THE FIRST train should soon be pulling into the new Kenilworth station.
It was expected at the town’s new £13.6million station last December, but just days before the scheduled opening the Department for Transport (DfT) said no train or drivers would be available until February to operate a service on the line running between Leamington and Coventry.
There was a further delay as Warwickshire County Council prepared a safety report for the rail regulator at the Office for Road and Rail – which has now been sent.
County council joint managing director Monica Fogarty said ‘with a fair wind’ the station would be open for business in the coming weeks.
She added: “Although the station was completed months there remained several tasks which had to be completed before the ORR could sign off the station as ‘fit for business’. The council is now awaiting confirmation that trains can begin to stop at the station.
“We are nearly there. I know it has been frustrating for residents who are looking forward to using the station. We would like to thank everyone for their patience.
“It will be a fantastic facility and we should celebrate the fact that kenilworth will have a station that will connect the town to the wider area. After all the hard work by everyone involved, we can now look forward to Kenilworth having a station for the first time in over 50 years.”
West Midlands Railway will manage the station which will operate a service on the line running between Leamington and Coventry.
The new Station Road station – on the site of the town’s former station which closed in 1965 as part of the so-called Beeching Cuts – also includes a ticket office, 90-space car park and cycle parking.
