I think their "official" reason was that the building wasn't done on time as promised and couldn't find anything else here so shipped off to Birmingham. They "were" at Westwood Heath so not sure how reliant they were on the trains as I don't think they stop at Tile Hill?
Edit: I can't see them not stopping at Coventry, they even stop at Nuneaton!
I haven't said I am right. I have said I was adding things to your cons list which you still don't seem to fully grasp. Couldn't you find it on the council's website or something?
here's the only article I can find at the moment but there were more on the CET website. I I will try and track them down later.
Some reassurances from 'failin' Chris Grayling - fills me with confidence!
Ah - can't trust a thing that comes out of that guys mouth.
Although he's right about the bottleneck on the way in the New Street. I (unfortunately) go into New Street every day and it's a joke how often services are delayed - to and from work.
I'll reserve judgment on Friargate for the time being though. I think ultimately and overall it's a great benefit to the city which, whilst isn't realised now, will eventually. We'll see, eh?
C4 went to Leeds didn’t it..... they visited my offices in central brum so knew then it was doomed. Have to say.... brum seems to misss out on so much investment. Compare it’s city centre to Liverpool or Manchester...
Interesting about Virgin Trains - I've not heard of this? I would have thought that Birmingham International would be more at risk - there appears to be so much more traffic at Coventry than International.
I don't think that's what he meant, there has been talk that once HS2 is here that Coventry would lose its non-stop service to London and thus its fast journeys, I think that is unlikely tbh.
C4 went to Leeds didn’t it..... they visited my offices in central brum so knew then it was doomed. Have to say.... brum seems to misss out on so much investment. Compare it’s city centre to Liverpool or Manchester...
I think you ought to visit Manchester. Brum has had significant investment (New St cost £600m), the new library. The Bull Ring was a massive investment and cost. It's now getting the Commonwealth Games. Brum does pretty well. The real issue is the disproportional investment in London compared to the rest of the country which is a symptom of London centric government and media imo.
not concerned about the expansion of Cov uni, (I think that's what you were referring to), as I think the growing reputation of both universities will only benefit the city.
Share your concern about the wider Birmingham thing though the jury is out for me on that one at the minute, I've seen examples of where it could work and to be fair to him, Andy Street is doing a better job than I though for banging the drum for the whole region but as you say, we'll see what happens further down the line.
I have no issue with the overall expansion but the town centre feels like a bit of a takeover to be honest... Equally the knock on effect to outer city residential areas given the huge influx of accommodation. Like I said at the moment its not biting, however I think long term this could be an issue
my issue with Friargate isn't the project itself but it appears that there was/is a chance that Virgin trains may stop calling at Coventry which is going to make moving to Friargate a hard sell.
I don't know how much that influenced the decision of the Chartered institute of whatever they were to pull out. It seemed to me that they should have had some sort of assurances prior to going ahead.
The main reason the institute pulled out was ever rising costs and lack of clarity on completion and facilities. what they were sold at the start didn't reflect what reality was... sad as they had been in Cov for years.