Kenilworth station Opened 30th April 2018

[matt]

Wasn't quite so busy first thing yesterday. Only 3 people on the 0636 from Coventry and the 0700 from Leamington looked empty.

 

[jeremyjh]

Not much to be in Leamington for at 7am on a Saturday. Even if you work in a shop there you won’t need to be in that early in most cases. Also worth bearing in mind that connections to Chiltern services aren’t good at Leamington for passengers from Kenilworth.

 

[boxy321]

With Motorfest and The Rolling Stones playing on Saturday at the Ricoh I'm not suprised it was busy!

 

[james60059]

Sorry for resurrecting an old thread,

Just a personal observation from this evening, to end my 3-in-7 Rover, I was on the unit which was the 18:00 departure off of Leamington (left 7 late) and the Class 153 was full, although everyone was seated. 15 got off at Kenilworth and 8 got on.

Off topic, I'll do my trip reports from Day 2 and 3 over the course of the weekend.

 

[InOban]

And sadly I see that the first fatality, presumably suicide, has occurred.

 

[Adam Williams]

Don't think it's been mentioned here yet, but the plan to run through to Nuneaton using 172 DMUs from December has been delayed until May - reasons cited are a lack of rolling stock and scaled back timetable changes. Bit of a shame.

West Midlands Trains confirmed this meant planned improvements to Kenilworth services in December - which included Sunday services and direct services though to Nuneaton - would now be held back until May 2019.

It is also unlikely that faster two-carriage train units, known as 'Class 172s', will be available in December either. This means capacity is unlilkely to be increase until May 2019.

The services still seem to be getting a lot of use in spite of the small fare increases, though.

Can't see the SL bus service surviving long-term however, since it's very poorly used.

 

[swt_passenger]

I think most people are well aware that the majority of the expected 172s are still in day to day use in London, hence the lack of discussion here in this thread, which is about the infrastructure. The stock issues and ensuing delays have definitely been mentioned in the rolling stock forum.

 

[BantamMenace]

Can't see the SL bus service surviving long-term however, since it's very poorly used.

Not sure which bus it is you’re referring to but the X18 bus from Coventry to Stratford via Leamington is always heavily advertised on my social media and I haven’t googled it so it can only be a targeted ad based on my location. Never known a bus route be advertised this heavily so it must be feeling the affects of the train service.

 

[trains2064]

I think most people are well aware that the majority of the expected 172s are still in day to day use in London, hence the lack of discussion here in this thread, which is about the infrastructure. The stock issues and ensuing delays have definitely been mentioned in the rolling stock forum.

172002 arrived at Tyseley from Ilford in Mid December. Another has been of lease for a number of weeks. The last 6 came of lease on 31/12/18.

 

[HLE]

There's an agreement in place with LO to progressively release the remaining 6 172's by the end of March.

If the training isn't complete by May, the direct Nuneaton to leamington service will presumably run using the existing 153's to start with. Direct trains to Leamington start in May as per RTT

 

[Adam Williams]

Not sure which bus it is you’re referring to but the X18 bus from Coventry to Stratford via Leamington is always heavily advertised on my social media and I haven’t googled it so it can only be a targeted ad based on my location. Never known a bus route be advertised this heavily so it must be feeling the affects of the train service.

I was referring to the subsidised Kenilworth station link service in my original post, but I think Stagecoach and National Express probably do feel a bit threatened by the rail service.

Of course, for the X18 (which doesn't go via Kenilworth), there were always the XC services from/to Coventry & Leam that passengers could use - though there will now be more frequent services as a result of Kenilworth. But I suspect the X17 and 11 in particular have seen a reduction in use - a return from KNW->LMS/COV on the 11 is £4 vs a £2 off-peak return on the train and the journey takes probably 4 times as long..

 

[trains2064]

There's an agreement in place with LO to progressively release the remaining 6 172's by the end of March.

If the training isn't complete by May, the direct Nuneaton to leamington service will presumably run using the existing 153's to start with. Direct trains to Leamington start in May as per RTT

710’s on all services today.

 

[Class 170101]

710’s on all services today.

Sorry?

710s on what services?

Do you mean 170s on Leaminton to Coventry and Coventry to Nuneaton services?

 

[trains2064]

Sorry?

710s on what services?

Do you mean 170s on Leaminton to Coventry and Coventry to Nuneaton services?

No the GOBLIN has 710s. 172/0 finished on 31/12/18 as London Overground weren’t allowed to keep them.

 

[Class 170101]

No the GOBLIN has 710s. 172/0 finished on 31/12/18 as LOROL weren’t allowed to keep them.

No 710s are currently running on the GOBLIN (or anywhere else) as they aren't fit for service.

 

[swt_passenger]

172002 arrived at Tyseley from Ilford in Mid December. Another has been of lease for a number of weeks. The last 6 came of lease on 31/12/18.

Yes I know, but what you and following posters have now done is to launch another discussion about 172 issues, and it isn’t really needed in a dormant thread about building Kenilworth Station...

 

[swt_passenger]

No the GOBLIN has 710s. 172/0 finished on 31/12/18 as London Overground weren’t allowed to keep them.

They most certainly did keep them.

 

[yorkie]

This thread is to discuss the opening of Kenilworth station.

If anyone wishes to discuss abythany else please use a different thread.