Reopening Kenilworth Railway Station 'is inordinately high on the agenda' according to a West Midlands Railway spokesperson.

Speaking at tonight's (March 9) Kenilworth Community Forum, Head of Stakeholder and Community for West Midlands Railway Fay Easton told councillors and residents that the rail provider was committed not only to reopening the station, but also to improving the service from where it was pre-Covid.

Kenilworth Railway Station has been closed since January 18, after WMR announced that services on the Leamington Spa – Nuneaton via Coventry line would be suspended and replaced with a bus service.

Addressing the forum tonight Fay Easton said: "We haven't been delivering our service, as you know.

"The core of this is the virus, it impacts the workforce, at the moment we have one in three frontline workers impacted by Covid.

"There is only a small cohort of train staff that know that route, this is a weakness and they are addressing it but again driver training has been badly impacted."

She reported that the company is now running behind on training schedules by 100 drivers, adding extra pressure to services.

As Kenilworth is the only closed station in WMR's 116-station network she stressed the importance that was being placed on the reopening by the operator.

"You will know there was low usage of the line, which is a point that we can work on together because this is a beautiful town, a beautiful place, a lovely line and just never got marketed enough, was never sold enough.

"I am sure our marketing people are going to be on standby because I can assure you this is inordinately high on the agenda at work. There is a lot of appetite to make this a success.

"I know there is worry in the town that it is going to be closed but we wouldn't be spending £14m to build a station and then not use it.

"It will come back."

Discussing under what conditions the station would reopen, she advised that three factors needed to be considered; train crew availability, when WMR can be confident to "consistently put a good service in," and also when a clear strategy to increase demand for the line is put in place.

Pressing on this issue Cllr James Kennedy (Green, Dalehouse) asked whether WMR would be able to assist as the town council implements plans to boost tourism under the 'Kenilworth is Open for Business' campaign.

"It would be very useful if the town council tourism working group could meet with you, or your marketing colleagues to plan with this reopening and integrate the station with all our plans to help bring in more visitors to Kenilworth."

Working closely with the town was mentioned by Fay Easton who said: "I would love to take away tonight that we could form a small recovery group, maybe four or five people to do those programs and campaigns. We would get results in months I am sure, if not weeks."

Adding: "What we do need to do is give you regular bulletins of what is happening."

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