Local rail campaigner FRASER PITHIE has been among the many supporters of the scheme to reopen Kenilworth station, but has been frustrated by a succession of postponements and lack of transparency about the reasons why. He offers his personal insight into the problems
As a result of an £11.3 million funding partnership struck between Warwickshire County Council (WCC), Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership and the Department for Transport’s New Stations Fund in 2013, Kenilworth is now on the brink of having a station again. But as a long-time resident of the town, my view is of a story of woe and calamity that does not bode well for the future of similar local authority-sponsored rail enhancement schemes.
I think the best way to describe the Kenilworth station project is as a ‘dog’s breakfast’. After all, the station is more than 15 months late, 20% over its original budget, and considerable mistakes were made in its early construction.
This culminated in me sending a letter to local MP Jeremy Wright (Kenilworth, Conservative) on March 15 to request that the scheme be referred to Secretary of State for Communities and Local Communities Sajid Javid, Secretary of State Chris Grayling and the Transport Select Committee (RAIL 849).
I will now explain the reasons why…...
- For the FULL feature, read RAIL 850, available on Android/iPad from April 7, and on the shelves from April 11.
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AndrewJGwilt1989 - 07/04/2018 01:07
It said that the new Kenilworth railway station will open on the 5th April on Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenilworth_railway_station But I guarantee that it might not open until end of April or in May or even in June or July. Which I think Network Rail, West Midlands Trains and Warwickshire County Council are becoming a absolute joke by causing more delays to the planned opening which the station itself costs £13million.
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AndrewJGwilt1989 - 08/04/2018 11:11
Lea Bridge station in East London took about 2 years to rebuilt and it reopened in July without any delays. Aswell other stations that were built and opened that wasn’t delayed. It’s a shame that Network Rail, Warwickshire County Council, Warwick Borough Council and West Midlands Trains (formerly London Midland) had to cancel the proposed opening of Kenilworth railway station 4 times. I bet the people who lives in Kenilworth, Warwickshire were complaining about were the station that was going to open but I reckon they took their complaints on Twitter, Facebook and/or sent emails to these companies/authorities or to the local MPs about it.
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