Proposed Leamington Parkway and Kenilworth Stations

[giblets]

Reading my Local Leamington Courier, there was an interesting piece on the proposed Kenilworth Station, something I know has been discussed before, and still being worked on.

What really peeked my interest was a proposed Leamington Parkway station, designed to help with some proposed housing developments.

It is proposed that both of these could be tacked on to the Nuckle (nuneaton- Coventry) rail scheme.

Sadly there is no link to the story online.

 

[The Planner]

It is going to be difficult enough to make Kenilworth work, let alone another station. It would also mean Nuckle being re-worked as that only works with a bay platform at Coventry.

 

[Eagle]

It is going to be difficult enough to make Kenilworth work, let alone another station.

All the necessary planning permission and other clearances were granted for Kenilworth back in April 2011; it's just that no-one is able to actually pay for it at the moment.

 

[PhilipW]

Is the proposed Kenilworth station conditional on any double tracking taking place at the same time ?

 

[Eagle]

Is the proposed Kenilworth station conditional on any double tracking taking place at the same time?

The station would be two platforms, so I assume this would at a minimum involve extending the double tracking from the current points behind Arthur Street to just south of the station.

Diagrams
Planning application




Here is the consultancy's design statement document, which is a lot clearer as to what the plan is.

 

[swt_passenger]

It is going to be difficult enough to make Kenilworth work, let alone another station. It would also mean Nuckle being re-worked as that only works with a bay platform at Coventry.

IIRC from one of the previous times we discussed the project formerly known as Nuckle, that it had been accepted by the sponsoring local authorities that it could not possibly operate across Coventry, and for this reason the approved (and DfT funded) 'Nuckle phase 1' is now usually just referred to as the 'Coventry-Nuneaton Rail Upgrade'?

So the local media still repeatedly referring to 'Nuckle' gives a misleading impression of service possibilities. ISTM that Kenilworth will basically be a new XC call - and so would a Leamington (North) Parkway.

Is this a good way of packing out XC services with even more local travellers - so must hopefully coincide with the NR CP5 plan to run both XC south coast services that way?

 

[The Planner]

Last I saw was a proposal for double tracking Milverton to Kenilworth to make it work, shame they forgot that it removes a 775m capable loop for freight doing that until it was pointed out to them. Apparently caused some head scratching and retreating to the drawing board. Northbound Kenilworth isn't too much of a problem as the XC tend to sit for a few minutes at Coventry, southbound is trickier.

 

[Jollycam]

I guess the suggestion of a Leamington Parkway Station comes from Warwick District Council's New Local Plan for housing development which is currently out for consultation. It does include possible improvements to transport infrastructure across the district (and there's plans for 2000 homes to be built north of Leamington). There's no mention of any new stations (with the exception of Kenilworth) although the plan does include potential new roads and a Park and Ride for north Leamington.

Therefore I'm guessing no-one's really thought about Leamington Parkway Station in any real detail, and given the timescales that the policy is to be implemented over (18 years) there's no real rush either. It'll also be another 2 years for the plan to be accepted.

For anyone interested, the plan is here.

 

[Eagle]

Also calling it Leamington Parkway is pretty silly as it is not, by any reasonable definition, a parkway station. Unless parkway has been redefined again and now just means "outskirts". Please, call it Milverton (or even just Leamington North).

Anyway Leamington already effectively has a parkway: Warwick Parkway.

 

[Jollycam]

Story mentioned in the OP now on-line here.

 

[calc7]

Very interesting - I used to live in North Leamington when I was at uni.

Concentrating on the CKLE bit of NUCKLE...would it be a MAN-BMH XC to running LMS-LMN*-KNW**-COV or a local stopper?

*my code for Leamington North
**my code for Kenilworth

 

[The Planner]

It would be a XC if Kenilworth ever gets to fruition, and if it ever works out it would either be a Newcastle - Reading or Manchester - Bomo. I think Leamington North is just a pipe dream.

 

[Eagle]

Concentrating on the CKLE bit of NUCKLE...would it be a MAN-BMH XC to running LMS-LMN-KNW-COV or a local stopper?

The line between Coventry and Leamington being mainly single track, there's only space for two trains each way an hour (currently one XC and one Freightliner).

If you wanted a stopper you'd have to remove the freight train and send it through Solihull—and as it's usually a train from Southampton Docks to some NW England freight terminal, the arrangement of lines in Birmingham means it then either has to go through New Street (not happening) or take a really circuitous route via the Sutton Park line.

Kenilworth will only really work as an XC stop, unfortunately. In fact, I think it was part of Arriva's franchise bid to help develop the station with the council.

 

[mattyb1405]

It's a shame that the the University of Warwick wasn't just a little a bit closer to the Leamington - Coventry line, as that and surrounding businesses would probably benefit from a station near to the Gibbett Hill (also close to the A46) area of Coventry... as it is I think it is about equi-distance between Tile Hill station and Gibbett Hill (not there would be room for a station there!)