Two new stations: Bermuda Park and Coventry (previously Ricoh) Arena

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Interesting to note the UPS involvement in the land at St George's way....and of the number of jobs they say it will create should their new logistics facility plan be allowed to go ahead.

 

[nuneatonmark]

Update in today's Nuneaton local rag

I'm no Tory but Marcus Jones has tried hard to keep this on track, it's the two councils, one labour, one tory who have been totally useless. As for the UPS site 100 jobs vs car parking spaces. Warwickshire CC are mad, the area desperately needs more jobs, who knows whether the station needs more car parking or not, maybe if they opened it we might find out. If it is a problem there must be a better solution than taking away productive land for jobs.

 

[swt_passenger]

But surely the project to build the two stations is physically all but complete, so the funds have been spent? I don't see that this part of the project has anything to do with the Hendy report, the work has already happened?

 

[LesF]

SWT, the two new stations are just the first phase of NuCKLe. It's all they had the money for. The next stage is the bay plat at Coventry to take trains from Nuneaton and to keep them off the main line. Until that's done, the service frequency can't be increased. The service frequency can't be increased anyway until there is stock available to run it. That in turn depends on electrification releasing diesel stock. And electrification is running late. How did we manage to build a new temp station in one week flat at Workington when the road bridge was washed away?
It also depends on a new pedestrian walkway being built under Warwick Road to get passengers from the new bay plat to the station proper. That's part of a major scheme to increase the passenger capacity of Cov station where numbers have doubled and are expected to double again.
Kenilworth station is getting near reality and is the K in NuCKLe.
The slow progress is frustrating, but don't expect it all to happen at once.

 

[swt_passenger]

SWT, the two new stations are just the first phase of NuCKLe. It's all they had the money for. The next stage is the bay plat at Coventry to take trains from Nuneaton and to keep them off the main line.

Thanks for the clarification. You'd possibly agree the quoted stuff didn't really get that main point across.

 

[GazUk]

Just out of interest, if the plan is to have a bay platform the otherside of the warwick rd bridge, is there sufficient space for the creation of a platform saying how close the car park is at the retail park to the rail lines?
Or does network rail or even Virgin trains own that land where the car park is,because if not I can't see a retail company wanting to give up space where shoppers park their cars for a creation of a platform!

 

[swt_passenger]

IIRC the space for the bay platform already exists within the railway boundary. There will be a new public underpass under the road, leaving the existing pedestrian route in the paid area.

 

[OwlMan]

Planning permission for Bermuda Park has been sorted

PLANS to install a mini-roundabout near to a new train station in Nuneaton have been scrapped.
Warwickshire County Council had planned to build a new mini-roundabout at the north west end of St George's Way, near to the new Bermuda Train Station.
In fact, it was originally stipulated that the island had to be in place before the long-awaited station could be opened.
As previously reported, the opening of the station has been dogged by delays and some sections of the community have suggested that the reason that the public cannot hop on-board there yet is because the roundabout has not been installed.
But the News has since found out that the county council has now scrapped the plans for the roundabout, and the delay in the opening of the station remains a Network Rail issue.
The reason why Shire Hall has dumped the roundabout plan is because if the controversial Bermuda Connectivity Project gets the go-ahead, it would have to be removed.
The waste to the public purse, spending around £200,000 on the island for it to be potentially removed prompted the county to have a re-think, and abandon the plans altogether.
So while the mystery surrounding the mini-roundabout has been solved, the actual opening date of the new station remains unknown.
At the last time of asking, the News was informed that the station is likely to be open in the New Year.
Once opened, the new station at Bermuda is expected to provide improved links to Coventry, including a new station at the Ricoh Arena.
The creation of the new stations, as well as extending the platform at Bedworth station, form part of a major scheme to improve rail links between the borough and the neighbouring city.

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  Read more: http://www.nuneaton-news.co.uk/Plan...tory-28385993-detail/story.html#ixzz3ufcUjLPX ​

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[nuneatonmark]

Rumour has it that at least one station will open on 4th January! Keep your eyes peeled for flying pigs though.

 

[Republic]

Hi folks, maybe you can help me.

