I wish you would do a series of: "Thing that don't make sense" on the railways. Interview the cross country ceo in the vestibule, interview the cllr for transport at Coventry arena an hour before a match. (they won't say yes but empty chair them).
I remember going into that Station Building at Kenilworth and the person at the time was very friendly. Think it was one of those that you get the tickets from the café as well so there wasn't a proper ticket office (Like some Major Merseyrail Stations with the shop) but it is a shame that the station building is closed. Also I do like the Art Deco of Leamington Spa Station as GWR took advantage of a government loan guarantee scheme in the 1930s to fund improvements to their railway network and one of those scheme was to rebuild Leamington Spa Station. Great video Jen
The cafe lost the ability to sell tickets at some time during early Covid and there was no reason for anyone to go in there as it was quite pricey compared to the others on the high street and it’s hardly a turn up and go service so it shut down and the building has been locked ever since
Unfortunately everything in our country evolves around London, only London matters, presumably it’s where all the oil money from the North Sea disappeared to from the mid 70’s onwards.. just hopeless
I don't agree with that. HS2 terminates at London in the south and was an attempt to pull InterCity trains off of three existing mainlines North of London. It was attacked by propagandarists relentlessly and dismissed as "getting Londoners to Birmingham 15 minutes faster" despite primarily being about removing the mixed-speed traffic problem that plagues the mainlines in the Midlands. If HS2 was built in full, it would remove lots of InterCity trains from Birmingham New Street and replace them with high speed InterCity trains into Birmingham Curzon Street. This would (without any modification to the existing Birmingham New Street Station) suddenly open up dozens of extra platform slots every day, that could be used to run additional services through Birmingham New Street. One of the problems with the HS2 project, is that all the focus was on the high speed stuff, and none of the focus was on the "What can be done in the Midlands, once the InterCity trains go away?" stuff. Having said that, the original HS2 plan falls far short of the original Euro Tunnel promises that the UK would have trains from Paris to Birmingham and trains from Europe to Scotland and Wales. So I'm not arguing that it was a perfect plan. I'm just saying that it was designed to remove the congestion in Birmingham New Street. The investment in the Midlands and the North was there. And the disinformation brigade tricked Northerners into fighting against investment in the Midlands. And then the Tories killed it. 🤷
@ when you come from a place like Aberdeen and worked in the offshore oil and gas industry, with the vast amounts of money that has flowed through the city down South since the mid 70’s, tell me exactly where the city or Shire has benefited? We look across the sea at our neighbours and left wandering where all the money went right here
Hi, Jen. Slight correction on the Coventry Arena situation. When it first opened, it wasn’t served on match days, but nowadays it is open with an extra service to the standard timetable. It’s still not enough to serve a near 40,000 seater stadium
You've crept onto one of my local lines Jen! Very cool video though and the line is quite a cool one - use it a lot when I'm going to see the mighty Leicester play... Also is interesting to note that Coventry Arena's website and WMR's website say that they do run strengthened 4 car services on matchdays at the arena (3pm kick offs only) but I'm not sure if that is still the case!
despite what Wikipedia or a Google search says trains do serve the Arena on match days though they didn’t when it first opened. if you try to buy tickets for a day of a game you get a disruption message like “Due to a football match at CBS Arena today, trains to and from Coventry Arena before and after the game are likely to be busy with football fans. If you're not heading to the match, we recommend travelling outside of these periods if possible for a more comfortable journey”
@@JenOnTheMove It probably depends on the expected crowd size, so if its a small local or friendly game trains will stop, its its a full capacity one they stops are pulled.
The train used to be just one carriage so us regular commuters had to literally push the concert goers off the train even though it was announced that the train wouldn’t stop at arena and buses were at the station.
Absolutely brilliant, well researched and extremely great insights, we agree with all of your feedback and reflections about this particular route, thank you so kindly for producing this broadcast
aha yes, the infamous smashed TVM at Bermuda Park!! Bermuda Park is my local station and between Nov 23 and now, that TVM Screen has been smashed up 5 separate times. In fact its still wrecked as I'm writing this. As with the purpose of the station, it barely sees use due to its hourly service (you'd be lucky to see more than 3-4 people at once at the station). Workers prefer to use the 20 and 148 buses that also link the area, and residents (like myself) also prefer the buses because it runs more frequently and actually drops us off in Cov city centre unlike Cov station that's a bit of a walk from the shops/other buses etc. I would kill for the service to be bumped up to every 30 mins, it would make the service more useable!! It also doesn't help that connections from other routes are poorly timed with the line meaning that ill often have to wait anywhere between 30-60mins just to go 10 minutes up the line...
I use this journey quite often, the 153 was not bad on the line but that could be because they threw memories up for me. Central Trains used to also run many different DMUs on a line to Leicester
I've spent a bit of time pootling about in Coventry recently, and I agree, there is something rather nice about the old station. Feels a bit like a baby Euston. Not explored the new bit as of yet. The walking route into the city centre is also very nicely done and give a nice sense of flow. A rare piece of joined up thinking!
I visit there once a year for a trade show held in their exhibition hall. It allows me to travel from London by train, so personally, this is a very useful station.
