Nuneaton, Bedworth & Hinckley Rail Users Group

The latest figures released by the Office of Rail Regulation have shown strong local growth in rail use in two out of the three stations we represent. Nearly 1 million people use Nuneaton station each year, an increase of 8% over the previous year. In addition, over a quarter of a million people use Nuneaton as an interchange, maintaining Nuneaton’s importance as an interchange on the strategic West Coast Mainline. Bedworth’s increase is even more spectacular, a 45% increase resulting in over 1000 people using the station every week. Only Hinckley has not recorded an increase this year. The huge increase locally in rail use over the last 5 years fully justifies both additional services on the West Coast mainline and also the new ‘Nuckle’ service, including new stations at Bermuda Park and the Ricoh Arena, which should be introduced by December 2013.

In addition to the new faster off-peak London Midland services to be introduced from December, the group is aware that new proposals by Alliance Rail to introduce fast services to and from London and the North West now appear to be more likely. Based on this evidence it shows what a poor decision it was by the Department of Transport to cut back fast services to Nuneaton in 2008. The group is also committed to campaign for improvements to the Birmingham to Leicester/Stansted line which has severe overcrowding problems, has seen no improvements and leaves Hinckley still with just a solitary hourly service.

Faster off-peak services to and from London are now likely to be introduced between Nuneaton and London from December 2012, followed by additional and faster peak services from 2014 as a result of London Midland being given the go ahead for more trains and faster trains. The main impact will be

Significantly faster trains to/from London, reduced by 21-24 minutes

The loss of regular direct services to Northamption and Watford. Both destinations will now require a change, however the overall journey time only increases slightly.

The impact to the north is not clear yet, we have asked for clarification on connections at Stafford and Stoke

Northbound off-peak services at XX.46 (same) from London, XX.53 from Nuneaton

Southbound off-peak services at XX.03 (same) from Nuneaton, XX.28 at London

Using London Midland trains at 110mph instead of 100mph releases another train path which should also mean that LM trains to Nuneaton are less crowded from London as passengers to Northampton will travel on a service following directly after the Nuneaton service.

THE government has given the go-ahead to phase 1 of the Nuckle project which will include new stations at Bermuda Park and the Ricoh, an extended platform at Bedworth and a new platform at Coventry.

The green light was given by transport secretary Justine Greening to a £9.7million bid for government funding for phase one on the NUCKLE scheme - to improve passenger services between Coventry and Nuneaton.

The new half hourly service, which will also service events at the Ricoh, are expected to be introduced in late 2013/early 2014.

This is great news for the people of Nuneaton, Bedworth and Hinckley and is something this group has been campaigning for a long time. The new services should also make travel between Coventry, Hinckley and Leicester a lot easier.

Transport Secretary Justine Greening is expected to announce today which transport projects that were given the amber light earlier this year will get funding. Included in this batch of projects is phase 1 of the Nuckle programme which would see longer, more frequent trains between Nuneaton and Coventry with two new stations at Bermuda Park and the Ricoh along with a platform extension at Bedworth and a new platform at Coventry. We hope that the Transport Secretary will be sending the people of Nuneaton and Bedworth an early Christmas present later today.

Lond Midland have announced ‘Project 110′, which will test the viability of running London Midland’s fleet of trains at 110mph instead of 100mph. London MIdland have cited several benefits from this increase in speed as a result of an extra ‘fast path’ being free’d up by trains running at 110mph. Their proposals would speed up significantly services between Nuneaton and Atherstone to London by about 30-40 minutes and also improve timings to the north. The main reason for this reduction in journey times would be the ability for the Trent Valley service to run fast from Rugby to Milton Keynes missing out Northampton. An extra service would then serve Northampton. Also included in their proposals are the increase in the number of services plugging several gaps that exist at present. We will be examining the proposals and feeding back our response to London Midland. If you have a view let us know by emailing nuneatonrug@btconnect.com.

The proposals to build a new station at Bermuda Park, based on the assumption that the new Nuckle proposal goes ahead, has now moved forward to the planning application stage. Once approved and the government approves the overall scheme it is expected that the new service would be completed in 2013.

London Midland have now withdrawn on-train catering from Saturday 27 August. A limited catering facility has been provided on some of their longer distance trains, but they have now decided this is not viable.

London Midland say that many of their services wait for around 10 minutes at Northampton and Stafford, where passengers will be able to buy refreshments from the catering outlets on the stations.

We believe that this is completely unacceptable, nearly two hours to London without any catering facilities, worse for users further north. This further strengthens our argument for the return of the fast services we lost in 2008.

Virgin Trains have agreed to operate the new Pendolino from July this year. They had originally tied in the use of any additional trains to an extension to their franchise, but have now agreed to operate this new train anyway. However the train will operate as a 9-car set so as to be compatible with the existing trains, and not the full 11-car set as delivered. There are also problems with some platforms which will need to be extended before 11 car trains can call at them.

It is intended to use this additional train on Birmingham - Glasgow workings to ease overcrowding on some of the Voyagers. Its introduction should also ease the rolling stock situation a little and hopefully lead to less cancellations due to no available trains.

To enable the recommendations on franchising made in the McNulty Report (see separate item) to be incorporated into the new West Coast franchise, The DfT has announced that the re-letting of this franchise will be delayed from April 2012 to December 2012. The department is currently in discussion with Virgin Trains about a possible extension to their franchise, but if this does not prove possible then the goverment-owned Directly Operated Railways will take over and operate the services during this period. The Department for Transport will now consult with interested parties on the draft Invitation to Tender documents, which are available by clicking here.

The report also gives backing to the upgrade of the Coventry to Nuneaton line which is currently under consideration by the government and also says that there is a strong economic case for additional services from Nuneaton to London and the North West. The report which covers services along the Trent Valley in more detail is due out shortly.