I'm sure I remember reading somewhere that NUN is being 're-re-named' Nuneaton Trent Valley as a result of the NUCKLE project. However I can't seem to find where I read it for the life of me.

To make matters worse, I'm a regular commuter on the West Coast Nuneaton-London line and I'm 80% sure the conductor announced "Nuneaton Trent Valley" as the stop recently.

I was tired and distracted however.

So, am I dreaming or is it happening?

 

[nuneatonmark]

Hi folks, maybe you can help me.

I'm sure I remember reading somewhere that NUN is being 're-re-named' Nuneaton Trent Valley as a result of the NUCKLE project. However I can't seem to find where I read it for the life of me.

To make matters worse, I'm a regular commuter on the West Coast Nuneaton-London line and I'm 80% sure the conductor announced "Nuneaton Trent Valley" as the stop recently.

I was tired and distracted however.

So, am I dreaming or is it happening?

Well partly dreaming! Afaik there are no plans to rename it, but the trent valley bit is a relic from when there were two stations in Nuneaton, the other being Nuneaton abbey street which closed in 1968. Many people, including taxi drivers and railway staff, still refer to it as 'nuneaton trent valley'. Bermuda park will not include nuneaton in it's name so no need to differentiate it.

 

[LesF]

"Bermuda park will not include nuneaton in its name so no need to differentiate it."
But OK to have two Coventry stations?
"I'll meet you at Coventry station".
"Which one?"
Coventry Arena is a poor choice of name. If they had called it Arena Coventry there would be no problem. True, there are numerous similar names and a few identical ones for different stations, but there was no need to create more confusion.
The matter of the station name will pale into insignificance when you see what they are planning at the real Coventry station.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
GazUK said: "Just out of interest, if the plan is to have a bay platform the otherside of the warwick rd bridge, is there sufficient space for the creation of a platform saying how close the car park is at the retail park to the rail lines?
Or does network rail or even Virgin trains own that land where the car park is,because if not I can't see a retail company wanting to give up space where shoppers park their cars for a creation of a platform!"
There's bags of rail land available and one siding is already there. It's electrified. In an early plan there was a choice of one or two bay plats for Nuneaton trains. Centro told me they were going for just one plat. By the time the next phase gets off the ground they may revert to two plats.
The idea of building a pedestrian tunnel under Warwick Road arose from the problem of football crowds trying to get through the narrow passage where plat 1 is divided by a fence to keep paid passengers on the plat separate from the public through way. It was considered unsafe by the official whose job was created in the wake of the Hillsborough disaster. NuCKLe was planned to get round this by a flight of steps up from the Nuneaton bay plat to Warwick Road and back down the existing steps into Cov station. Thankfully it was deferred. There would be no need for plat 1 to be divided if the proposed bus station and multi-storey car park are built on the station side of Warwick Road. Only paid passengers would then use plat 1. The Rocket pub has been demolished so there's a square site to build on. The large surface car park between the railway and Central Six shops can be sold for development.
In the long term, a flyover will be needed to connect the Nuneaton line with the L Spa line without obstructing the main line. Not difficult; all on railway land, below the level of Spencer Park, and can be built without disrupting main line traffic.
SWT: I agree the newspaper article about Marcus Jones was misleading. It was just a bit of PR and didn't achieve anything.

There is a proposal to start a Coventry area rail users group and I'll post more about it after I've talked with the chap behind it.

 

[The Planner]

Depending what happens with the timetable post 2026 then you may not need grade seperation.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

"Bermuda park will not include Nuneaton in its name so no need to differentiate it."
But OK to have two Coventry stations?
"I'll meet you at Coventry station".
"Which one?"

I really would like to know the percentage of people you honestly expect that hypothetical conversation to take place in-between.

Coventry is a city with its main station having a last reported annual footfall figure of well over six million which is well known to all and sundry and to suggest that a small sports stadium railway station could even remotely be a cause for confusion with the main station is stretching the bounds of credulity far too far. The stadium railway station will NOT just be known as Coventry.

I suggest if the two people in this hypothetical scenario were to be confused, it would be solely as a result of them not making matters clear in their discussion in the first place, by making reference to the station in question with its correct name.