Coventry Arena. Rock Band Muse, were doing their full scale Production Rehearsals there a few years ago, and they had these huge Flame effects. People outside the Stadium (who where unaware what was going on), Called the Fire Service, thinking the place was burning down. ...........then there was Rammstein, apparently you could hear that concert from 20 miles away!!!!
Been to a few on this line and on the whole some lovely stations, but also a couple of 'what the heck' stations too (Bermuda Park for example 🤔). Nice edit again!
Hi Jen, and Sara... Happy New Year to you both. I have been to Leamington Spa a few times, during my childhood times and also in more recent times when I was Trade Plating vehicles around. Leamington Spa is a Historical Town and had connections with Royalty in earlier years when the well off people used to "take the waters"...I've often thought it would be nice to re-visit some of the places I used to get sent to and have a lpok around at a more leasurely pace during my retirement years. As usual an enjoyable and informative watch with a good dose of opinion. 😀 Take care, Jon B. 🤓
Coventry arena used to close on match days, I think in the class 153 era. It now says it is open on match days and they run double length trains, so it now has a purpose. Not sure of its still closed for concerts though.
I've been to Kenilworth! My cousin lives there. I couldn't get the train there from Coventry as it'd been replaced by a bus, but I did get it on the way back. Kenilworth's a nice place btw - it has a castle and nice pubs. The station building wasn't in use when I was there either. That was July '23 I think
I'm planning on going to Taunton in September from Leeds. I've already looked at trains and cost wise it's about the same to go via London rather than the direct XC service. Timewise it's only about half an hour to an hour more considering changing and allowing buffer space. Comfort wise I can actually get to my reserved seat on the 225's/Hitachi trains, and can put my suitcase on the overhead racks instead of the curved overhead Cross Country racks which doesn't hold much at all, leaving crammed luggage racks at the end of carriages, and hoping no one steals my case/goes off with the wrong one. Is it time XC looks into cutting their routes in 2, i.e. only going Edinburgh to Brum and then Brum to Plymouth?
Coventry Arena seems to be a classic case of left hand and right hand not knowing what each other are doing. WMR have enough 196s to run four coach trains on match days, and a half hourly service between Coventry and Nuneaton if they employ enough train crews
Your very lucky Jen that you caught the train half time it a rail replacement service tbh I did like 153 because they on time when London Midland had them no excuses from them now it’s just like no point using it because £6 from Bedworth to Nuneaton and £2 on bus for Bermuda 57 Stagecoach run there 1hr service no point spending £6 just for a coach when £3 now for the bus I can see why called it elephant and bear line barely any trains idk if price increased or decreased last time I went on line it was £6 to Nuneaton and it was a bus lol love your vids Jen keep them up
Enjoyable video, Jen, and I agree that many Cross Country trains are too short for long distance services. One of the reasons was Richard Branson’s ego, choosing to spend the budget fitting tilting mechanisms to some Voyagers when more coaches would have made more sense. A six-car train with no tilt seems to make more sense than a four-car tilting Voyager, especially as tilting has largely been abandoned on Cross Country routes. It was just an expensive toy.
I have used all these stations apart from bbedworth and nuneaton as they are from leamington spa but they need more than 1 train hour. Keniworth was locked the last few times I went there as the cafe is closed. Anyone who need thde toilet on most of these is stuck. They could make a 4 car 196 but tell people on the speaker to get in the first 2 coaches for example if the station is not long enough.
I have a soft spot for Coventry because most of my happy memories with my ex were visiting her while she was at uni there. Admittedly I don't remember much about Coventry station 🤣
IIRC, the Arena Station was originally intended to be built at the same time as the Arena, but in a stunning example of government logic, it took them six years after the Arena opened to approve funding for the station, and several further years to construct it, albeit initially with a single car service every hour, with no stopping services an hour before or after matches with the overcrowding / insufficient rolling stock excuse. Apparently, the possibility of chartering a six car train was considered, but rejected with the excuse the fare revenue wouldn't cover the cost of chartering the train. Meanwhile, Kenilworth is a reincarnated station. The original sat slightly further down the track, accessed via Station Road / Lockhart Close, with the current station sitting on the former goods yard. Leamington was originally two separate railway stations, back to back (courtesy of railway company rivalry), but all services were condensed into the current station on nationalisation.
Great video Jen. I always reserve a seat a week before travelling with XC to make sure I don't have to stand! Leamington Spa is my local. I used to volunteer at the station garden there actually.
We also have a railway station in Rotterdam (Rotterdam Stadion) that’s only served by some trains when there are matches in the stadium next to it. Even with a lot of people living in the neighborhood and business, stores, a big cinema and an event center close by. Rumors are that the railway company is looking into the possibility to have this station into the regular service (after decades).
You can use Coventry Arena station on matchdays (not sure about concerts). I've done it many times, however the service is a joke. It doesn't line up well with connections in Coventry and is still a 1hrly service (with 2 carriages if memory serves me right). You can easily be waiting 50mins after full time for a train into Cov and then not be able to get on due to overcrowding, leaving you to wait another hour for the next train, or get a bus from the other side of the retail park. Should definitely be a shuttle service on matchdays.
Coventry is a gorgeous example of the best of the 1960s - the use of dark wood (which hasn't faded), the wonderful atrium of the old entrance and, as you say, the gorgeous way the new extension has been added on, and there's quick access to a Bus Station, making it easy to get into the City Centre.
