Ambitious plans for Coventry station scaled back

[dutchman]

Ambitious plans to transform Coventry train station have been scaled back after a £10.5million shortfall in funding.

But Coventry City Council officials insist the original £31million ‘masterplan’ could eventually be delivered in full as it seeks to attract more funding for the project.

A report to the authority’s cabinet showed the council has managed to generate £21.3million for the scheme since it first announced the plans last year – but it wanted to have secured £31.8million funding by this point.

Some work will still start on the station this year, including an extension of the footbridge and canopy between station platforms, building a new entrance to the station from Warwick Road, creating a new passenger drop off point and providing additional car parking.

However, the scaled-back plans means a proposed new bus interchange will be put on hold, and there will be fewer facilities in the station entrance and less car parking than originally planned.

But Mike Waters, transport manager at the city council, insisted the project was a long term plan and that he was confident some missing elements could still happen.

He said: “We have a funding package sufficient to build the elements we need to build.

“We set out the full scope of everything we would like to deliver and we have made sure, quite responsibly, that we can deliver a scheme using grant funding we have secured.

“It’s good to have great ambition. It’s a major scheme right at the heart of a major regeneration project and we have ambitions to deliver the very best we can there.

“My expectation is that we can secure other funding opportunities during 2015/16 so that we can come back in a year’s time with more details of things we would like to do.

“This is a big project and it is going to take four years of work to complete it. We are going to give it a good go, we have been very successful so far.

“We have been doing a stand up job of bringing in grant money. This is a good news story, we have brought it forward at an unprecedented speed.”

The masterplan work at the site will be funded by £21.3million of Growth Deal and Integrated Transport Block Funding.

Network Rail will contribute an additional £2million to enhance the train station building and £3.7million of European money will be used to improve the forecourt outside the station.

The improvement work is being carried out in conjunction with the work to create a new platform as part of the NUCKLE line scheme and to accommodate the extra capacity needed after the station experienced the highest growth in passenger numbers outside London in the past five years.

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£31m 'masterplan' to transform Coventry Railway Station picks up steam



A £31million ‘masterplan’ to transform Coventry Railway Station will pick up steam this month as £3million of work begins at the site.

Coventry council has unveiled plans to construct a six-metre wide and 24-metre long tunnel under Warwick Road to connect the train station with Central Six.

The tunnel will link a planned new station building to the a platform which is to be built during 2017 next to Central Six as part of the NUCKLE Nuneaton to Leamington rail line project.

That platform should also allow the current hourly service to the Ricoh Arena railway station to be enhanced at busy times.

Work on the new tunnel will begin on March 29 and run until December - and drivers have been warned to expect disruption during construction with one lane planned to be closed in each direction for the full nine months.

Almost exactly a year ago, the Telegraph revealed that some elements of the station masterplan had been put on hold as the council contended with a £10.5m shortfall in funding.

One of those elements still on hold is the planned bus interchange which is shown in the artist’s impression as the area on the Central Six side of the road where the Virgin Trains car park currently sits. Bosses at the council say discussions about delivering this element of the project are still ongoing.

Once completed the tunnel will be closed for a further two years until the new station building is finished in 2019. Council officials have indicated the tunnel work is being carried out now due to restrictions around when grant money must be spent.