The Ponder car park, on the site of the old cattle market in Railway Terrace, has now closed.

The three car parks run by NCP on behalf of Virgin Trains, together with the other car park operated by Ponder in Mill Road, remain in operation.

During the Summer school holiday period, there will be changes to the Birmingham - Glasgow service to provide additional capacity. This will be done by substituting 9-car Pendolinos for 5-car Voyagers on some services. To facilitate this, two Euston - Birmingham services will be combined with Birmingham - Glasgow services to provide through trains between Euston and Glasgow via Coventry and Birmingham. There will be two similar workings in the reverse direction.

However, to provide the Pendolinos the following services on the Euston - Birmingham route will be formed of 5-car Voyagers instead of 9-car Pendolinos:
* 08.03 Euston - Birmingham (Rugby 08.51)
* 11.43 Euston - Birmingham (does not call at Rugby)
* 15.23 Euston - Birmingham (does not call at Rugby)
* 20.03 Euston - Birmingham (Rugby 20.51)
* 06.20 Rugby - Euston
* 09.50 Birmingham - Euston (Rugby 09.23)
* 10.30 Birmingham - Euston (does not call at Rugby)
* 13.30 Birmingham - Euston (does not call at Rugby)
* 17.45 Wolverhampton - Euston (does not call at Rugby).

These changes will apply from 19 July until 3 September.

The June issue of the London Midland newsletter is available by clicking here.

Following a shunting accident at Oxley carriage sidings, a vehicle has been removed for repair from one of the Pendolino trains. This means that this train will run with 8 cars instead of 9 while the damaged vehicle is repaired.

Virgin have stated that they intend to use this train on Euston - Birmingham / Wolverhampton workings, where capacity should be less of a problem. However, the 8-car Pendolino has already been reported on other workings.

This situation is expected to continue for several weeks.

The chancellor George Osborne has stated that, as part of the £6.2bn cuts in government expenditure, the Department for Transport will have to make savings of £683m. Although some of this will come from cancelled road schemes, the effect on rail will include:
* £100m cut in Network Rail's budget
* reduction in rolling stock orders
* cancellation of stations improvement scheme
* reduction in grants to local authorities for transport projects.

Details of how the cuts will affect individual schemes will become known in due course, and will result from discussions between Network Rail, the Train Operating Companies for the railway industry, and Transport Secretary Phillip Hammond and Minister for Railways Theresa Villiers for the government.

However, the government remains committed to the proposed new high speed rail line, and will introduce a hybrid bill "in due course". This means that there is no specific timescale for the bill, partly because there will be further consultation on the route the new line will take. They will also look at linking the existing high speed line (HS1) will the new HS2 line, which would facilitate through workings between the Midlands and south east England, and possibly even Europe.

Following a request by RRUG, our MP Jeremy Wright asked a question in the House of Commons about the future provision of rail services between Rugby, the North West and Scotland.

Chris Mole replied by saying that the existing Virgin Trains franchise would expire in 2012. Interested stakeholders will be able to give their views on future train services when consultation on the new franchise starts around the end of this year.

For further details see the Hansard except for 2 March and scroll down to the item headed "Railways - Rugby".

Transport Minister Lord Adonis has announced the government's plan for a high speed rail link between London and Birmingham. If built, the line would not serve Rugby but run through the Chilterns and then between Leamington and Coventry to an interchange with the existing rail network at Birmingham international, then on to a new station in Birmingham at Curzon Street. London to Birmingham times of 49 minutes have been quoted.

The closest to Rugby the line would come is to the south of Southam. Full details are shown on the PDF map showing route of high speed line near Southam, or alternatively you can view a PDF map of the entire route.

Work is not expected to start before 2017 at the earliest, but with the current economic climate it could be many years before this project comes to fruition. It will have no direct impact on Rugby, but should free up some capacity on the existing West Coast Main Line for, hopefully, an improved service to intermediate stations.

The new coalition government has now stated it supports the development of high speed rail.

For further details see the BBC News item on the high speed line.

According to reports in the railway press, the Department for Transport Rail Group has announced that it will not be taking up the option to order an extra 42 vehicles to lengthen all Pendolinos to 11 car trains.

This means that only the initial order for 4 new 11-car trains and 62 additional vehicles to lengthen 31 of the existing trains to 11 cars will go ahead. From 2012 therefore the Pendolino fleet will consist of 35 trains of 11 cars, and 21 trains of 9 cars.

This is expected to cause operational problems for whoever takes over the Virgin franchise, as the whole fleet will no longer be interchangeable. Particular length sets will therefore need to be allocated to specific workings, which will reduce the operational flexibility of the fleet. Inevitably this will mean that, when the service is disrupted, some trains which should be 11 cars will run with only 9, and vice versa.

The latest draft of the Warwickshire Local Transport Plan shows aspirations for many of the things RRUG has been campaigning for. These include:
* Restoration of regular through servcies to the North
* Two fast trains per hour throughout the day between Rugby and London
* Restoration of the Rugby - Gatwick service.

For full details see the Warwickshire Local Transport Plan 3rd draft.