The station building at Kenilworth was LOVELY for a fairly new station, especially with a design that has a cosier, older, less industrial feel to it. Shame it's going to waste, if there's no ticket office in operation there, they should repurpose the building in some way so that the local community can benefit. I don't know... a library???
Several years ago they ran additional trial shuttle services utilising Class 67's and MKII stock for extra capacity between Coventry and Nuneaton which was partly financed by The Wasps who played at Coventry Arena at the time. Needless to say it was deemed "financially unviable" and the scheme was dropped.
They should rename it "The Excuse Line" - excuses for why Kenilworth is only single track, for why trains don't call at Arena, for why it's only hourly, etc, etc
This reminds me of the day I was travelling to London, there was a football match at Wembley Stadium and Southern Trains were not stopping at Wembley Central!! Did not make any sense!!
There can be dangerous levels of congestion. It's counterintuitive, but it often is the right decision to close the closest station to an arena unless that station has the capacity to cope with the crowd.
The ground you talking about at coventry arena is the Coventry building society arena or the cbs arena which is a football ground for Coventry City f.c.
My local line. Yes the hourly service is not enough really but as the line is part shared with CrossCountry and important for freight trains it is at present sufficient. Things may be improved further if they reinstate services beyond Nuneaton to Leicester but this requires a dive under at Nuneaton. Coventry Arena is served on match days but only with a two car Class 196, the best I have seen is a three car Class 172. they did propose building an additional 6 car platform for match days but this has not materialised. They were also supposed to build a bay platform at Coventry. I would say there are more useless stations in the UK like Teesside Airport and that is not even served now. The other issue with this line is whenever there is a strike, crew shortages etc. it is the first to be cut and replaced by buses.
There had been a plan to supplement the Leamington Spa to Nuneaton hourly service, with an additional Coventry to Nuneaton hourly service, thus providing that half hourly service between Coventry and Nuneaton . But I have no idea what is happening ...
I went to Kenilworth on opening day, the train was a single carriage. The station building had a community run cafe, but it still felt very underutilised.
We manage to get Bordesley Station open when Birmingham City are at home, not sure why they can't get it working for Cov Arena. O.k. Bordesley is on a main line into Birmingham, so there's plenty more trains available so you have to wonder is there just one train for the whole Elephant and Bear Line?
have never understood why Bordesley is given such a non existent service outside of match times. It’s inner city brum. there’s so much scope for development. Every station in inner London has high rise apartments surrounding it. Why not brum? This is less than a mile from the city centre
@@rockerjim8045 for a long time there’s not been a lot going for the area. Mostly industrial, however a lot of that has gone and there’s flats popping up all over digbeth - so there may be more life in Bordesley to come. It’ll need it as Birmingham’s plan to move to a new stadium by the old wheels park means bordesley would get less foot traffic in the future.
i love Leamington Spa the stations is Georgious & the town is lovely & i also love Coventry station & i trainspotted at Nuneaton last year & its a great station & the class 196s are amazing brilliant vlog
Great exploration! What a shame that having made the rare decision at Kenilworth to create a new station building that is actually attractive, it's closed and out of use!
Whilst you can’t get to the arena on match days I have used Coventry arena station during the week a number of times for conferences and it was really well used
Flushed with their success in discouraging anyone travelling to Coventry Arena by train, they're now doing the same at Bordesley when Birmingham City are at home - trains from the Moor Street direction no longer call there before the matches, nor do trains towards the City centre call there after matches.
7:57 i completely agree with you, i mean what a stupid thing to do, i honestly don't understand that, it's literally like they built Coventry Arena station just to make it fail if i were West Midlands Railway i would just feel so embarrassed. 11:08 I was once at Winchester station and there was no SWR service to London Waterloo so i decided to get CrossCountry to Reading so i could get a GWR service to London Paddington. But the problem was i wasn't allowed to board the 2 car CrossCountry voyager train because it was so crowded that you weren't allowed to board the train. Now despite the train was only going as far as Didcot Parkway (even though that's not a place we're CrossCountry trains are supposed to call at) i assume they could get away with running a 2 car voyager from Bournemouth to Didcot Parkway without any over crowding issues however they didn't take into account that 1. There trains are always busy no matter the circumstances and 2. There was no SWR service so obviously it's going to be mega overcrowded 🤦 the outcome of the situation is obvious i don't know XC didn't think of that 🤦 Now i don't hate CrossCountry or there rolling stock but i do think someone should really try and sort out there overcrowding issues because right now it's just chaotic. Anyway nice video Jen, very interesting name "Elephant & Bear line" never heard that before 🤔.
cross country didn't even think to order new trains when withdrawing their MUCH NEEDED HST trains which put even more pressure on their Voyagers and class 170s and making overcrowding even worse. if I were cross country I would get hold of as many HST trains as I can(as well as the ex EMR voyagers) so then we can: 1. couple more voyagers together to deal with overcrowding issues on the core routes 2. start using voyagers and HST's on Nottingham to Cardiff and Birmingham to Stansted Airport services so then we no longer have to use 2 and 3 car 170s on the routes dealing with the overcrowding on those routes
There certainly seems to be a bit of hit and miss with stopping at Coventry Arena on event days. Ive been to a football match there and used the station immediately before and after the match
Jen. Before your Video I had no idea they had renamed the line, let alone to 'Elephant & Bear'. I get that Bear may come from the coat of Arms of the County of Warwickshire, which in turn got it from the Earls of Warwick, but what about the Elephant in the room.
