Start lobbying now if you want a station

The railway is now planned over five-year periods, based on Government policy and spending plans and Network Rail’s route utilisation strategies (RUS), also the Office of Rail Regulation’s appraisal of Network Rail’s plans to improve its efficiency.

Last year’s RUS for the West Midlands and the Chiltern Line was quite clear. In order to cope with growing freight traffic — particularly between the Southampton ports and the Midlands, the North and Scotland - the route between Leamington and Kenilworth, which was reduced to a single line after the original Kenilworth station was closed in 1966, will need to be returned to double track.

This would also enable the Southampton/Reading-Newcastle-upon-Tyne CrossCountry passenger service to be re-routed via Coventry and Birmingham International (for the airport) and could provide capacity for trains to stop at a new Kenilworth station.

At the end of February, the ORR is due to publish its advice to Ms Greening, and in July she must announce a Statement of Funds Available (SoFA) and the High Level Output Statement (HLOS) for the next five-year period (2014-19). After further consultations, Network Rail will then publish a Strategic Business Plan next January.

Re-doubling the Kenilworth-Leamington route will not come cheaply, because it would require a new bridge across the A46 Kenilworth by-pass - so the whole project might cost £15 million or more (quite apart from the cost of a station, which could be in the region of £3 million). There are many other competing proposals to increase capacity on the existing rail network - quite apart from long-term projects such as Crossrail and HS2, which are financed separately - so it behoves Warwickshire County Council to make the case now for double tracking to be carried out in the next plan.

Without it, it certainly will be the end of the line for another railway station for Kenilworth. - Alan Marshall, Inchbrook Road, Kenilworth.