Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to improve rural train lines and services in the West Midlands.

West Midlands Trains will be introducing a through-service from Nuneaton to Leamington via Coventry and Kenilworth, from May of this year. These will be operated by the class 172 units that are newer and provide more capacity than the existing class 153 that operates on that route.

As part of the upgrades to the Nuneaton to Leamington Spa route (known as the “NUCKLE” project), two new stations at Bermuda Park and Ricoh Arena have already been built and are open. The next phase, being taken forward by Coventry City Council, will see a bay platform at Coventry Station constructed as part of the wider station masterplan. This will allow two trains per hour to run between Coventry and Nuneaton. DfT is contributing £5m towards the cost of the bay platform, with the balance from local sources.

As part of the Midlands Rail Hub business case, Midlands Connect are working with the Department and local partners to update the business case for enhancing capacity between Leamington and Coventry through the partial re-doubling of the line. The Department expects the business case to be presented in Summer 2019.