Never knew it was called the Elephant & Bear Line! Not ridden it since 2019. I get the bear is the symbol of Warwickshire but the elephanty? Btw, I think trains not calling at Coventry Arena when a match was on ended when the 153s came off!
Coventry Station is amazing. I remember seeing the architect of the ‘60s station saying that BR told him that money was no object when it came to materials. No surprise that it has worn well! Coventry Arena is just nuts. I agree re CC & feel bad for their staff. The ones I’ve encountered have been helpful and friendly. They don’t deserve the rotten Voyagers.
So typical of this country! Building a new station to serve Coventry Arena you’d think couldn’t fail. Interesting then to see that trains don’t call there when there’s an event on! You just couldn’t make it up! It’s like someone that owns a florists and it closes on St. Valentine’s Day! Or someone that own a shop selling fireworks and it closes on Bonfire night! Or even a café that closes for lunch! It is literally that stupid! As for the service; hourly on a Sunday should be fine, but it certainly needs increasing to half hour midweek and Saturdays. Also, why not extend it from Nuneaton to run to/from Birmingham New Street or Walsall via the Sutton Park line; and at Leamington Spa to/from Banbury with new stations at Harbury and Bishop’s Itchington? This would certainly make it look as though they mean business!
You were in my town and I missed you :( Though tbf lucky you. Back in the day (late 90s) I swear I remember getting on a direct Coventry-Lincoln service which I took as far as Leicester.
My hunch is that Coventry Arena station was a condition for building the stadium and that someone didn't think it through - 20,000 people leaving when the game finishes trying to get onto a 3-car train (if you're lucky) that runs once an hour.
Cross country did do something about the over crowding,, they bought some hsts back. The govt made them get rid in the semi nationalised world. Voyagers are awful and we have Branson to blame for that but I bet xc will be stuck with them for a while yet. Hopefully they'll be able to double up more often with the 221s released from West coast
the contrast between Cov Arena Station and Falmer (brighton fc) is Falmer runs 12 coach trains between Brighton and Lewis on a shuttle service until all the fans have been sorted . Cov Arena has no service during match times. How shit is that.
Are you sure about that? The platforms at Lewes aren't long enough probably 8 cars max. Maybe there's a 12 car train for the one fixture a year where a football special is run back to London (against Crystal Palace).
This is my local line, i ride it frequently. Also at 8:03, this is incorrect. I have rode a train on this line on a matchday, the M69 Derby match. Loads of fans were on the train, all of which were able to successfully alight the train and go to the stadium.
The "events only" timetable for Coventry Arena is pointless and encourages driving/getting the bus to Coventry Arena, defeating the purpouse of a rail link
I share your hatred of Cross Country. My heart sinks every time I plan a trip and the suggested routes involve Cross Country. They really don’t care about their customers and think it’s acceptable to have people crammed into a vestibule for several hours on a crowded train. It really doesn’t make you feel safe.
Brilliant video Jen, I don't approve of Coventry Arena shutting on match days either, all I can see is football fans being driven away from the railway if train services don't stop at the stadiums they claim to serve. And CrossCountry, I completely agree with you about them.
www you edged close to something that has always irked me here in the US. Pro teams getting municipalities to build them stadiums promising influx of money to the surrounds ( restaurants bars hotels). BS. The arena station would be called a boondoggle
I wish you would do a series of: "Thing that don't make sense" on the railways.
Interview the cross country ceo in the vestibule, interview the cllr for transport at Coventry arena an hour before a match. (they won't say yes but empty chair them).
XC might send someone. They could always blame the Government instead
I second the motion. 🙂
I remember going into that Station Building at Kenilworth and the person at the time was very friendly. Think it was one of those that you get the tickets from the café as well so there wasn't a proper ticket office (Like some Major Merseyrail Stations with the shop) but it is a shame that the station building is closed. Also I do like the Art Deco of Leamington Spa Station as GWR took advantage of a government loan guarantee scheme in the 1930s to fund improvements to their railway network and one of those scheme was to rebuild Leamington Spa Station. Great video Jen
The cafe lost the ability to sell tickets at some time during early Covid and there was no reason for anyone to go in there as it was quite pricey compared to the others on the high street and it’s hardly a turn up and go service so it shut down and the building has been locked ever since
I agree with everything you say about Cross Country, if they did serve London they'd probably have more investment.
Unfortunately everything in our country evolves around London, only London matters, presumably it’s where all the oil money from the North Sea disappeared to from the mid 70’s onwards.. just hopeless
I don't agree with that.
HS2 terminates at London in the south and was an attempt to pull InterCity trains off of three existing mainlines North of London. It was attacked by propagandarists relentlessly and dismissed as "getting Londoners to Birmingham 15 minutes faster" despite primarily being about removing the mixed-speed traffic problem that plagues the mainlines in the Midlands.
If HS2 was built in full, it would remove lots of InterCity trains from Birmingham New Street and replace them with high speed InterCity trains into Birmingham Curzon Street. This would (without any modification to the existing Birmingham New Street Station) suddenly open up dozens of extra platform slots every day, that could be used to run additional services through Birmingham New Street.
