New Stations, New Problems

On Monday 18th January 2016, the long awaited Coventry Arena and Bermuda Park stations on the Coventry-Nuneaton line opened for passengers. Funded by Centro, Coventry City Council, Warwickshire County Council, Department for Transport and the European Regional Development Fund, these are the two newest stations which have been amidst controversy and questions about the service level. The current service level is every hour, deemed insufficient.

On Wednesday 20th January 2016, Aubrey cleared the line, along with the new stations.

Coventry Arena Station (© Aubrey)

The first station from Coventry Station is Coventry Arena. It is built to serve the Ricoh Arena (seen in the photo), home of Coventry City FC and Wasps RFC.


Queuing Section (© Aubrey)

There is a queuing section for sports fans after the football/rugby matches to queue for trains to go to Coventry Station for connections. However, during match days, the trains don't stop there. There is however a reason why:


London Midland 153366, Coventry (CC Aubrey)

One coach 153s are the norm on the Coventry to Nuneaton line. Sometimes there are two 153 units. They aren't designed to shift large crowds of people. There is insufficient rolling stock for services to stop at Coventry Arena to get people home from events at the complex. Coventry City Council are looking to use Class 230s (D78 Stock) to help with loadings, but they are not available until at least 2017.


Queuing Section (©Aubrey)

Platform 2 is 6 coach long, but only up to three coach lengths will be used as the rest of the line has platforms that are three coach long (including Platform 1). This is for the non-existent event crowds that will be forced to travel by other means home. This means that the desolate queuing area will be empty for now.


 
Help Point (© Aubrey)

Within the first few days of the stations opening, erm... Nothing worked. The help points didn't help, and the ticket machines didn't sell tickets. Neither of them worked.
This is the same at the second station that opened on the same day.


Bermuda Park Station (© Aubrey)

Bermuda Park is another unmanned basic station, with a ton load of ramps to allow accessibility to the platforms, as seen behind the sign.


Platform 2 (© Aubrey)

On the other side, on Platform 2, the stairs and the ramp are shown.
Bermuda Park is a station built for the Bermuda Park Industrial Estate.


Platform 1 (© Aubrey)

It has platforms long enough for three coaches (3 153s coupled?), but it is just a basic station serving an industrial estate. It is near some housing in Bermuda, south of Nuneaton Town Centre, so it will serve those places as well.


London Midland 153354, Nuneaton (© Aubrey)

This service does not connect with the Crewe-Euston service of London Midland, which means that the line isn't exactly suitable for connections at the Nuneaton end. The hourly service means that this little 153 trundles with the same crew back and forth between Coventry and Nuneaton, only now with serving more stations than just Bedworth.
Future stations include the station at Kenilworth on the Coventry-Leamington Spa line, with the possibility that this service would be extended from Coventry to Leamington Spa. And that'll be interesting.

Overall, the execution hasn't been so good for the line, especially with Coventry Arena, with the continuous delays to opening these stations. Now they are open, and hopefully this investment will be worthwhile for a long time.


Platform PIS at Coventry (© Aubrey)

One more thing - at Coventry Station, do they know the existence of the names Coventry Arena and Bermuda Park yet? Well, they partly do, it seems!