quality of the rolling stock meets passenger expectations.
“While Virgin Trains currently operates a high frequency service on the WCML route, there are many large and important locations that are poorly served or not served at all. Open access is the opportunity for those communities to see their links restored and at the same time provide some much needed consumer choice.”
Management from Sea Containers’ now defunct GNER East Coast franchise are not involved with the new GNER open access bid.
Is it IN, or is it OUT or is it being shaken all about by the politicians? This is the question over improvements to the Nuneaton to Coventry service. The West Midlands RUS has said improvements to the service were very important, but the DfT says there’s no business case for new stations at the Ricoh and Bermuda Park plus a new platform at Coventry and more frequent services. It appears much easier to get improvements in South Warwickshire though, the go ahead has been given for new stations at Kenilworth and Stratford parkway, partly funded by Warwickshire County Council. Yet again, the people of Nuneaton and Bedworth may miss out on improvements to rail services!!
Lord Adonis has made it clear that he would welcome dialogue with MPs about concerns over rail services. We have challenged our two local MPs - Bill Olner and David Tredinnick to stand up for Nuneaton, Bedworth and Hinckley and get a meeting with Lord Adonis as soon as possible. We have had a swift response from Tredinnick but nothing so far from Olner.
Milton Keynes Rail Users Group is attempting to pull together all of the towns where stops have been cut to put pressure on the Government and Virgin Trains to re-instate stops that were cut from December 2008 and have resulted in many off peak service running half empty or worse. The main stations affected were Watford, Milton Keynes, Rugby, Nuneaton, Stafford and Crewe. We will be showing our support to this initiative by MK Rail Users.