No trains will stop at Kenilworth Railway Station after Monday, December 27 as West Midlands Railway has today announced the suspension of the Nuneaton to Leamington Spa line.

The suspension will be in place "until further notice" and is due to an increase in staff absences due to the pandemic.

A bus replacement service will once again be in operation "while the operator keeps staffing levels under close review".

WMR suspended the service between January 17 and April 26 this year due to staff shortages.

Since then only a reduced timetable has been in place, with the operator announcing at the beginning of the month that a full service would resume at the end of January 2022.

WMR said it has seen a sharp increase in the number of staff off work due to either testing positive for Covid-19 or being required to self-isolate, leading to a rise in the number of short-notice cancellations.

Jonny Wiseman, WMR customer experience director, added: "The significant increase in Covid-19 cases among our staff comes on top of existing traincrew shortages caused by delays to our driver training programme during the pandemic. In these circumstances we have no choice but to temporarily suspend the train service until further notice.

"I apologise to customers for the inconvenience and thank them for their patience and understanding. We are keeping the situation under close review and it remains our intention to reinstate the full timetable on this line as soon as possible."

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Any passenger delayed by 15 minutes or more as a result of cancellation or disruption can claim compensation by visiting the WMR website.

Kenilworth Nub News has already reported today that the Leamington Spa to Nuneaton line has experienced delays today due to a derailment last night.