One of the problems with the HS2 project, is that all the focus was on the high speed stuff, and none of the focus was on the "What can be done in the Midlands, once the InterCity trains go away?" stuff.
Having said that, the original HS2 plan falls far short of the original Euro Tunnel promises that the UK would have trains from Paris to Birmingham and trains from Europe to Scotland and Wales. So I'm not arguing that it was a perfect plan. I'm just saying that it was designed to remove the congestion in Birmingham New Street.
The investment in the Midlands and the North was there. And the disinformation brigade tricked Northerners into fighting against investment in the Midlands. And then the Tories killed it. 🤷
@ when you come from a place like Aberdeen and worked in the offshore oil and gas industry, with the vast amounts of money that has flowed through the city down South since the mid 70’s, tell me exactly where the city or Shire has benefited? We look across the sea at our neighbours and left wandering where all the money went right here
Hi, Jen. Slight correction on the Coventry Arena situation. When it first opened, it wasn’t served on match days, but nowadays it is open with an extra service to the standard timetable. It’s still not enough to serve a near 40,000 seater stadium
You've crept onto one of my local lines Jen! Very cool video though and the line is quite a cool one - use it a lot when I'm going to see the mighty Leicester play...
Also is interesting to note that Coventry Arena's website and WMR's website say that they do run strengthened 4 car services on matchdays at the arena (3pm kick offs only) but I'm not sure if that is still the case!
despite what Wikipedia or a Google search says trains do serve the Arena on match days though they didn’t when it first opened. if you try to buy tickets for a day of a game you get a disruption message like “Due to a football match at CBS Arena today, trains to and from Coventry Arena before and after the game are likely to be busy with football fans. If you're not heading to the match, we recommend travelling outside of these periods if possible for a more comfortable journey”
On the day that I was originally supposed to film this video, trains weren't calling at the station because of something at the arena.
@@JenOnTheMove It probably depends on the expected crowd size, so if its a small local or friendly game trains will stop, its its a full capacity one they stops are pulled.
The train used to be just one carriage so us regular commuters had to literally push the concert goers off the train even though it was announced that the train wouldn’t stop at arena and buses were at the station.
Absolutely brilliant, well researched and extremely great insights, we agree with all of your feedback and reflections about this particular route, thank you so kindly for producing this broadcast
aha yes, the infamous smashed TVM at Bermuda Park!! Bermuda Park is my local station and between Nov 23 and now, that TVM Screen has been smashed up 5 separate times. In fact its still wrecked as I'm writing this. As with the purpose of the station, it barely sees use due to its hourly service (you'd be lucky to see more than 3-4 people at once at the station). Workers prefer to use the 20 and 148 buses that also link the area, and residents (like myself) also prefer the buses because it runs more frequently and actually drops us off in Cov city centre unlike Cov station that's a bit of a walk from the shops/other buses etc. I would kill for the service to be bumped up to every 30 mins, it would make the service more useable!! It also doesn't help that connections from other routes are poorly timed with the line meaning that ill often have to wait anywhere between 30-60mins just to go 10 minutes up the line...
I use this journey quite often, the 153 was not bad on the line but that could be because they threw memories up for me. Central Trains used to also run many different DMUs on a line to Leicester
What a beautiful rail line that you visited Jen! Happy new year to you Jen from Matt 😊
The Elephant and Bear line is quite a unique line with 3 new stations already added including Bermuda Park, Coventry Arena and Kenilworth.
I've spent a bit of time pootling about in Coventry recently, and I agree, there is something rather nice about the old station. Feels a bit like a baby Euston. Not explored the new bit as of yet. The walking route into the city centre is also very nicely done and give a nice sense of flow. A rare piece of joined up thinking!
I visit there once a year for a trade show held in their exhibition hall. It allows me to travel from London by train, so personally, this is a very useful station.
Happy New Year!
Jen & Sara. 🙂
Happy new year!
Coventry Arena.
Rock Band Muse, were doing their full scale Production Rehearsals there a few years ago, and they had these huge Flame effects.
People outside the Stadium (who where unaware what was going on), Called the Fire Service, thinking the place was burning down.
...........then there was Rammstein, apparently you could hear that concert from 20 miles away!!!!
I used Coventry Arena in April last year after the match, albeit a few minutes after the full time whistle
Been to a few on this line and on the whole some lovely stations, but also a couple of 'what the heck' stations too (Bermuda Park for example 🤔). Nice edit again!
You're right about cross country being expensive, Birmingham to Derby with cross-country cost me more than Birmingham to Glasgow with Avanti
Hi Jen, and Sara...
Happy New Year to you both. I have been to Leamington Spa a few times, during my childhood times and also in more recent times when I was Trade Plating vehicles around. Leamington Spa is a Historical Town and had connections with Royalty in earlier years when the well off people used to "take the waters"...I've often thought it would be nice to re-visit some of the places I used to get sent to and have a lpok around at a more leasurely pace during my retirement years. As usual an enjoyable and informative watch with a good dose of opinion. 😀
Take care,
Jon B. 🤓
Trains do now stop there on matchdays. But with just one train an hour it gets very overcrowded
Coventry arena used to close on match days, I think in the class 153 era. It now says it is open on match days and they run double length trains, so it now has a purpose. Not sure of its still closed for concerts though.
