INSIGHTS: A tale of two – well, three – cities

Coventry and Leicester. Two great cities - only a mere 20 miles apart as the crow flies. But getting a train from one to the other takes nearly an hour, and requires a change of train halfway, at Nuneaton. As Mayor of Leicester Sir Peter Soulsby said at our recent Network North Conference, barely anyone currently does this journey by train, and he’s absolutely right. Our most recent mobile phone data, from November this year, shows that the rail mode share - that is the percentage of people travelling between the cities by rail - remains stubbornly low, at 3%. Or to put it another way, 97% don’t take the train.

We at Midlands Connect have a firm plan to do something about this and have a credible proposal to seek regular, direct, trains services not just linking Coventry and Leicester, but also continuing to Nottingham, providing a new link between these great cities and centres of population. Back in 2022, we published our ‘Strategic Transport Plan’, which was all around providing better connectivity into our ‘hubs’ – by which we mean our cities, centres of population and economic activity. We went as far as quantifying the definition of ‘better’ by seeking an average speed of 70mph between cities and an intercity frequency of at least two trains each hour. As you might have guessed, Coventry to Leicester currently falls well below this definition of ‘better’ with no direct service and an average speed of little more than 30mph. By comparison, the average speed for trains from Coventry to London is just over 100mph, so our 30mph to Leicester is sedate at best, and is completely uncompetitive with a car journey.

Why do we want this direct link? In our Strategic Transport Plan, we talk about there being three ‘Grand Challenges’ in the Midlands – Fairer, Greener and Stronger. This certainly rings true for the corridor from Coventry to Leicester and Nottingham. For instance, the ‘Greener’ challenge is very apparent, with well over 90% of journeys between the cities being made by car, whereas for better-connected cities like Coventry and Birmingham, we know that around a third of people are choosing the train. But there’s also a clear ‘Stronger’ issue here too. Given the poor transport links, there is very little economic ‘interaction’ between the cities, which is a major missed opportunity. The evidence is compelling on the ‘Fairer’ challenge too, with high levels of deprivation within and close to the corridor, for which a new direct rail service opens up new opportunities, be that for work, education, business or leisure.

So, what’s required to provide a direct service between these cities, and crucially, why isn’t there already one? The major hurdle on this corridor, in pure rail terms, is at Nuneaton. There simply isn’t a way of getting a train from the Coventry Line over to the Leicester Line. This means we need some new railway infrastructure – in the form of a ‘diveunder’. Essentially, a new route under the existing railway. There are some other bits for us to do as well, including make sure there is enough capacity for extra trains at both ends of the route. But these are all ‘bread and butter’ upgrades for the railway, and we are not talking about anything that hasn’t already been done elsewhere.

Come Summer 2024, we’ll be sending our business case to Government. That is, our case for investing in this corridor, capturing all the benefits but also all the costs, demonstrating the extent to which our scheme offers ‘value for money’ – a key government metric not just for transport but for all major investments. We also have strong backing from our partner authorities on the route, with the leaders of Coventry City Council, Leicester City Council and Nottingham City Council co-signing a recent letter to Government seeking this investment to be made.

To finish where we started. Coventry and Leicester. Two great cities – just 20 miles apart, and well connected with a regular, fast train service. That’s the vision.

Andy Clark is an Integrated Transport Programme Lead at Midlands Connect.