Midlands Connect has renewed the strategic case for a direct rail service between Coventry and Leicester and Nottingham.
Historically there were direct rail services between Coventry and Leicester, but these services were stopped in the early 21st Century when the West Coast Mainline was upgraded and it wasn’t safe to have trains cross this line.
Since then, it has been necessary to change trains at Nuneaton and the journey time is 55 minutes towards Leicester and 68 minutes towards Coventry. A comparable car journey is 45 minutes and as a result less than 3% of inter-city journeys are made by train, compared with 32% of journeys between Coventry and Birmingham.
The group has studied two alternative proposals.
The first option (Option A) is a fast direct service between Coventry, Leicester and Nottingham that would also stop at Hinckley and Loughborough, bypassing Nuneaton. This option would give a Coventry to Leicester journey time of 30-35 minutes.
The second option (Option B) would be a slower, more comprehensive service that would stop at all stations on the line, including the Arena, Bedworth and Nuneaton. With this option the journey time from Coventry to Leicester would be 47 minutes.
Both options require a grade separated structure to cross the West Coast mainline at Nuneaton, known as a “diveunder”.
The fast option would also include a speed upgrade from 45mph to 60 mph on the Coventry – Nuneaton stretch of the line. Both options require new platforms at Coventry and Leicester and additional capacity work at Nottingham.
Midlands Connect has modelled the economic benefit of both options. This modelling shows a benefit-cost ratio of around 2 for the fast option. This rises to 3.5 when the potential benefits to rail freight are included. This comes within the high value for money category.
The slower option shows a benefit-cost ration of just under 2 and comes within the medium value for money category.
Midlands Connect favours the fast, direct route that avoids Nuneaton.
The plans were discussed at a conference in Coventry held last week. The proposal for the Coventry – Leicester link were supported by Mary Creagh MP, who is the Member for Parliament for Coventry East as well as a junior Environment Minister.
There is still a lot of work to be done before any of this becomes reality. The Strategic Outline Business Case has to be approved by the Railway Network Enhancements Pipeline who will provide funding to produce an Outline Business Case which would be considered by the West Coast South & Central Programme Board before approval by the Department for Transport.
However, the scheme does seem to have a good tie in with the Government’s growth agenda, so things look hopeful. The Government has also promised to cut through bureaucracy to get growth schemes on the ground, so we will see.