Thanks Jen for putting a map showing the route into the video but there is a little spelling error on it. The "R" is Bermuda is missing, oops.
I've been to Kenilworth! My cousin lives there. I couldn't get the train there from Coventry as it'd been replaced by a bus, but I did get it on the way back. Kenilworth's a nice place btw - it has a castle and nice pubs. The station building wasn't in use when I was there either. That was July '23 I think
I went to school in Bedworth when I lived in Nuneaton, from 1973 to 1975.
Great video Jen!
I'm planning on going to Taunton in September from Leeds. I've already looked at trains and cost wise it's about the same to go via London rather than the direct XC service. Timewise it's only about half an hour to an hour more considering changing and allowing buffer space. Comfort wise I can actually get to my reserved seat on the 225's/Hitachi trains, and can put my suitcase on the overhead racks instead of the curved overhead Cross Country racks which doesn't hold much at all, leaving crammed luggage racks at the end of carriages, and hoping no one steals my case/goes off with the wrong one. Is it time XC looks into cutting their routes in 2, i.e. only going Edinburgh to Brum and then Brum to Plymouth?
Coventry Arena seems to be a classic case of left hand and right hand not knowing what each other are doing.
WMR have enough 196s to run four coach trains on match days, and a half hourly service between Coventry and Nuneaton if they employ enough train crews
Your very lucky Jen that you caught the train half time it a rail replacement service tbh I did like 153 because they on time when London Midland had them no excuses from them now it’s just like no point using it because £6 from Bedworth to Nuneaton and £2 on bus for Bermuda 57 Stagecoach run there 1hr service no point spending £6 just for a coach when £3 now for the bus I can see why called it elephant and bear line barely any trains idk if price increased or decreased last time I went on line it was £6 to Nuneaton and it was a bus lol love your vids Jen keep them up
Enjoyable video, Jen, and I agree that many Cross Country trains are too short for long distance services. One of the reasons was Richard Branson’s ego, choosing to spend the budget fitting tilting mechanisms to some Voyagers when more coaches would have made more sense. A six-car train with no tilt seems to make more sense than a four-car tilting Voyager, especially as tilting has largely been abandoned on Cross Country routes. It was just an expensive toy.
Closing Coventry Arena station when there is an event at the arena is really stupid.
They don't. I have rode a train on a matchday, and the fans could successfully alight the train at Coventry Arena and head to the match.
Thank you for sharing Jen.
I have used all these stations apart from bbedworth and nuneaton as they are from leamington spa but they need more than 1 train hour. Keniworth was locked the last few times I went there as the cafe is closed. Anyone who need thde toilet on most of these is stuck. They could make a 4 car 196 but tell people on the speaker to get in the first 2 coaches for example if the station is not long enough.
I have a soft spot for Coventry because most of my happy memories with my ex were visiting her while she was at uni there. Admittedly I don't remember much about Coventry station 🤣
IIRC, the Arena Station was originally intended to be built at the same time as the Arena, but in a stunning example of government logic, it took them six years after the Arena opened to approve funding for the station, and several further years to construct it, albeit initially with a single car service every hour, with no stopping services an hour before or after matches with the overcrowding / insufficient rolling stock excuse. Apparently, the possibility of chartering a six car train was considered, but rejected with the excuse the fare revenue wouldn't cover the cost of chartering the train.
Meanwhile, Kenilworth is a reincarnated station. The original sat slightly further down the track, accessed via Station Road / Lockhart Close, with the current station sitting on the former goods yard.
Leamington was originally two separate railway stations, back to back (courtesy of railway company rivalry), but all services were condensed into the current station on nationalisation.
Great video Jen. I always reserve a seat a week before travelling with XC to make sure I don't have to stand! Leamington Spa is my local. I used to volunteer at the station garden there actually.
We also have a railway station in Rotterdam (Rotterdam Stadion) that’s only served by some trains when there are matches in the stadium next to it. Even with a lot of people living in the neighborhood and business, stores, a big cinema and an event center close by. Rumors are that the railway company is looking into the possibility to have this station into the regular service (after decades).
You can use Coventry Arena station on matchdays (not sure about concerts). I've done it many times, however the service is a joke. It doesn't line up well with connections in Coventry and is still a 1hrly service (with 2 carriages if memory serves me right). You can easily be waiting 50mins after full time for a train into Cov and then not be able to get on due to overcrowding, leaving you to wait another hour for the next train, or get a bus from the other side of the retail park. Should definitely be a shuttle service on matchdays.
Jen sent to Coventry 😂
Coventry is a gorgeous example of the best of the 1960s - the use of dark wood (which hasn't faded), the wonderful atrium of the old entrance and, as you say, the gorgeous way the new extension has been added on, and there's quick access to a Bus Station, making it easy to get into the City Centre.
Having been backwards and forwards to Coventry several times in the Noughties, I can confidently say that they pronounce Bedworth, Bed ' uth :D
Indeed, that is the local pronunciation. Those saying 'Bedworth' show that they aren't local
The station building at Kenilworth was LOVELY for a fairly new station, especially with a design that has a cosier, older, less industrial feel to it. Shame it's going to waste, if there's no ticket office in operation there, they should repurpose the building in some way so that the local community can benefit. I don't know... a library???
