London Midland to provide Ricoh Arena trains for sports fans – but only of the oval ball variety

THE so-called ‘ghost station’ which has recently opened at Ricoh Arena in Coventry will, after all, be in use for supporters heading to the ground – as long as they are rugby fans.

London Midland and Wasps have announced the introduction of additional rugby special services on match days.

Rugby fans will be able to catch the train to and from Coventry Arena station for Wasps games against Harlequins and Leicester Tigers. Rugby special charter trains will run between Coventry and Nuneaton, calling at Coventry Arena on Sunday 28 February and Saturday 12 March.

No such arrangement has been announced with Coventry City for Sky Blues fans heading to their games at the stadium.

The match day rugby specials will include a six carriage train running between Coventry and Nuneaton stations, stopping at Coventry Arena. The shuttle service will provide an extra 1,000 seats on the route before and after each game.

London Midland’s head of regional services Steven Fisher, said:“We listened to fans and stakeholders and made a commitment to look at every possible option. While London Midland has no additional trains for match days, we have hired in charter services to test the idea of running rugby specials.”

Andy Gibb, managing director of Arena Coventry Limited, said: ”The rail station next to the Ricoh Arena is a great asset. With further planned investment rail travel to the stadium will get even easier.

“We have worked hard with London Midland to find a solution in the short term. We will be doing all we can to raise awareness of the test services and we hope Wasps fans will get on board with the trial.”

London Midland and Wasps will review the operational and commercial performance of the test services before deciding on next steps.

The new station at Ricoh Arena opened in January.

It was one of two new stations to be unveiled – alongside  Bermuda Park – as part of a £13.6m investment to improve rail services between Coventry and Nuneaton.

It was originally thought that the station would be used to ferry supporters from Coventry city centre to the stadium when Coventry City or Wasps were playing or when big concerts were on.

However, fans were then told they would not be able to use the station on match days due to safety concerns.
 
London Midland pointed to capacity issues as the reason for the restrictions, insisting it did not have enough trains and would only be able to transport 75 people every hour.