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!

Letters to Dartford Garage

Yes, I'm talking about the fleet codes of the new Arriva Southern Counties buses for the 229, and the existing ones for the 469. Arriva Southern Counties (London), until recently, had all-number codes.

Arriva Southern Counties T315 on Route 229, Queen Mary's Hospital (© Aubrey)

Route 229 changed over from London Central at Bexleyheath to Arriva Southern Counties at Dartford on the 23rd January 2016.


Arriva Southern Counties T305 on Route 229, Abbey Wood (© Aubrey)

Ordered is a load of possibly some of the last new Enviro 400s that are not MMC, especially in London as new MMCs have been in service since the start of 2015.


Arriva Southern Counties T317 on Route 229, Abbey Wood (© Aubrey)

Yep, this bus paraded presumably with a powerblind failure. Then again, the destination is visible, so it could be worse.


Arriva Southern Counties T302 on Route 229, Bexleyheath (© Aubrey)

It had been under London Central since Bexleybus (subsidiary of Selkent) was removed by London Regional Transport back in January 1991 when they lost the tender (and Bexleyheath Garage) to London Central. Then for 25 years, it was with London Central until it moved to Dartford with Arriva Kent Thameside (Southern Counties).


Arriva Southern Counties T308 on Route 229, Thamesmead (© Aubrey)

Don't worry, it's a blind scroll.
The route started as the first new double decker route with a 2xx number back in 1951, running a short way within Sidcup. At it's furthest extent, it ran Woolwich-Farnborough. It gained its current route in 1994 when it was extended from Erith to Thamesmead. Apart from instances where the Sunday service was single deck, the route has been double deck for the whole of its existence.


Arriva Southern Counties T307 on Route 229, Queen Mary's Hospital (© Aubrey)

The other route to move to Arriva Southern Counties is the newer 469, transferring also on the same day.


Arriva Southern Counties ENL9 on Route 469, Abbey Wood (© Aubrey)

Initially, Route 469 is to use the Enviro 200s from the withdrawal of Route T31.


Arriva Southern Counties 4002 on Route 469, Queen Elizabeth Hospital (© Aubrey)

However, normal fleet Enviro 200s that are coded the ASC way are also on the 469 as well, intermixed with the ex-T31 buses.


Arriva Southern Counties ENL10 on Route 469 & Stagecoach London 34382 on Route 291, Queen Elizabeth Hospital (© Aubrey)

It had been under ELBG/Stagecoach London (Plumstead) since January 2009, when it moved from London Central's Bexleyheath Garage. It had been at Bexleyheath Garage from inception in 1988 as a Bexleyheath-Queen Elizabeth Hospital service. In 2009, it had been withdrawn to run only to Erith as it was replaced by the 99 extended via the 469.


Arriva Southern Counties 4069 on Route 469, Abbey Wood (© Aubrey)

Most of the buses on the 469 are older than the Stagecoach buses they replaced. However, this bus is younger than the old Stagecoach contract, one of few that are that can go on the 469.


Arriva Southern Counties 3999 on Route 469, Abbey Wood (© Aubrey)

Other than a few hiccups here and there, the bus routes were generally run to an acceptable level, with bunching on the 229 fairly visible. Assumed that since the first day, things are starting to settle down to a usual service.

Trams on the Streets (of Birmingham)

On the 6th December 2015 (yeah, this is late), the Midland Metro opened its extension from St Paul's, the first extension since its opening on 31st May 1999.

NX-Midland Metro 33, Birmingham Snow Hill (© Aubrey)

This shows the dark depths of Snow Hill, the extension is on the ex-road to the right of the tram in the photo. This section closed on the 25th October 2015 to allow work to occur to divert the trams instead via the new Snow Hill Metro Station which is on the bridge approach to Snow Hill to Bull Street.


NX Midland Metro 24, Bull Street (© Aubrey)

On the 6th December, the new extension opened to some fanfare. This is the first time since 1953 that trams are on the streets of Birmingham.


Midland Metro Route Map (© Aubrey)

Bull Street already shows the Grand Central-New Street Station and Corporation Street Stations, still under construction. The platforms at New Street are definitely close to finishing, but asphalt keeps on being put on top of the tram tracks at the moment for a ramp to the pavement.


Tracks to New Street (CC Aubrey)

Yeah, it looks like a load of cones at the moment, but in a few months time, this will be trams running to New Street.


NX Midland Metro 27, Bull Street (© Aubrey)

Here is more of the road running, with the traffic lights behind showing the start of the road running of the trams. Traffic is stopped (or trams) to let the other thing go through.

This video from the first day (by Anthony Gumm) shows the operations of the first day, including that junction and a view of the then still under construction Snow Hill station:



(The Snow Hill shots are an editing error.)

Yeah, it's the same trams as in the photos.


NX Midland Metro 18, Bull Street (© Aubrey)

Don't ask what's standing by the door. Anyhow, the station is just like most Midland Metro stations, with no ticket selling facilities (all done by a ticket seller on the tram)

The Midland Metro is a protracted scheme from what was supposed to be many more lines than this one, hence this is called Line One of the Midland Metro. Line 2 (Birmingham-Airport (and possibly Coventry)) and Line 3 (Wolverhampton-Walsall) still are not built after being planned by Centro when the Midland Metro was in planning.