 

[LesF]

Paul Sidorczuk: the confusion caused by similar station names is nothing to do with the sizes of the stations; it's caused by a lack of clear differentiation in the names. The same problem arose when Warwick Parkway was built - Warwick station should have been changed to Warwick Town or something equally distinctive. Warwickshire County council, who pioneered Warwick Parkway, wanted this change but it didn't happen.
When I used to commute between Coventry and Birmingham, people sometimes asked when we were approaching International, "Is this Birmingham?" I had to explain, "This is Birmingham International for the airport and the NEC. If you want the city of Birmingham, stay on the train". Thankfully there isn't a station named just "Birmingham". Virgin proposed to change the name of International and that would have made sense considering that Birmingham Airport has dropped International from its name.

The Planner: agreed we won't need a flyover at Coventry if the number of services doesn't increase. But that isn't consistent with the doubled number of passengers at Cov station that's forecast to double again, the proposal to reroute the Reading-Newcastle XC via Cov, the proposal for the electric spine and the claim that HS2 would free up capacity for extra services on the classic network. Given that HS2's sums include the £8.3bn they expect to save by CUTTING existing services, the fact that electrification hasn't turned out to be the easy win it was supposed to be, the plummeting price of oil and the plummeting amount of rail freight, it looks like nothing will change for the better.

 

[Class 170101]

There won't be extra services on the classic network. HS2 doesn't create any additional paths of the WCML. What it does (in theory) is remove existing Virgin West Coast services between London and Birmingham / Manchester / Liverpool / North Wales from the WCML to allow other destinations and intermediate stations to be served on the existing network.

 

[azz7008]

Paul Sidorczuk: the confusion caused by similar station names is nothing to do with the sizes of the stations; it's caused by a lack of clear differentiation in the names. The same problem arose when Warwick Parkway was built - Warwick station should have been changed to Warwick Town or something equally distinctive. Warwickshire County council, who pioneered Warwick Parkway, wanted this change but it didn't happen.

I'm not sure I agree regarding the part in bold. Everybody in the local area and almost certainly further afield know that Warwick Parkway is not in Warwick town centre. In fact I have never seen anybody at parkway looking confused and wanting Warwick, but I do not travel as much in the summer months.

The main problem I find is people that want Warwick get on a train (usually the xx.55 from Moor St.) and then find themselves in Leamington Spa because that train only usually stops at Parkway. This ignorance wouldn't change even if the station was called Warwick Town etc.

 

[Cherry_Picker]

I'm not sure I agree regarding the part in bold. Everybody in the local area and almost certainly further afield know that Warwick Parkway is not in Warwick town centre. In fact I have never seen anybody at parkway looking confused and wanting Warwick, but I do not travel as much in the summer months.

The main problem I find is people that want Warwick get on a train (usually the xx.55 from Moor St.) and then find themselves in Leamington Spa because that train only usually stops at Parkway. This ignorance wouldn't change even if the station was called Warwick Town etc.

I can assure you that you do get a lot of people asking about Warwick and Warwick Parkway, particularly those travelling into Warwickshire from the London end of the line. It doesn't appear to be as big an issue as it was when Warwick Parkway first opened but it's still there.

However, I'm not sure the Warwick to Warwick Parkway or Birmingham New Street to Birmingham International examples are comparable to the Coventry Arena question. Coventry Arena is on a branch line, if you use passenger numbers as a guide for where people are changing then 6.5m journeys at the Coventry end of the line compared to 1m journeys at the Nuneaton end strongly suggests that most people will be travelling along that line will have had to visit Coventry station first anyway. They will know they are in the city when they are there.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Can anyone say EXACTLY what has been decided upon for the OFFICIAL name of the proposed station at the arena.

 

[HLE]

Coventry Arena.

Signs have been up for six months, like the rest of it just gathering dust.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Coventry Arena.

Signs have been up for six months, like the rest of it just gathering dust.

Perhaps, that now being the case, the title of this thread should be suitably altered to reflect the actuality of the situation.