I would love if someone would do all the heritage railways in Britain ❤❤❤
Very nice vlog and Warwickshire stations and arena happy new year 🎊🎊
Several years ago they ran additional trial shuttle services utilising Class 67's and MKII stock for extra capacity between Coventry and Nuneaton which was partly financed by The Wasps who played at Coventry Arena at the time. Needless to say it was deemed "financially unviable" and the scheme was dropped.
They should rename it "The Excuse Line" - excuses for why Kenilworth is only single track, for why trains don't call at Arena, for why it's only hourly, etc, etc
Happy New Year Jen, all my best wishes to you for 2025. Great seeing a video with green leaves on the trees and not snow and ice everywhere 😂
This reminds me of the day I was travelling to London, there was a football match at Wembley Stadium and Southern Trains were not stopping at Wembley Central!! Did not make any sense!!
There can be dangerous levels of congestion. It's counterintuitive, but it often is the right decision to close the closest station to an arena unless that station has the capacity to cope with the crowd.
The ground you talking about at coventry arena is the Coventry building society arena or the cbs arena which is a football ground for Coventry City f.c.
My local line. Yes the hourly service is not enough really but as the line is part shared with CrossCountry and important for freight trains it is at present sufficient. Things may be improved further if they reinstate services beyond Nuneaton to Leicester but this requires a dive under at Nuneaton. Coventry Arena is served on match days but only with a two car Class 196, the best I have seen is a three car Class 172. they did propose building an additional 6 car platform for match days but this has not materialised. They were also supposed to build a bay platform at Coventry. I would say there are more useless stations in the UK like Teesside Airport and that is not even served now. The other issue with this line is whenever there is a strike, crew shortages etc. it is the first to be cut and replaced by buses.
There had been a plan to supplement the Leamington Spa to Nuneaton hourly service, with an additional Coventry to Nuneaton hourly service, thus providing that half hourly service between Coventry and Nuneaton . But I have no idea what is happening ...
I went to Kenilworth on opening day, the train was a single carriage. The station building had a community run cafe, but it still felt very underutilised.
coventry station is quite nice… i love the new area they’ve built, it stands out a lot and its clean as hellllll
We manage to get Bordesley Station open when Birmingham City are at home, not sure why they can't get it working for Cov Arena. O.k. Bordesley is on a main line into Birmingham, so there's plenty more trains available so you have to wonder is there just one train for the whole Elephant and Bear Line?
have never understood why Bordesley is given such a non existent service outside of match times. It’s inner city brum. there’s so much scope for development. Every station in inner London has high rise apartments surrounding it. Why not brum? This is less than a mile from the city centre
@@rockerjim8045 for a long time there’s not been a lot going for the area. Mostly industrial, however a lot of that has gone and there’s flats popping up all over digbeth - so there may be more life in Bordesley to come. It’ll need it as Birmingham’s plan to move to a new stadium by the old wheels park means bordesley would get less foot traffic in the future.
i love Leamington Spa the stations is Georgious & the town is lovely & i also love Coventry station & i trainspotted at Nuneaton last year & its a great station & the class 196s are amazing brilliant vlog
Great exploration! What a shame that having made the rare decision at Kenilworth to create a new station building that is actually attractive, it's closed and out of use!
You can't really be impressed with Bed'ff (local pronunciation) there is some lovely countryside in that area just none of it accessible by rail
I use Coventry Arena station to get to trade shows at the Arena - on those days they DO run trains, thankfully :)
Whilst you can’t get to the arena on match days I have used Coventry arena station during the week a number of times for conferences and it was really well used
Flushed with their success in discouraging anyone travelling to Coventry Arena by train, they're now doing the same at Bordesley when Birmingham City are at home - trains from the Moor Street direction no longer call there before the matches, nor do trains towards the City centre call there after matches.
7:57 i completely agree with you, i mean what a stupid thing to do, i honestly don't understand that, it's literally like they built Coventry Arena station just to make it fail if i were West Midlands Railway i would just feel so embarrassed. 11:08 I was once at Winchester station and there was no SWR service to London Waterloo so i decided to get CrossCountry to Reading so i could get a GWR service to London Paddington. But the problem was i wasn't allowed to board the 2 car CrossCountry voyager train because it was so crowded that you weren't allowed to board the train. Now despite the train was only going as far as Didcot Parkway (even though that's not a place we're CrossCountry trains are supposed to call at) i assume they could get away with running a 2 car voyager from Bournemouth to Didcot Parkway without any over crowding issues however they didn't take into account that 1. There trains are always busy no matter the circumstances and 2. There was no SWR service so obviously it's going to be mega overcrowded 🤦 the outcome of the situation is obvious i don't know XC didn't think of that 🤦 Now i don't hate CrossCountry or there rolling stock but i do think someone should really try and sort out there overcrowding issues because right now it's just chaotic. Anyway nice video Jen, very interesting name "Elephant & Bear line" never heard that before 🤔.
cross country didn't even think to order new trains when withdrawing their MUCH NEEDED HST trains which put even more pressure on their Voyagers and class 170s and making overcrowding even worse. if I were cross country I would get hold of as many HST trains as I can(as well as the ex EMR voyagers) so then we can:
1. couple more voyagers together to deal with overcrowding issues on the core routes
2. start using voyagers and HST's on Nottingham to Cardiff and Birmingham to Stansted Airport services so then we no longer have to use 2 and 3 car 170s on the routes dealing with the overcrowding on those routes
There certainly seems to be a bit of hit and miss with stopping at Coventry Arena on event days. Ive been to a football match there and used the station immediately before and after the match
Jen. Before your Video I had no idea they had renamed the line, let alone to 'Elephant & Bear'. I get that Bear may come from the coat of Arms of the County of Warwickshire, which in turn got it from the Earls of Warwick, but what about the Elephant in the room.
