Coventry To Leicester In A Flash? New Rail Plans Promise Faster, Greener Travel!
The title of this post, is the same as this article on Rail Technology Magazine.
This is the sub-heading.
Passengers travelling between Coventry, Leicester and Nottingham have outlined their support for proposed upgrades to reconnect the cities by direct rail for the first time in over two decades.
These first two paragraphs add some detail.
Despite being located just 23 miles apart, travelling between the cities requires passengers to change trains in Nuneaton, with wait times for the connection often exceeding 30 minutes. As a result, just 3% of trips between Coventry and Leicester are made by train; compared to 30% of journeys made between Coventry and Birmingham.
Midlands Connect recently visited Nuneaton railway station to speak with passengers travelling between the cities, waiting for their onward connection, about the proposed upgrades and how they would be impacted.
This OpenRailwayMap shows the route between Coventry and Leicester.
Note.
- Coventry is in the South-West corner of the map.
- Leicester is in the North-East corner of the map.
- Nuneaton, where you currently have to change trains,is marked by a blue arrow.
- The red track passing through Nuneaton station, is the Trent Valley Line.
Services between Coventry, Leicester and Nuneaton are run by two companies.
- CrossCountry run a half-hourly service between between Birmingham New Street and Leicester via Nuneaton.
- West Midlands Trains run an hourly service between Leamington Spa and Nuneaton via Coventry.
I feel ideally, that Leicester and Coventry need a half-hourly service, but an hourly service would be easy and a half-hourly service would mean a four-trains per hour (tph) service between Leicester and Nuneaton.
Probably, the easiest service would be to extend the hourly Leamington Spa and Nuneaton to Leicester, with a reverse at Nuneaton.
What Does The Article Mean By Greener Trains?
I would expect the article means battery-electric trains, but the only mention is in the title.
Could Leicester And Coventry Be Served By Battery-Electric Trains?
This OpenRailwayMap shows the track layout at Nuneaton station.
And this OpenRailwayMap shows the track layout at Coventry station.
As electrified tracks are shown in red, it would appear that all tracks at both stations are electrified.
The platforms at Coventry and Nuneaton, may be good enough for a quick Splash and Dash, but trains don’t spend long enough in the stations for a full charge.
- Perhaps the solution is to install one of Siemens’s Rail Charging Converters in Leamington Spa and Leicester stations.
- The distance between Leamington Spa and Leicester stations is 48.3 miles, which is well within the range of a battery-electric train.
- Leamington Spa and Nuneaton takes 38 minutes.
- Leicester and Nuneaton takes 27 minutes.
I feel an efficient hourly service could be created between Leicester and Leamington Spa using battery-electric trains.
Onward To Nottingham
Nottingham is another 27.5 miles from Leicester and currently takes 48 minutes in a Class 170 train.
Connections To The North-West And Scotland At Coventry And Nuneaton
They are good and could be more numerous and better.
Could Hydrogen-Powered Trains Be Used?
Yes! If a UK hydrogen-powered train existed!
Cost Of The Project
As reasonably modern trains happily use the route between Leamington Spa and Leicester every day, I suspect that little needs to be done on the full route to create a new service.
So the cost of the project would be sufficient new battery-electric trains and the ability to charge them at Leamington Spa and Leicester.
Conclusion
I believe that Coventry and Leicester would be an easy route to run using an hourly battery-electric train.
It could be extended to Leamington Spa at one end and Nottingham at the other.
Arena Specials Make Loss
This is the headline in a news item in the May 2015 Edition of Modern Railways.
It describes how the locomotive-hauled services to Coventry Arena station to serve rugby matches at the nearby stadium have not been a success.
Reading the item in the magazine, makes me think that building this station and providing a match-day service, might not have been properly thought through.
It now looks like an expensive special train hired at a cost of tens of thousands of pounds isn’t the answer.
I don’t think that this station will see reasonable levels of use, until the Coventry to Nuneaton Line is electrified and the shuttle is run by a four-car electrical multiple unit.
Electrification is at least likely to happen, to allow electrically-hauled freight trains to use the route.
A Ride From Nuneaton To Coventry In A London Midland Class 306 Train
I went to Nuneaton station and then took the Coventry to Nuneaton Line to see the new stations at Bermuda Park and Coventry Arena before changing at Coventry for Birmingham. I took these pictures from the train.
Both new stations have two similar platforms, so I only photographed one at each station.
All platforms seem to be able to take at least a three car train, but the Coventry-facing platform at Coventry Arena station can take six card to handle events. I also suspect that selective door opening on modern trains like Electrostars can allow longer trains to call.
The train was actually two Class 153 trains, which explains the Class 306 train.
The line may be electrified in future, as it is used by freight trains, but if Network Rail get their act together, I can see the passenger service on this line using IPEMUs. Especially, when Kenilworth station is reopened on the Coventry to Leamington Line.
Unless the two lines are electrified, freight would still be diesel-hauled. A Class 88 locomotive could be used, so that where there is electrification.freight trains could be electric-hauled. But they seem to be taking a long time to arrive!
Is This Rail Project Going Nowhere?
There are no good vibes coming from the Coventry Arena station.
This article on the Coventry Telegraph web site is entitled Ricoh Arena station matchday fiasco could see new train operator take over Nuneaton to Coventry line. This is said.
London Midland says it will have to close the station for an hour after games and major events as it can only provide an hourly service for 75 people due to a lack of trains.
But the DfT has invested about £4.75m towards the £13.6m of improvements along the line and is keen to see the route used to its full potential.
I have used three stations regularly to go to see football in the last year; Ipswich, Norwich and Brighton. These three grounds are all about the same size as the Ricoh Arena and have nearby stations that can cope with large crowds. Both Ipswich and Norwich are commuter stations and run half-hourly eight-coach trains amongst others, away from the grounds. Brighton is a new ground and the service relies on four-coach trains going in both directions to clear the spectators. Of the three Brighton is probably the most crowded.
So I would think that it essential that at least four-car trains should be provided at the Ricoh Arena to ferry passengers to Coventry and Nuneaton.
Six car trains would be better, but as many passengers would just be ferried to Coventry, four would probably be enough.
It strikes me that whoever planned this line, never went to see football or rugby at a stadium close to a rail station. Close to Coventry, Aston Villa, Birmingham, Walsall, West Bromwich and Wolverhampton all have stadiums within walking distance of a station.
Another article in the Coventry Telegraph is entitled London Underground tube trains could be used to sort Ricoh Arena station fiasco.
These Vivarail trains may be a solution, if two three-car units can be coupled together.
But are the platforms long enough to accept a six-car train?
I have found a document entitled Coventry Arena Specific Safety Management Plans, which has been produced by Arup.
In an Appendix, the report details how the fans will be transferred between Coventry and Coventry Arena stations.
An additional shuttle service will operate between Coventry and Coventry Arena on certain event days, at 30 minute intervals. This will provide a 15 minute interval service between the two stations. All services will be scheduled to run from the Up platform at Coventry Arena and platforms 1 or 2 at Coventry (though in times of operational disruption these services can use platform 5). All services will be formed by DMU sets of a maximum of 6 cars. Platforms at Coventry Arena and Platform 5 at Coventry are configured for this length; the other platforms at Coventry can accommodate longer trains.
At least the platforms are long enough!
So it looks to me that no-one told London Midland.
The Anonymous Widower 