Kenilworth mayor and secretary of regional rail user group express concerns over rail services being cancelled for town due to Covid-19

West Midlands Railway (WMR) announced yesterday (Monday January 11) that will begin running an amended timetable from next week - and this includes replacing trains between Leamington and Kenilworth with a bus service.WMR said the decision was made in order to "keep key workers moving during the current national lockdown".

In response, Cllr Dickson said: "As a local Councillor I share concerns about the service at the station and, whilst I understand the problems caused by COVID-19, the importance of the train service for local residents and visitors to the town in helping them travel in a way consistent with our climate change emergency objectives is vital.

"The train station was the biggest single capital investment ever in the town so I hope West Midlands Railways, working with the County Council, can restore the service as soon as possible.

"As a local Councillor I've expressed my concern to both and asked for reassurance about their future plans and strategy for restoration of the service."

Fraser Pithe, who lives in Kenilworth and is secretary of a Warwickshire and West Midlands-based rail user g broup and freelance features writer for The Railway Magazine said”Despite the prevailing unreliability, that’s been demonstrated manifests itself every year from the school holidays up to Christmas, the independently operated small business led Kenilworth booking office built up a good and sound passenger base.

"Despite this, the unchecked and persistent unreliability by the Train Operator, West Midlands Trains, decimated the passenger base before Covid-19 struck early last year, this led to the Booking Office struggling because regular passengers wouldn’t put up with it any longer.

"Effectively, three years of persistent unreliability and a perceived lack of commitment to the local service (it's always the first that's cancelled or stopped) by WMT when there are issue has all but erased regular rail passenger patronage at Kenilworth.

"If we are to address the need for a return on over £13 million of public investment and more importantly provide a satisfactory level of access for passengers wishing to use the national rail network and its services from and to Kenilworth then a different and ready to implement solution is needed. As early as August 2018 some of us suggested the hourly Manchester - Bournemouth Cross Country Trains (XC) that runs through Kenilworth should stop. AC services would give passengers using the station direct services with Birmingham, Manchester, Oxford, Reading and beyond, greatly increasing passenger connectivity and Kenilworth station's revenue.

"The County Council, who did so much to get a station built and reopened at Kenilworth need to be all over this and be pressing the DfT and XC to stop XC services at Kenilworth. After the pandemic, we will need to be much more efficient at using and utilising assets and all existing train services more effectively.

"The Kenilworth situation speaks to that, the success of Kenilworth's railway station and its booking office now depends on XC services calling at our station.

"Consequently, I have written to the Managing Director of XC and the DfT via Jeremy Wright highlighting the plight of Kenilworth station which has been made precarious by the unreliability of the current train operator. I have requested that serious consideration now be made into stopping the highly reliable XC services to Manchester and Bournemouth that currently race through the station every hour.