The elephant is on the heraldry of Coventry
It's a shame you missed the one day reinstatement of the 5th route to Edinburgh via Cumbernauld and Falkirk High from Glasgow Queen Street
Standing room only on an XC service????? 😮😊
Never knew it was called the Elephant & Bear Line! Not ridden it since 2019. I get the bear is the symbol of Warwickshire but the elephanty?
Btw, I think trains not calling at Coventry Arena when a match was on ended when the 153s came off!
I guess the Elephant is from the badge of Coventry City FC?
Trains Station 🚉
Love the channel
Coventry Station is amazing. I remember seeing the architect of the ‘60s station saying that BR told him that money was no object when it came to materials. No surprise that it has worn well!
Coventry Arena is just nuts. I agree re CC & feel bad for their staff. The ones I’ve encountered have been helpful and friendly. They don’t deserve the rotten Voyagers.
Hey Jen, are there any more services at Bermuda Park in the morning and afternoon peak for the factory workers or is it still just hourly
A poor idea. Send those station planners to Coventry!!!
What a neat little line!
So typical of this country! Building a new station to serve Coventry Arena you’d think couldn’t fail. Interesting then to see that trains don’t call there when there’s an event on! You just couldn’t make it up! It’s like someone that owns a florists and it closes on St. Valentine’s Day! Or someone that own a shop selling fireworks and it closes on Bonfire night! Or even a café that closes for lunch! It is literally that stupid!
As for the service; hourly on a Sunday should be fine, but it certainly needs increasing to half hour midweek and Saturdays. Also, why not extend it from Nuneaton to run to/from Birmingham New Street or Walsall via the Sutton Park line; and at Leamington Spa to/from Banbury with new stations at Harbury and Bishop’s Itchington? This would certainly make it look as though they mean business!
You were in my town and I missed you :( Though tbf lucky you. Back in the day (late 90s) I swear I remember getting on a direct Coventry-Lincoln service which I took as far as Leicester.
My hunch is that Coventry Arena station was a condition for building the stadium and that someone didn't think it through - 20,000 people leaving when the game finishes trying to get onto a 3-car train (if you're lucky) that runs once an hour.
Jen: "I love Coventry station". Railway system: (sends voyager). Clearly you need to reconsider your opinions :p
Cross Country have always been the same, even back in the day of BR their trains were a bit yacky.
Cross country did do something about the over crowding,, they bought some hsts back. The govt made them get rid in the semi nationalised world. Voyagers are awful and we have Branson to blame for that but I bet xc will be stuck with them for a while yet. Hopefully they'll be able to double up more often with the 221s released from West coast
the contrast between Cov Arena Station and Falmer (brighton fc) is Falmer runs 12 coach trains between Brighton and Lewis on a shuttle service until all the fans have been sorted . Cov Arena has no service during match times. How shit is that.
Are you sure about that? The platforms at Lewes aren't long enough probably 8 cars max. Maybe there's a 12 car train for the one fixture a year where a football special is run back to London (against Crystal Palace).
I also hate CrossCountry with a passion, although I'm interested in their proposed refurbishment, but what they really need is more capacity
This is my local line, i ride it frequently. Also at 8:03, this is incorrect. I have rode a train on this line on a matchday, the M69 Derby match. Loads of fans were on the train, all of which were able to successfully alight the train and go to the stadium.
On the day that I was originally supposed to film this video, trains weren't calling at the station because of something on at the arena.
I am duty bound to inform you that I was the first ever passenger at Bermuda Park
This is my hometown!!
What did the Nun at Nuneaton eat?
She ate nothing - none eaten.
It's not the station but the operator.
You can’t avoid a cross country train.😂
Coventry was my University City. Ahh the 80s
And mine in the 70s when Coventry University was Lanchester Poly!
The "events only" timetable for Coventry Arena is pointless and encourages driving/getting the bus to Coventry Arena, defeating the purpouse of a rail link
I share your hatred of Cross Country. My heart sinks every time I plan a trip and the suggested routes involve Cross Country. They really don’t care about their customers and think it’s acceptable to have people crammed into a vestibule for several hours on a crowded train. It really doesn’t make you feel safe.
Are XC still doing the horror that is APOD? \m/
Not too keen on CC either. Last time I used them, the train was so late that I missed my connection in Bristol.
is that the same voice as merseyrail
I wish there was a map in the video
Brilliant video Jen, I don't approve of Coventry Arena shutting on match days either, all I can see is football fans being driven away from the railway if train services don't stop at the stadiums they claim to serve. And CrossCountry, I completely agree with you about them.
www you edged close to something that has always irked me here in the US. Pro teams getting municipalities to build them stadiums promising influx of money to the surrounds ( restaurants bars hotels). BS. The arena station would be called a boondoggle
nice video
No one expected a Jen video on a Monday
Train are crap better on bus
Great video Jen 😊