 

[GazUk]

I can assure you that you do get a lot of people asking about Warwick and Warwick Parkway, particularly those travelling into Warwickshire from the London end of the line. It doesn't appear to be as big an issue as it was when Warwick Parkway first opened but it's still there.

However, I'm not sure the Warwick to Warwick Parkway or Birmingham New Street to Birmingham International examples are comparable to the Coventry Arena question. Coventry Arena is on a branch line, if you use passenger numbers as a guide for where people are changing then 6.5m journeys at the Coventry end of the line compared to 1m journeys at the Nuneaton end strongly suggests that most people will be travelling along that line will have had to visit Coventry station first anyway. They will know they are in the city when they are there.

You always know when you've arrived in Coventry But I am sure for those who were wanting to travel to Coventry Arena, i.e the football and rugger fans would know where they would be going on matchdays, oh hold on second they can't can they?

I read report a few weeks ago that the roundabout at the Bermuda Park station has now been scrapped by WCC , and the opening of the station is a Network rail issue, and no one else's, that was according to the coventry telegraph.

So the question is now, 2 stations are good to go, who really is is holding back the openings of them now?

 

[HLE]

You always know when you've arrived in Coventry But I am sure for those who were wanting to travel to Coventry Arena, i.e the football and rugger fans would know where they would be going on matchdays, oh hold on second they can't can they?

I read report a few weeks ago that the roundabout at the Bermuda Park station has now been scrapped by WCC , and the opening of the station is a Network rail issue, and no one else's, that was according to the coventry telegraph.

So the question is now, 2 stations are good to go, who really is is holding back the openings of them now?

The local rag missed the vital point. Even if WCC decided the mini roundabout was no longer required, it was still a condition of the planning consent. You cannot simply ignore it. To remove it requires a separate application (see up thread). Opening the station couldn't happen because they would then be breaching their own regs!

As for an opening date, well the other week (think it was the 21/12) according to a Network Rail publication, the stations were open as of 0001! So unless they've retracted that then the stations are actually open as far as Network Rail are concerned.

The thing no one seems to question is this 'issue' that's apparently holding up opening. None of the people involved in the project are prepared to reveal what the delay is. Which leads my slightly suspicious mind to think they're trying to hide something. Truth will out eventually.

There is still a security guard on site at the arena, with the fencing still in place at both stations. At what cost to the Coventry taxpayer?

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Rumour has it that at least one station will open on 4th January! Keep your eyes peeled for flying pigs though.

It is now 5th January 2016. I notice your cunning plan of not adding an actual year to the date in your posting....

 

[HLE]

It is now 5th January 2016. I notice your cunning plan of not adding an actual year to the date in your posting....

Messroom rumour is they've been handed over to LM and we'll be stopping there soon.

But it was messroom rumour that they would be open on the 21st September 2015 so certainly shouldn't be taken as gospel.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Latest rumour is Monday.

Fences being taken down at Coventry Arena, with around a dozen contractors on site.

Biggest hive of activity for months.

 

[nuneatonmark]

Hmmm, I may take a trip down to Bermuda Park and see what's going on. The fences coming down does sound more promising.

What's the chances they will open on Monday and close on Friday when they find the platforms are too high or they've used the wrong paint or someone somewhere has not signed a piece of paper.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

What's the chances they will open on Monday and close on Friday when they find the platforms are too high or they've used the wrong paint or someone somewhere has not signed a piece of paper.

Well, Monday, 11th January 2016 has now arrived. What is the current situation now.

 

[nuneatonmark]

Well, Monday, 11th January 2016 has now arrived. What is the current situation now.

I know that this will come as a massive surprise to everyone but both stations are not, at present, open.

 

[HLE]

Well I did think it was optimistic.

The 11th was only a messroom whisper. Was interesting to see a load of contractors on site and the fences being taken down.

Was informed that apparently real time trains at the start of January listed the 18th as the first day of the new stations being called at. It then got changed to the 11th last week apparently. Just had a look and it now says the 25th

Unsure how reliable that is - I take it RTT just downloads the schedule from NRE?

 

[LAX54]

TRUST has trains stopping at the Arena from 11th Jan (to 22.01) under STP timings.