Wasps sting rail firm for scrapping rugby trains

COVENTRY-based rugby club Wasps has criticised a leading rail firm for scrapping a new train service carrying fans to the city’s Ricoh Arena.

The rugby club said many fans had taken advantage of the new London Midland rugby specials but the rail company had still decided to end the service.

It said the service had proved too expensive – despite a financial contribution from the club itself.

David Armstrong, Group CEO at Wasps, said the recent trial of rugby special trains for the home games against Harlequins and Leicester Tigers had proved immensely popular.

He said more than 10% of fans had chosen to travel to the matches by train and make use of the recently completed Coventry Arena Station.

“Operationally the service ran extremely well with many fans commenting on how convenient it was, allowing them to directly access the Arena from both Coventry and Nuneaton stations,” he said.

“Unfortunately, despite our considerable efforts and our own financial contribution to the trial, London Midland have refused to continue with the rugby special service, although the basic scheduled service will remain in place.

“This is incredibly disappointing for our supporters and the people of Coventry and means we will revert to providing shuttle buses from Coventry Station to the Arena on Wasps match days and for the upcoming summer concerts.”  

He said the club remained in talks with London Midland to try and persuade the company to re-launch the service for the start of next season in September.

“The Arena Coventry station is an important asset for the city, the Ricoh Arena and the Arena Park shopping centre and we will continue to lobby all relevant parties to enable its proper utilisation as soon as possible,” added Mr Armstrong.

London Midland said in a statement that it had learned a great deal from the two trial services.

“We proved that it is possible to run additional services for events at the Ricoh Arena. However, the extra cost far out-stripped the additional revenue,” said the statement.

“We remain in talks with Wasps and will continue to look at opportunities for next season.  It still remains however that without additional third party funding it would not be possible for London Midland alone to run extra services.”